Hey TiJ.
/burner account.
Myself and a friend are currently working at a private school full time, (2nd year) contracted 35 hours / week, fully paid spring summer and winter vacations (approx 10 weeks worth). via. Dispatch Company.
Unfortunately we do not receive shakaihoken or unemployment insurance. We know the laws are changing this year re: SH, so we enquired with our manager at dispatch about this. We were told we were not eligible due to being ‘sub-contracted Gyomu Itaku) and not actual employees of the school or dispatch company.
My Q is; are they correct? Or are they pulling a fast one on us? If so, advice on what to do moving forward would be great.
TIA
13 comments
How’s your Japanese? I’m not sure, but I think going to Hello Work or one of those sessions they have where you can talk to a lawyer in English might be your best bet.
Can’t be hundred 100% certain but I currently work for a dispatch company and work less hours than you and we still have to be put on SH from
September onwards.
Umm… it doesn’t matter if you’re dispatch or anything. If you are contracted for over 30 hours/week then you are required by law to be on shakaihoken. Also no matter how many hours you work you are required to be put on unemployment insurance. Coming September has nothing to do with your current situation. You are being scammed now.
Edit: Source.
I worked in HR for a dispatch company as a recruiter. We had both subcontract (Gypsy itaku) and dispatch (hakken) contracts. Dispatch companies, to avoid having subcontract employees on shakkai hoken, set the working hours of up to 29.5 hours/week. If a subcontractor goes over 30 hours/week they are required to be on shakkai hoken. Also all of our subcontractors had unemployment insurance.
Are you Gyomu Itaku? If so, you are on sketchy ground. That is a “freelance / contract labor.” It is the sort of contract made for hiring project workers: like a person hired as a consultant for 3 months – they have no required daysor times, they just have a project that must be completed by X date. Similar to say; you need a book proofed and editted. The person doesn’t need to be at an office specific times. Can work as they want – as long as pp 1-90 are done by July 30, 91-200 by August 30, and remaining pages by September 30th.
However, schools use it for foreign workers in a sort of gray situation. It shouldn’t be used, as you actually have to go to the school on certain days and times – but alas, it is used.
These total freelance contacts don’t need to provide social insurances as the person isn’t an employee. They are a freelancer contracter hired to complete a project.
Pretty sure Interac contracts for ALTs are Gyomu Itaku and a lot of the contracts are for 29.5 hours per week. Even these people are gonna get Shakai Hoken and Pension from November.
Could be bogus outsourcing which is illegal. Take your contract along to a union for a consultation or the local labour bureau and have them take a look at it.Gyomu Itaku are not eligible for shakai hoken or unemployment insurance, in fact gymou itaku aren’t protected by Labour Standards Law. They can have union rights but none of the other labour rights that employees get.
Gyomu itaku contracts for ALTs is, according to this source and the General Union, illegal.
https://jalt-publications.org/tlt/departments/job-info-centre/articles/404-dispatching-lower-quality-education
Yeah, I was on a gyomu itaku contract a decade ago with one of the “better” ALT dispach companies and they tried to move us all off shakai hoken my second year under some equally bogus logic – I pushed back on them and got brushed off, then reached out to the General Union and they backpedaled REAL FAST claiming “poor advice from a lawyer”.
First off, a gyomu itaku contract and a dispatch contract are two separate things with different laws applying. This is because when you work for a dispatch company, it’s a labor contract – you are an employee of the dispatch company, so labor law applies. When it’s a gyomu itaku contract, however, it’s not a labor contract – it’s a business contract and therefore doesn’t it fall under labor law.
That is probably what they meant when they told you that you aren’t eligible for shakai hoken – when a company subcontracts work to another company, the client company is not responsible for employment insurance, health insurance, and so on.
The problem is this: the company you work for is sub -sub contracting, but at the same time, treating you like you are an employee. You get paid holidays? That’s from labor law. You get designated work hours? That’s from labor law. You get designated days off, lunch break, pay raises, contract renewals, a designated place to work, and designated materials to use, and your boss tells you what/how to teach? That that’s a LABOR contract.
Doing this is illegal – they cannot have their cake and eat it too; they can’t treat you like an employee while treating you like an independent business at the same time just so as to escape paying insurance and taxes.
This video may help you understand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djf9d1deRfU
You have two choices.
1) Put up with it, don’t argue, and just go get and pay for your own insurance as any freelancer would have to do. At tax time, you do your own taxes under freelancer status.
2) Join the union, unionize your workplace, and fight your company in court to recognize you as dispatched employees.
There are pros and cons to both. The only person to advise you as to whether you have a good case that you might be able to win IF you decide to go to court, is a lawyer. The union can help you with that, and can advise you on how to unionize your workplace if that is something you’d like to do. There are many labor unions in Japan, but the two major unions supporting English teachers are below:
1. https://www.generalunion.org/
2. https://tozenunion.org/
Do keep in mind that gyomu itaku contracts put you at a TERRIBLE disadvantage. Basically, if you are under a labor contract, labor law protects you, and you can get help from the city office and can use labor court to sue. But if you are on a gyomu itaku contract, you’re 100% on your own – so if your employer decides to fuck you over, you will have to find and pay for a lawyer yourself and take them to civil court. Not an easy thing to do.
Wish you the best luck of what happens next! By the way, why did you accept your contract knowing that you won’t get health insurance coverage and unemployment benefits? Are you enrolled in pension??
Personally, I think foreigners have to be firm about getting those before signing the dotted line. I mean *hankoning* it with their official seal stamp.
Which company? Name & shame
This sounds sketchy.
Do you have to answer to / take orders from supervisors at your dispatch company and/or administration and head teachers at your school? Do you have to coordinate lesson ideas and plans with direct-hire teachers at your school? Do you have to follow a set weekly or daily schedule (in other words, you can’t choose your own hours of work)? Does your company deduct unemployment insurance (koyou hoken 雇用保険) from your salary? Does your company deduct income tax from your salary? Does your company pay for transportation to and from work?
If you answered yes, to one or more of these questions, it’s highly likely that the labour bureau would not consider you to be gyomu itaku. You would be considered to be directly employed by your dispatch company.
Update:
-currently in talks with the pension office and labor office. Despite being Gyomu Itaku, if we work over 30 hours a week the company is legally required to enroll us. For anybody reading this who’s in the same situation, call the pension office!