Found this old info from 2009. Is any of it still true? If so, who do we contact to say an ALT job is illegal? Is there a Japanese page with info like this we can show to lawyers? https://fukuoka.generalunion.org/alt/index.html#bbb
The type of contract this notice refers to is 業務委託 which makes the ALT an independent contractor and not an employee covered by labor standards law.
It is legal to employ ALTs on 派遣 haken contracts.
Your local labor bureau is a good place to start. Always blows my mind what I read here about some Eikaiwa pulling blatantly illegal stuff and people letting them get away with it.
The worker dispatch act has changed a lot since 2009 so the bigger issue probably comes up if you are dispatched to the same worksite for more than three years OR are engaged by the dispatch agency under fixed term contracts for more than five years.
The stuff about RFPs as a scam is a reflection of how governments (should) procure anything so kind of dumb. Staffing companies need to make a profit to stay in business so yes, they take a margin on what their workers get paid.
I sort of disagree with calling it a scam. I can see both sides of the argument. I can see that the notorious company Owls is creaming off the top and making things difficult. I can also see how the BOE would not be able to deal with fresh of the boat ALT’s suddenly quitting and having to find a replacement, having to fire them if they are not fit, having accountability for the ALT’s who are behind a culture and language barrier. Owls is pretty bad from what I’ve heard, but then again I can imagine some of the ALT’s are as well. In an ideal world the ALT would use their extra time to study Japanese and then get a teacher’s license. Once they have this, they can be employed as teachers instead of assistants.
IIRC my co-worker wrote (or helped co-write) this article when he was an ALT here in Fukuoka over a decade ago. It’s more of an argument that the method of contracting that dispatches use is not legal and it should be abolished. By “illegal” he is not talking about criminality or anything like that, and is not aimed at teachers but rather the dispatch companies themselves. He explained it to me a few years ago, I don’t remember the specifics and im not going to bring it up to him again, but yeah, nothing has changed in the years following. It’s more talking points for unionization than anything else.
TLDR: Its not aimed at you and not talking about criminality
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Quit if it bothers you that much.
The type of contract this notice refers to is 業務委託 which makes the ALT an independent contractor and not an employee covered by labor standards law.
It is legal to employ ALTs on 派遣 haken contracts.
Your local labor bureau is a good place to start.
Always blows my mind what I read here about some Eikaiwa pulling blatantly illegal stuff and people letting them get away with it.
The worker dispatch act has changed a lot since 2009 so the bigger issue probably comes up if you are dispatched to the same worksite for more than three years OR are engaged by the dispatch agency under fixed term contracts for more than five years.
The stuff about RFPs as a scam is a reflection of how governments (should) procure anything so kind of dumb. Staffing companies need to make a profit to stay in business so yes, they take a margin on what their workers get paid.
I sort of disagree with calling it a scam.
I can see both sides of the argument.
I can see that the notorious company Owls is creaming off the top and making things difficult.
I can also see how the BOE would not be able to deal with fresh of the boat ALT’s suddenly quitting and having to find a replacement, having to fire them if they are not fit, having accountability for the ALT’s who are behind a culture and language barrier.
Owls is pretty bad from what I’ve heard, but then again I can imagine some of the ALT’s are as well.
In an ideal world the ALT would use their extra time to study Japanese and then get a teacher’s license. Once they have this, they can be employed as teachers instead of assistants.
IIRC my co-worker wrote (or helped co-write) this article when he was an ALT here in Fukuoka over a decade ago. It’s more of an argument that the method of contracting that dispatches use is not legal and it should be abolished. By “illegal” he is not talking about criminality or anything like that, and is not aimed at teachers but rather the dispatch companies themselves. He explained it to me a few years ago, I don’t remember the specifics and im not going to bring it up to him again, but yeah, nothing has changed in the years following. It’s more talking points for unionization than anything else.
TLDR: Its not aimed at you and not talking about criminality