Toyota to allow employees who quit to care for children to come back

Toyota to allow employees who quit to care for children to come back

TOKYO (AFP) - Toyota Motor said it will begin allowing Japanese employees who quit to take of children or parents, to come back to work automatically as the nation looks for ways to boost an economy run up against the buffers of a rapidly graying population.

Japan's largest company will let any white-color worker who has had at least four years experience at the automaker return to a comparable job if he or she left to care for children or the elderly.

"Toyota has been looking at measures to ensure it is compatible to hold a job and care for children and elderly people under our philosophy of respecting people's diversity," said Hideki Fujii, spokesman for Toyota.

"The new rule applies to both men and women," he said.

However, such turnover is much higher for women.

Out of 158 white-color women who joined Toyota from 2000 to 2004, 11 quit, for a turnover rate of seven percent, while the figure for men stood at 1.4 percent, the spokesman said.

Some 19,000 people currently employed at Toyota Motor could take advantage of the rule in the future if they want to leave to take care of families, the company said.

Japan's population is predicted to drop for the first time since World War II in 2007 as more young people put off starting families, seeing children as a burden to their lifestyles and careers.

The nation's baby-boomers, born in 1947-49, will also start retiring two years from now, causing concern over how companies will replace their skills.

The government has repeatedly called for ways to make work easier for parents but an official survey published last month found that most companies had no plans to hire more elderly employees or expand jobs for women.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050801/bs_afp/afplifestylejapanauto_050801191129

i think it meant collar?