Since we’re in hiring season, I wanted to warn all the new teachers out there: **If your contract says you will work 29.5 hours a week, think really hard before you sign it.**
Almost every single company that contracts you for 29.5 hours will actually demand you work more. It is not uncommon for teachers in these contracts to actually be working 40 hours per week. No, you will not get paid for it.
Companies like to contract you for 29.5 hours to get out of paying for your shakai hoken (social insurance). They will call the 5-10 minutes between your classes “non-duty hours” even though you are preparing for the next class — i.e. *working*. They may even give you insufficient time to prepare for lessons and try to demand that you work unpaid overtime to prepare for those lessons. This is incredibly illegal yet it is very hard for you to prove to the labor office that they are doing it.
If a company slates you for 29.5 hours, then honestly it is very likely that they will be cheating you in other ways as well. For example, demanding extremely long amounts of warning before you resign (say, 2-3 months).
Are you inexperienced? Don’t know how to teach? Can’t speak a lick of the language? **No matter what, a company cheating you out of pay is absolutely unacceptable.**
Accepting these jobs hurts more than just you, it allows the companies to continue abusing their foreign workers. So think twice about it.
**But in the end, it’s up to you. You understand your situation better than anyone.** If you have no other choice, by all means sign on. But remember to value yourself, because the company won’t.
If anyone has anything to add, please do. In all likelihood, new teachers won’t get this information from anyone else.
12 comments
They’re not going to get away with it after October 2022. If you make over 88,000 yen a month on that date next year they must provide shakai hokken, however this excludes students.
agreed… if they are cheating you out of social insurance then they don’t plan on keeping you around long enough to matter.
Too many people overseas right now with the, “if I can just get to Japan…” boner. They’ll take anything they can get.
Yerp, if they advertise 29.5, you should absolutely know you are in for a dicking. There is only one reason to currently advertise that, and it’s not for your benefit. As OP noted, if they are advertising this, they are almost certainly shady in many other areas.
This is terrific advice, and written very well. 29.5 is the calling card of the scummy school. Honestly this should be stickied every year during job hunting season.
What companies offer the 29.5 hours? I only know Nova that do it.
If the contract is legally binding both ways, why not just refuse to work beyond what you’re contracted for, and show them that the contract is the governing factor?
Any dispatch company that isn’t on a 派遣(haken) contract will have this stipulation. That said though knowing that you are only contracted for 29.5 hours means that you are legally allowed to leave school early and not work during down periods.
Also OP is mistaken a little in that people who have these contracts typically earn the same pay as those with 40 hour contracts. The only difference is social health insurance. If you work 30 hours a week you are required to be on social health insurance.
I worked for Interac from 2018 to 2020 and I was on a 40 hour contract while others were 29.5. I didn’t work 40 but had to stay at school from 8am to 4:15. I still leave work after my last lesson
Be careful what you wish for.
BOEs pay dispatch companies 350,000~400,000 JPY per month per ALT. Dispatch companies pay 230,000~300,000 of that to each ALT. After paying company costs, the rest of that is their profit.
Using the 29.5hr loophole, dispatch companies didn’t have to enroll ALTs in shakai hoken. Shakai Hoken means that ALTs pay in 35,000 per month, and the company has to equal that.
From October 2022, the loophole is going to be closed. This means ALTs will get better quality insurance, but have to pay a lot more for it. The dispatch company will have to pay an extra 35,000 per month into the system per ALT, thus eating into their profits. The only way for them to maintain profits will be to lower ALT wages, or to try to ask BOEs for more money. The former is far more likely.
So ALTs will lose out, dispatch companies will lose out, and the national health system and pension will profit. (Same applies to large eikaiwa chains and their workers)
It’s a pity it went this way. I was with ECC 英会話 from 2011-2015 and my 29.5 hour contract was just that… I would say I’d probably work maybe 15-30 minutes extra each day because I would often enjoy talking to or teaching the students and run 1-3 minutes over time for each class and not have a chance to write the notes about that day’s class until all the lessons were over. After I left the industry I heard they stopped with the 29.5 hours and started offering 40 hour contracts with spilt shifts (so working morning and night) which IMHO suuucks. As someone else said when you get on 社会保険 the take home % of the salary was also lower. It was a really good place to work, largely in part to a strong union presence
I am going to be controversial but as long as there are Philipinos and Indians coming to Japan this will never go away.