DON’T let Intearc/Maxceed force you to sign anything that says you agree to non-renewals.
If they plan on non-renewing you, force them to do the honorable thing and actually fire you so that you can claim your unemployment benefits as you look for a new job.

Also, don’t forget that according to Japan’s Labor Standards law, you do have the right to fight your dismissal by an employer. This is a direct quote from the “Foreign Workers’ Handbook” published by the government that can be found here:
http://www.hataraku.metro.tokyo.jp/sodan/siryo/H23_handbook_all.pdf
Dismissal (Page 34)
Dismissal is when an employer unilaterally terminates his/her employee’s employment contract. In accordance with Civil Law, an employer as one party of an employment contract has a right to propose to terminate it. However, as dismissal affects an employee’s life, Japanese labor laws impose severe restrictions on dismissal.

Dismissal in the Case of Workers Hired for a Fixed Period and Termination of Consecutive Employment (rejection of contract renewal) (Page 40)
An employer is not allowed to dismiss employees with a fixed period of contract before the contract expires, except for in cases with an unavoidable reason (Section 1 of Article 17, Labor Contract Act), or when a company goes bankrupt (Article 631, Civil Law).
In case of an employment contract with a fixed period, termination comes with its expiry. However, the so-called “termination of consecutive employment” has become a serious problem. This is where a contract with a specified period has been renewed several times and a company has continued to employ an employee for a certain period, only to suddenly terminate the contract (upon its expiration) and displace him/her.
The “doctrine of abuse of right of dismissal” does not always apply to fixed-term employees. To avoid trouble associated with termination of contract, a ministry notification sets the following requirements for employers.
1 Employers are to clearly state the renewal or cancellation of contracts, and the criterion for contract renewal.
2 Employers are to give at least 30 days prior notice when terminating contracts for employees who have been employed for over one year on a contract for a specified period.
3 When employees request a clear statement on the reason(s) for the termination of their employment, employers must comply promptly in writing.
4 When a fixed-term contract employee, who has already been employed for over one year through contract renewal, arrives at a new contract term, the employer must make an effort to extend the contract period as much as possible, according to the substantiality of the contract and employees’ wishes.
Past judicial precedents (concerning legal conflict involving contract termination) show that some contract terminations were recognized depending on certain surrounding elements (e.g., objective overview of business, procedures and realities of contract renewal, etc.) as seen as a whole by the court.

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

It is that time of year again! Time for the mad scramble of March when good teachers everywhere are worried if their contracts are going to be renewed or not, otherwise known as the “ALT Shuffle”. Two things you should be sure NOT to do:
1) Do NOT let your employer force you to sign resignation papers! You do not need to sign any such thing. If they do not have work for you, they should give you dismissal papers so that you can claim your unemployment benefits until you find your next job.
2) Do NOT let your employer threaten you into leaving your apartment. It does not matter whether your employer is your guarantor or not, you can pay your landlord directly. Tenant’s rights are strong in Japan, but they are non-existant if you do not claim them.

If you find yourself facing either of these situations, call your local union representative to report the harassment.

If you are not in a union, and would like to fight against these kinds of ill treatment, join a union and help improve the working conditions of Japan.

Solidarity,
Erich

I am glad to hear that the new Interac is “financially stable”. With this financial stability, I can think of no better way to move from “strength to strength” than by improving the working conditions of all of your ALTs. Here are a few suggestions that I personally think would benefit all ALTs:

1) Employment classification:
Hire all ALTs as full time employees (一般会社員). No contracts, just normal employees with the same pay in August, March and April as the rest of the months. This will give your ALTs more stable pay year round, and they will not have to fight so hard to claim their rights as employees.

I have seen many contracts between BoEs and Interac, and I know that, although it will cut into the profit margins, Interac can afford it. Interac is, after all, “financially stable”.

2) Insurance:
It is still amazing to me how many ALTs arrive to work for Interac in Japan, and have no idea that they are required by law to sign up for government run insurance. Sign up all of your ALTs for Shakai Hoken. According to the government of Japan, even part-time employees are eligible, the “29.5 hours a week” excuse that many employers implement does not in fact disqualify anyone from Shakai Hoken.
One of the biggest reasons to have Shakai Hoken is that it protects a sick employee from going bankrupt by paying out a portion of the employee’s wages if they are incapacitated or hospitalized and cannot work for a few months.
This can be very valuable for any employee, but even more so when the employee’s family is thousands of miles away. Surely this kind stability is not too much for a “financially stable” company like Interac.

3) Unemployment insurance:
In 2007 and 2008, I had to fight for about ten months to force Interac to sign me up for unemployment insurance. If not for the help of my fellow General Union members, I probably wouldn’t have been signed up for it at all. It took a lot of paperwork, a lot of translation work, and a lot of time corresponding with “Hello Work”, just to get a little financial stability that I had the right to in the first place.

In the past few years since that time, the laws changed to make it harder for companies to avoid paying for Unemployment Insurance, but Interac ALTs have reported that their hours are being split between “Maxceed” and “Interac” and that is used to justify not giving them Unemployment Insurance. Why? Unemployment Insurance is based on a very small percentage of an employee’s wages and it is definitely something that a “financially stable” company like Interac can afford. Surely someone with your experience would agree that stable working conditions create a stronger workforce? Why not just give all of your ALTs that peace of mind without forcing any of them to fight for it? Especially when they are all qualified for it anyway?

I have a few questions as well. Feel free to answer them in an email to your employees as you usually do:

1) With this merger, is the company name “Maxceed”, a part of the Selti group along with Interac, being absorbed into the new Interac name as well?

2) If so, will you
a) have to rewrite contracts with BoEs to keep those contracts?
b) cease double bidding the same BoE with multiple names? I guess you will
have to stop unless you will create a new name right?
c) cease using a second company name to justify not signing up ALTs for Unemployment Insurance as previously mentioned?

3) Does the new Interac plan to pay recent damages to union members that it has been ordered to pay without trying to argue that the victories were against a prior company?

4) Will the new Interac hold collective bargaining with the General Union as it was ordered by the Osaka Labor Commission? Will it hold collective bargaining with the GU’s sister unions as well such as the Fukuoka General Union, Tokyo Nambu and the Tokyo General Union when requested as is required by law?

5) Interac was ordered by the Osaka Labor Commission to hand deliver an apology to the General Union for failing to hold collective bargaining.
This still hasn’t taken place.
When will it take place?
As a former GU member myself, I can tell you that it would mean a lot to me personally to see this take place. To me it would indicate a more transparent Interac, with a greater respect for labor and trade union law than what I, and certain government agencies, perceive the “old” Interac to have had.

Yours in solidarity, looking forward to a new Interac.
Erich Manning
Tokyo General Union ALT Branch
http://interacunion.org
interacunion@gmail.com

Tokyo General Union
http://tokyogeneralunion.org/
TEL: 050-3488-6734 FAX: 050-3488-6734

Earlier this month, I wrote a message in the ‘Interac-shin’ newsletter announcing that the Selnate Group was re-organizing into a new group under the Interac name. This change will be effective October 1, 2010.

Unfortunately, comments have been made on the forums of some well-known websites this weekend suggesting that Interac may be in financial difficulty or be going bankrupt. I am deeply concerned that such rumors may cause you worry and stress. So, let me categorically state that Interac is financially stable and in absolutely NO danger of going bankrupt. I would like to put an end to such rumors here and now. Nor will the re-organization have any impact on your jobs or working conditions.

It appears that the cause of such rumors was a legal notice placed by us in the Government’s Official Gazette on August 24 2010 announcing that Interac would dissolve on October 1.

This is technically true. Part of the re-organization involves consolidation. Selnate Group companies will be consolidated into one big organization. One of our other group companies AP 18 will assimilate the others as New Interac with the old Interac dissolving. Under Japanese law the new group will simply take over all elements of the previous companies.

In practice nothing will change. For example, the same executive and management team will continue and your contracts and employment status will simply role into the new company. You remain as Interac employees. Also, the re-organization will in no way affect the existing contracts with our clients. All our clients are aware of the change and understand it.

The other question that has been raised is in regard to the ownership of the Selnate Group. At the beginning of this year the previous main shareholder retired from the group management. At that time, and after careful consideration and consultation with the executive board members, the board approved changing the main shareholder of the Selnate Group to a long-term investment fund managed by Advantage Partners.

As a company Advantage Partners is the largest in its field in Japan with an outstanding reputation for the support that it provides to its portfolio companies.

Its own philosophy is to contribute to society by teaming up with good, profitable organizations that they believe they can assist to grow and become stronger. We all believed that Advantage Partners philosophy fits well with our own and is in an ideal position to help Interac maintain and strengthen its current business and seek new areas of opportunity in the future. Indeed, we are already seeing the benefits of the fresh perspective and management support that they provide.

Since we are unlisted, we have never made the names of its shareholders public but since facts were falsely represented in a public forum, I decided to address this issue with you.

Thank you and if you do have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to speak with your Managing Consultant.

It appears that Interac as we know it may be completely taken over and dissolved, although we may not know for sure until October first. Interac recently lost its right to do business with Osaka prefecture BoEs when it was found guilty of an Unfair Labor Practice against the General Union and of interfering in union business. Our members that have sued Interac have also won several court cases, meaning even more financial punishment.

When I originally heard of the name change and the association with bankruptcy, I was a bit skeptical. I thought Interac may have been changing names to avoid paying the damages to union members and as a way to get around the recent ruling that prevents them from doing business in Osaka prefectural BoEs. This certainly would not have been out of character for them; they have for years had a second name, Maxceed, that they used to double-bid BoEs across the nation. They would submit one bid as Interac, and one bid as Maxceed, and shuffle their ALTs between Maxceed/Interac contracts as needed. I was hired as an ALT for Interac in 2005, and was placed in a city where I was expected to lie to the BoE and tell them that my company was called “Maxceed”. The contract between the BoE and the dispatch company said “Maxceed”. My contract with the people in the same office, with the same employees with a different phone number said “Interac”. Also, in the past year, ALTs have complained to us that their time is split between “Maxceed” and “Interac” so that Interac can pretend that the ALT has two part time jobs, instead of a full time job and have an excuse to avoid giving the ALT full time benefits. If Interac is going to be dissolved, these kinds of practices never favored the ALT’s working conditions, and they will not be missed.

Whether Interac will be going fully under or whether things will really just be “reorganized”, my personal concern, shared among my fellow union members, is centered on the stability of employment for the foreign teachers in Japan. I am urging every ALT in Interac/Maxceed/every-other-dispatch-company-in-Japan to band together, unionize and fight back to improve working conditions for yourselves and for the people who will want to come to Japan and teach here in the future. Demand to be directly hired! Every Interac/Maxceed contract I have ever seen has either been
1) illegal according to the The Ministry of Education guidelines concerning proper dispatch methods or
2) has enough clauses in it that violate Labor Standards/Trade Union Law that the whole thing is null and void.
If you unionize and claim your right to be directly hired, the BoEs will not be able to ignore you. I have seen it myself; the when I was in Osaka and a member of the General Union, we forced my BoE to direct hire, and the ALTs there are in a much better position today than they were in 2005.

If you are tired of the instability of your job, of getting reduced or no pay for March or August, of getting penalized for being sick, then you should force the BoE to take responsibility. Unionize, and demand direct employment and the full benefits that you are entitled to under the law.

In Solidarity,
Erich Manning
http://interacunion.org/
http://tokyogeneralunion.org/
http://interac.generalunion.org/
http://fukuoka.generalunion.org/

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.

Solidarity,
Erich

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100417p2a00m0na019000c.html

KASHIWA, Chiba — Public schools here have been unable to start their native speaker-taught English classes this school year after the city’s board of education was accused of violating labor laws with foreign language teachers.

According to the Kashiwa Municipal Board of Education, it has been instructed by the local labor office to change its labor relationship with foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs) in the city’s elementary and junior high schools after it engaged in illegal employment practices.

The local education board entrusted part of its English curriculum for primary and secondary school students to a Tokyo-based staffing agency between 2007 and 2009, and a total of 23 foreign teachers belonging to the agency worked as ALTs at 61 local public elementary and junior high schools during this period. Their contracts expired at the end of last month.

A local labor union supporting foreign language teachers complained to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s Chiba labor office that the teachers were forced to work as temporary workers under the guise of subcontractors, while demanding the municipality extend their contract periods.

In response to the complaint, the labor office launched an investigation and confirmed that each school placed the foreign teachers under its direct supervision even though they worked under consigning contracts. The labor office then concluded that the education board forced the teachers to work as temporary workers under the guise of subcontractors, a practice that constitutes a violation of the Worker Dispatching Act.

Under the current law, companies and other business operators must offer a direct contract to their temporary workers after they have completed the first three years of work. Moreover, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare’s labor guidelines require a minimum three-month interval before the two parties enter into another temporary contract.

The city’s board of education had planned to terminate its English class teacher outsourcing contract and employ temporary English teachers directly starting this April. However, as the labor office judged that the education board had already forced its contracted foreign teachers to work as normal temporary staff, it became impossible for the city to renew the contracts right away, in accordance with the ministry guidelines prohibiting consecutive temporary contracts of over three years.

The local education board has announced that it will comply with the labor office’s order and will resume relevant English classes after the three-month waiting period expirees in July.

In August last year, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology instructed local boards of education nationwide to switch consigning contracts for ALTs to either direct or temporary employment. A subsequent survey by the ministry has revealed that 670 municipalities still maintained their outsourcing arrangements for native English class teachers, of which 439 responded they were not planning to change their current practices.

The ministry’s International Education Division has requested each education board consult with their local labor office and make corrections as needed.

(Mainichi Japan) April 17, 2010
Original Japanese article here:

http://mainichi.jp/select/jiken/news/20100417k0000m040089000c.html