Remember that time you asked your boss about Shakai Hoken and you were ignored?
Or that time you asked about the possibility of a pay raise next year and you were brushed off?
Or that time you asked why you only get partial salary during the month of December even though the company gets the full amount from the Board of Education, and you never got a response to the email?

Well, unlike all those other times, a demands issued from a union as part of collective bargaining cannot legally be ignored.
The revolution in the Tokyo area starts now.
Who wants in?

We will be publishing some of our demands non-specific to individuals soon.
Stay tuned.

Solidarity,
Erich

Interac then apparently called the police! When the police arrived, our member corrected them as well; reminding them that he did not, in fact, need a permit to pass out flyers.

Interac gave all of their trainees pizza during lunch, so that effectively kept them from going outside to meet the evil union member (it would not the first time that has happened). Eventually, they did have to let the teachers leave, and our member then passed out some more information to anyone who would take it at that time as well.

Perhaps Interac has something against the dissemination of information?
Perhaps Interac just doesn’t like teachers to know their rights?
Perhaps we will find out in collective bargaining…

Solidarity,
Erich Manning

Tozen Union Flyer

Osaka prefectural ordinances prevent companies found in violation of Trade Union Law from bidding on public projects. The General Union, along with allied unions from Osaka Union Network and Osaka Zenrokyo have submitted demands to the Governor of Osaka Prefecture, Toru Hashimoto, that Prefectural ordinances be enforced.

As a result, Osaka Prefecture has now informed all divisions of the prefectural government, including the Osaka Prefectural Board of Education, that they may no longer enter into contracts with Interac. Furthermore, Osaka Prefecture has summoned Interac to explain the situation, placing further pressure on the company to obey the Trade Union Law and negotiate.

The union’s victory at the Labour Commission and its subsequent economic impact on Interac will go along way in making sure that not only Interac, but other employers trying to evade their legal obligations, negotiate with the union in the future.

5 Jul 2010
Health Checks – They’re mandatory!
Interac ordered to obey the law

Industrial Health & Safety Act
For many westerners, the idea of a state mandated health check smacks of a nanny state, and we are often reluctant to submit to the tests. While not all companies obey this law, the fact remains it is compulsory for all employees to have an annual health check under article 66 of the act.

We often receive enquiries about how to escape taking the annual check-up. The major reason given is privacy concerns. In the 1990s these concerns had merit. One well known case is that of a company employee who was diagnosed as being HIV positive as a result of the check-up. Rather than inform the employee, the testing company chose to disclose the information to the employer. The company then chose to terminate the employee under false pretenses while still hiding his HIV status.

Changing attitudes and the introduction of privacy laws in 2005 saw most of these issues resolved.

School Health & Safety Act
Looking at labor law stipulations in the light of the education law, state mandated health checks appear much more reasonable.

Concerned with the health of children and that of the general population, the education law states that all school employees must be checked for tuberculosis by x-ray. Pre-war Japan had a high prevalence of tuberculosis. Post-war times saw the numbers in decline but as in many countries it is on the increase again. In 1998 the rate of infection in Japan was more than 5 times that of the USA. The government reports that there are now more than 40,000 new cases of TB per year in Japan and that it claims about 2,700 lives. There are also increases in the number of children and university age students being infected.

Interac and other ALT companies
It is difficult to give a precise figure, but the number of ALTs in Japan is in the thousands. If we then include other teachers of at-risk students, the number may well increase to over 10,000. The majority are not tested for tuberculosis, thereby placing the health of both students and other teachers at risk.

As part of the General Union’s campaign to make Boards of Education and dispatch companies follow Education and Employment laws, Interac was recently found to be violating the law by not providing ALTs in Tokai city with health checks. As a result Interac was ordered to institute testing and it appears Interac is now rolling out a program for all ALTS to be tested but we are taking a wait and see approach to guage their commitment. Anecdotally, we know that in the past Interac had asked ALTs at some Boards of Education to take the tests but the company often failed to ensure the tests were actually taken.

ALTs should be hired directly
Health checks are another reason that we cannot place the education of Japan’s youth in the hands of private companies such as Interac. They cannot be relied upon to ensure the safety of students or workers. If all ALTs were directly hired their annual health checks would take place at the same time as their Japanese coworkers.

If you are concerned with your health and that of your students, contact us to find out more.

An open letter to the management of Interac (as well as Maxceed and Selnate)

November 5th, 2009

To whom it may concern (including Kevin Salthouse and Denis Cusack),

My name is Erich, and I am an executive of the ALT branch of Tokyo Nambu’s Foreign Workers Caucus. I worked for Interac  from September of 2005 until February 2008, under the Osaka branch.

I am writing to clear up some misconceptions about health insurance in Japan that were evident in a couple of PDFs that were circulated from management at the beginning of October 2009.

The two PDFs in question are the “FAQ – Insurance System in Japan” and the one titled “Social Insurance Letter” dated October 1st, 2009. In these PDFs, you tell your ALTs that they are not eligible for Shakai Hoken if they work less than 29.5 hours.

This is not true.

You also tell them that the only alternative is to sign up for Kokumin Kenko Hoken and that they may have to pay up to two years of back enrollment.

The problem is that, since they are eligible for Shakai Hoken, it is the company that will have to pay the back enrollment (up to two years) into Shakai Hoken, after which the employee can be billed for their half of enrollment fees.

Let me give you some background information on how I know this.

If you take a look at our page:

http://interacunion.org/2009/08/31/stop-illegal-dispatching-in-tokyokanto/

You will see that there is a Nihon Terebi news report from earlier this year. I was interviewed here about my time with Interac and your use of illegal contracts with the BoE where I worked in Osaka. I was also at the meeting of Union Leaders and Government officials that was mentioned at the start of the broadcast. Part of the reason we called the meeting with these officials is to force them to give clarification, on record, on various features of Japanese insurance and labor laws.

One of the things we asked them point blank:

A) Does Shakai Hoken enrollment require one to be working more than 29.5 hours a week?

The answer was no. The 3/4 of full time rule (if 40 hours a week is considered full time, then 30 hours a week is 3/4ths of that) is an internal administrative guideline that they use to determine who to crack down on (the same way that a police officer might not pull over some one for going 5 kph over the speed limit but will definitely pull someone over for going 10 kph over the speed limit). The 3/4 rule, or 29.5 hours a week rule, is not even in the Shakai Hoken law.

B) We asked them clarify what the minimum work requirement is for Shakai Hoken enrollment.

Their response was that, there is no minimum work requirement of hours per week. Additionally, they also stated that they would never turn down any company that wanted to enroll their employees no matter how much the employees were making (which means in effect that Interac can not use “government requirements” as an excuse for not enrolling their ALTs in Shakai Hoken).

The 29.5 hour mark per week is a misconception, and has nothing to do with eligibility. It never HAS had anything to do with eligibility. So says the Japanese government.

In reality, only sole proprietorships (個人事業) with less than five members can decide not to enroll their employees into Shakai Hoken.  The last time I was in an Interac office, I counted more than five employees, and your website claims that you are a 株式会社 (a kabushikigaisha or Limited Liability Corporation) so you are not a sole proprietorship. You have no excuse for not enrolling your ALTs, and with the new visa requirements, it looks like the Social Insurance office isn’t going to look the other way any longer.

Now, Interac has been around for over thirty-five years and they are rooted in every part of the country. I simply do not believe that every single manager, MC, and office worker, much less the owners of the business, are all too uniformly stupid to be ignorant of these facts. I have only been in Japan for for five years now, and I learned most of this three years ago. I can only assume that this leaves purposeful deception on the part of Interac to mislead it’s ALTs away from the insurance coverage that they have a legal right to (which would cost the company money) and drive them into a corporate partnership that they have with Interglobal/Global Health Insurance (I have heard it referred to as both names by Interac).

As evidence of such a deception, I would offer the “Health Insurance Disclaimer” that I was forced to sign upon the beginning of my employment with Interac. The disclaimer forces the ALT to agree that they “understand that it is my responsibility to finance my own personal health care requirements”, even though,  according to Japanese law, you are responsible for half of every ALT’s insurance. Are you still forcing your teachers to sign this disclaimer? I certainly hope so because it will make great evidence in the Social Insurance office or a court of law.

I do not make these accusations lightly, but I just do not see how a company with a nationwide presence can be so completely wrong on this issue. If you can offer any other reasons that Interac as a whole is so uninformed on this issue, then I am very interested in hearing them.

What this leads to is a situation where someone is going to have to back enroll into the system. If the ALTs back enroll into Kokumin Kenko Hoken, then they will have to pay the back enrollment fees (up to two years worth of monthly dues). If, however, the ALTs are back enrolled into Shakai Hoken, then Interac will pay the back enrollment fees (up to two years) and they can attempt to get half of the back-enrollment money back from their ALTs later (perhaps you could work with Interglobal to get a refund for your ALTs since they were supposed to be on Shakai Hoken from the beginning anyway).

I personally pledge to you and to every Interac ALT that wants help challenging your statements found in these aforementioned PDFs that I will help them to the best of my ability. Trade law prohibits unions from representing those who are not official members, but I will personally help organize the legal team necessary for litigation against you should you refuse to pay for the back enrollment that any of our members face.  I will encourage as many ALTs that I can to join their local union to force you into collective bargaining, and I will also encourage ALTs that are not interested in joining the union that they should apply for Shakai Hoken on their own. Anyone making an individual claim (a kakunin seikyu) will probably face a fimiliar pattern; they will be initially denied because of the internal 3/4 or 29.5 rule, but they will win their case on appeal as long as they have evidence of their employment (paystubs, bankbook records, contracts, recordings of conversations with management, etc).

I am also translating these PDFs that you sent out into Japanese in order to give it to the Social Insurance Agency; I think they may find it very interesting. Actually, if you happen to have a Japanese version already written that would really save me some time; feel free to send a copy to interacunion@gmail.com.

My advice to you is this:

1) Own up to your mistakes

2) Start back enrolling everyone into Shakai Hoken in order to avoid litigation from union members and non-union members alike.

Interac has saved a lot of money over the years by not enrolling people in Shakai Hoken, and has probably made money by steering people into Interglobal/Global Health. I think now it is time for you to put those savings to work by back enrolling your hard working ALTs into the system that they should have been in all along. Don’t try to force them to face back enrollment into Kokumin Kenko Hoken alone when they have a legal right to be enrolled on Shakai Hoken.

I look forward to your reponse.

In solidarity with our union brothers and sisters throughout the country,

Erich

Tokyo Nambu ALT Branch

Interac Union Nambu FWC

http://interacunion.org

interacunion@gmail.com

Tokyo Nambu FWC

http://nambufwc.org/

03-3434-0669

Social Insurance Agency

English: http://www.sia.go.jp/e/index.html

They told her that in light of her condition, it would be too much trouble for them to find a replacement in the middle of the school term, and had decided to go with someone else who was less…. pregnant.

Needless to say, this was quite upsetting. Everyone with a family knows that having a baby is expensive, and the money lost in this case was going to put a major dent in the savings of the mother to be. Combine this with the stress placed upon her by the entire insulting ordeal, and it is easy to draw the conclusion that Martina faced a risk to the health of herself and her child.

I was in the process of moving from Osaka to Tokyo, and was elected to take care of the case since I would be transferring my membership to the Tokyo FWC.  I was pleasantly surprised that I only had to send one email to rectify the situation:

Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2008 02:24:05 +0900 (JST)

From: “Erich”

Subject: Inquiry concerning Interac Employment

To: northan@interac.co.jp

Hello Joel Norton,

I have a question regarding Martina XXXXXXXX.
Who exactly was it that gave the order to not renew her
contract due to her pregnancy?

I ask this because as a union member, I study quite a bit
of labor law and this is horribly, blatantly illegal (not
to mention morally heinous).

The Tokyo (Nambu) branch of the Interac union will
probably be the branch that takes this case to the Labor
Bureau, but I thought I would ask who gave the order
specifically so that the union members will know who
specifically to name when bringing the case before the
bureau. I was thinking that we should just turn over your
name, but then I realized that you probably have a
supervisor that may have given you the order.

Thanks in advance for your expedient cooperation.
Erich

A declared member of the General Union Interac Branch
(you can call the Osaka Interac office to confirm my
membership in the General Union if you feel the need to do
so.)

PS – here is an excerpt of the law that has been broken here:

For the exact laws that say it is illegal to fire someone
for being pregnant you need this PDF, check pages starting

with page 18:

“Phase III” of the Japanese Equal Employment Opportunity Act

http://www.jil.go.jp/english/documents/JLR15_nakakubo.pdf

(EDITOR’S NOTE – This link is no longer active, so I have uploaded the PDF that was available here. – Erich: Pregnancy Law )

(1) Forced Retirement by Reason of Marriage, Pregnancy or
Childbirth, and Dismissal for Marriage
“Paragraph 1 of Article 9 prohibits employers from
stipulating “marriage, pregnancy or childbirth” as a reason for
retirement of female workers, and Paragraph 2 of the same
article states that employers shall not dismiss female
workers for marriage. These provisions were contained in
the former EEOA, although dismissal for marriage was
prohibited together with dismissals by reason of
pregnancy, childbirth or maternity leaves taken before and
after childbirth. These are dealt with separately in
Paragraph 3 of Article 9, as shown below. ”
“(3) Dismissal during Pregnancy or in the First Year after
Childbirth Moreover, Paragraph 4 of Article 9 was added as an
entirely new provision, which says that dismissal of
female workers who are pregnant or in the first year after
childbirth shall be “void.” At first glance this provision appears rather
drastic, but the following proviso states that this shall
not apply in the event that employers prove that the
dismissal is not for reasons prescribed in Paragraph 3 of
Article 9. Hence, this is in essence a change in the
burden of proof. Nonetheless, it will be of great
significance in the real workplace that the dismissal is
presumed to be void, since employers have to refrain from
dismissing female workers in the absence of a fully
persuasive reason for termination.

Article 9 (Prohibition, etc. of Disadvantageous Treatment
by Reason of Marriage, Pregnancy, Childbirth, etc.)
(1) Employers shall not stipulate marriage, pregnancy or
childbirth as a reason for retirement of women workers.
(2) Employers shall not dismiss women workers for
marriage.
(3) Employers shall not dismiss or give disadvantageous
treatment to women workers by reason of pregnancy,
childbirth, or for requesting absence from work as
prescribed in Article 65, paragraph 1, of the Labor
Standards Act (Act No. 49 of 1947), or having taken
absence from work as prescribed in the same Article,
paragraph 1 or 2, of the same act, or by other reasons
relating to pregnancy, childbirth as provided by Ordinance
of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
(4) Dismissal of women workers who are pregnant or in the
first year after childbirth shall be void. However, this
shall not apply in the event that the employer proves that
the dismissal in question was not for reasons prescribed
in the preceding paragraph.”

Within a few days of receiving this email, they had called Martina into the office to negotiate. They gave her a settlement of double the amount she would have made had she worked until she had planned to quit. They weren’t exactly kind to her in their negotiations, but they did at least do what they should have in lieu of hiring her back if they had already hired her replacement.

It really is a shame that Interac had to be threatened with legal action to do the right thing, but at least they did the right thing in the end. I hate to imagine what would have happened had there been no union to question the decision making of the management.

I contacted Martina in March of this year, and she told me that she might be going to start working for Interac again this year. When I contacted her a few weeks ago to ask how she was doing… She told me this:

“Mr. Will Smith had promised to hire me back a few months before the start of the school year, but beginning of April I got a call from him telling me that they didn’t need me to teach at Interac. They had no explanation for it.”

Disappointing, but not surprising.
Seek help, learn your rights, and fight back the way that Martina did.
Don’t let yourself be a victim.

In solidarity,
Erich

This is his story, in his own words. Enjoy and be inspired. Any other ALTs in Iwate prefecture that want to liberate their BOE from their dispatch company can contact me and I will put you in contact with our friend, “The Abolitionist”.

In solidarity,
Erich

(NOTE: His experiences and his claims may not match yours exactly. Contracts can have different variables in different parts of the country. They can even be different in the same part of the country, but with different BOEs. If his experience does not match yours exactly, don’t forget to take the possible variations into account.)

*********************************************

From “The Abolitionist” in Iwate Prefecture:

It would be very sad for you, a great ALT, to resign to quitting your job and even leaving Japan, a country you love, because of Interac. Giving that much power to an amoral, impersonal business would indeed be a shame. That’s why I’m writing this. It’s not hopeless. A few years ago I was in this situation but my BOE cut out the middleman and gave me a direct contract. I would like to give you some tips on how to make this happen.

First of all, your BOE needs to know things. Like the conditions of your contract. Mine was the 29.5 hour kind. This means Interac escapes financial responsibility regarding your social security/health insurance. Also, they try to hock insurance not recognized by the Japanese government. This means that once you get a full-time job, you *may* have to make back payments on all the months/years you were in Japan under Interac, officially uninsured. From the BOE’s perspective, if you are injured, YOU MAY BE UNINSURED, because your insurance is unofficial insurance. This scared the hell out of my BOE. BOEs want security for their ALTs. It also helped that I showed them a youtube video about the welfare status of ALTs, which even referenced Interac (Editors note: Another more recent report is found here – Erich). News stories are a big help, as they show that your plight is important to the country. Let it be important to your city.

Also, let a trusted superior at the BOE know how much you make. This includes the 4 pro-rated months and the small amount you pay in taxes. You pay little in taxes, but get nothing (see insurance above). Also, make sure they know YOU GET NO BONUSES (Editors note: This does depend upon the contract, but in this Interac ALT’s case, he got none. – Erich). Japanese people often get bonuses equal to a few months’ pay, and they will assume you get the same. Give a copy of your pay to the BOE. This way they can calculate how much it will cost to hire you directly versus through a middleman. They will see the money they’re wasting, paying Interac 5,000,000 yen but leaving you with 2.8 million of it.

Let schools and the BOE know that you are only paid for in-class and meeting time. This is wrong for 3 reasons:

An example of how to better claim your working hours.

1) The contract says you must prepare for all classes, while refusing to pay you for preparation time. They are saying “you must work, but we will not pay you.” This doesn’t make sense, especially when you are already a part-time employee working full-time hours. I recommend that you write in “preparation” on the bottom of your RSOWS and write a P for every hour of prep. They cannot stop you. They would be asking you to lie. PREPARATION IS WORK. (Editors note: Better yet, since preparation is work, just circle in every hour of the day equally, so that they cant argue and separate your class hours from your prep hours. – Erich)

2) Your contract tells you to stay at work between class hours, while not counting them as work time. Again, you’re being held captive. If you tell them you want to leave the school, because this is actually your free time that you’re wasting, they will tell you that you cannot leave. And if you make them cave, they will tell you that you must call them first if you want to leave.

3) They try to force you to report your whereabouts when you’re on unpaid “break” or even on weekends if you want to go to a school event. Let your BOE know what you want to, but cannot do, because Interac is keeping you prisoner. For example, Interac must give you approval before you go to a school festival on weekends, even though you’re doing so on your own free time. This was actually in an addendum to my contract.

Not only that, they are MISLEADING THE BOE about the contract they have with you. This is why you must let the BOE know about your contract. If your Japanese level is high enough, and you have the ability to make sense of obtusely written documents, you can translate important parts of the contract.

Remember, your BOE/school is no friend of Interac. What they like about Interac is YOU. Because you are a good employee, you give the BOE (or school) a higher opinion of Interac. And every day you work without the BOE knowing the truth is another win for Interac (and a loss for you as an individual). Every good class you have is a good Interac class. You want to change that, right? All you need is to show the BOE that you are valuable, but are being treated like trash. If you don’t complain, no one will know. They will assume that everything’s going all right. Until I complained directly (because Interac wouldn’t do anything for me), the BOE knew nothing.

The BOE didn’t know about my part-time status (despite their contract using the words “full-time” in both BOE and ALT contracts), insurance fraud, pro-rated months, nor did they know about the 11.25 month contract, which may or may not be renewed. I told them that my employment was not guaranteed by Interac, regardless of how good I was, or what good things the BOE said about me. I may have been extreme, but I told them that my contract was so scary that I would quit this job the first chance I got because of my pay, insurance, and short-term contracts. Although extreme, it was true.

To put the icing on the cake, though, think about what Interac is doing for you now. They are forcing you to fax them useless forms every month, being pissy about your vacation, sending you lesson plans that your school originally made… basically, getting paid to get in your and the BOE’s way. To get around this, your BOE, like mine, can do a little bit of work. They gave me a short, 1-2 page contract that ALL city employees get. And check this out: whereas Interac was calling me “full-time” and giving me part-time benefits (=NO benefits), the BOE calls me “part-time” but has enrolled me for full-time (social security, government healthcare) benefits.

I was a 29.5-hour (Interac) employee working from 8:30 – 4:15, and now I’m a 30-hour (BOE) employee working from 9:00 – 3:45. Do the math and you’ll find that hilarious.

If Interac is your only problem, don’t quit your job just yet. Your BOE needs to know what’s going on. But they need to know well before the renewal. They may be able to make a direct contract with you if you give them good warning in advance. My BOE told me that they would give me a direct contract if I was willing to work for a few years, and would help them find the next ALT. A small price to pay.

It became clear that union pressure over several months, including two demonstrations and appeals to school boards forced Interac management to the table and they were not happy about it. Maeda-san was apparently shaking with outrage at the indignity of having to discuss working conditions of workers with the workers themselves.

We set the bullhorn again on the hillock opposite the company. Hundreds of students (probably on their way to Hosei University) passed by and the vast majority took flyers. We also took several poses, including a “j’accuse” stance with us all extending our arms and pointing to the Interac office in imitation of the Memphis balcony in the seconds after Martin Luther King’s assassination.

The day was hot but fun overall. Again the cops came (only one actually) and very politely asked us if we had a labor dispute and how long we would be. After we answered him, he left quietly.

June 11, 2005
Each Saturday morning Interac offers free Japanese lessons to ALTs at HQ. So we were right back out there Saturday morning with our posters and fliers – this time 17 members. We figured surely Interac wouldn’t cancel an entire class just to avoid the union’s demonstration. Again we had underestimated Interac’s cowardice.

We set the bullhorn facing the firm on a hillock across the road. We spoke our grievances to the morning passers-by. We played an inspiring union song on a CD player that kept flaking out.

Three cops approached and began speaking to Yoko-the only Japanese member of our party. I stepped in, anticipating the usual official harassment. To my surprise, they were polite–even gracious. They asked us two questions: one, “Is this a labor-management dispute?”, and two, “How long will your demo last?” They were quite satisfied with our answers and casually strolled off back up the road.

GS Samantha made a stirring, personal speech, closing with an appeal to Interac to listen to us: “Kiite kudasai.”

Then we sent branch members and guards up to the second floor office-cheering them on. Back down the delegation reported that Interac staff were gone. We felt flattered that Interac would do us the great honor of showing their fear of us. Twice. We continued to pass out fliers accusing the Chairman, Seiichi Matsumoto, of wimpiness and breaking the law.

We finished off our 45-minute demo with a loud shprehicall and music.

This weekend was just the first step for our newest branch, but it was a big one.