Pretty much the title. I just found out that my workplace would like to move me from a full time job to a part time job. I understand they are trying to save money, but the change would make my salary less than half of what it is.
I haven’t signed anything, and we’re on private school insurance, although I didn’t see anything useful on that site.
Anyone knowledgeable on steps that could be taken? Thanks in advance.
14 comments
The obvious would be find another job.
Don’t sign anything, make a record of every interaction about this (emails, voice recordings with your phone), *don’t sign anything*. I am not a lawyer (talk with a labor lawyer), but I believe that they can’t reassign you to new duties with a new title and wages unless you agree via a new contract.
Depends on your contract I think. If you are a Seishain on a fixed salary it should probably not be possible. But if you have an hourly contract, your school might be allowed to adjust your hours.
On another note: A halfway decent place wouldn’t do this if the situation wasn’t dire. So better start updating your cv. Good idea either way.
Are you on a fixed-term contract (renewed yearly) or an indefinite/unlimited term contract? If it’s the latter, your school has an obligation to maintain the same contract conditions from one year to the next.
Employers do this a lot. I almost had it happen; I was about to join a new department and my new manager told me that my status was going to change, from full-time employment-protected *seishain* to 6-month-contract *shokutaku*, with a much smaller bonus. “Why would I want that?” I’m thinking, and when I expressed an inclination to keep the status I had always had, she said she’d have to talk to the CEO, who of course had no problem with my existing status.
(She still saved the money, by making my discretionary bonus very small and using stack ranking and the grade system to cut my base as well.)
Legally you can absolutely insist on keeping the status you have; just be careful because there could be “unofficial” retaliation. Have they put any of this “we want to change your status” in writing? I’m guessing they haven’t, so that you won’t have anything to show the labor board in case you are forced to quit. They might even pretend that you asked for the change yourself.
In my case it could have been because I was getting older and had no promotion potential, so I was getting moved to the “*ojisan* riding out their remaining years” track, or it could have been something sneakier: *shokutaku* are not eligible to return to work if taking medical leave, and the person I was replacing was in fact on the verge of a mental breakdown when he decided to quit. I was then driven to the same breaking point soon after joining her team. I’m still a little salty about how she brought that up: either she thought she could trick me and that I wouldn’t know my rights, or she thought I would just go along with it because I had no outside opportunities.
Do what you can in the meantime to protect your salary, by all means, but start spending more of your energy pursuing other options. I wouldn’t want to continue working somewhere that was quite happy to halve my salary.
It’s illegal in Japan …consult union asap
Sounds like you’re a contract employee? In which case the company is free to offer a new contract when your current contract is up. You’re of course free to take it or leave it.
While it’s easy to blast the company…and sure, maybe that’s the correct response. But as someone that has run companies, and has been in a position of needing to restructure a company shortly after I joined… in some cases, companies are literally trying to survive – if the company goes bust, *everyone* loses their jobs. And most small-company directors are *acutely* aware (I know I was) that families often depend on their job with the company.
And in some cases, the company is trying to decide between, ‘do we keep fewer people, but the people that are left, we keep them at current wages’, or ‘do we keep more people employed but cut back on hours’. There’s no easy choice. In some cases, cutting back on hours (that lets people look for more work elsewhere) is the preferred choice.
Kind of like the minimum wage debate. Theoretically, a higher minimum wage means fewer people hired, but those that *are* hired make more. Do you want more people working but at a lower wage, or fewer people working but making more? (In practice it’s actually far more complicated, but again, just thinking about it in theoretical terms).
Again – not saying this is the case for this particular company, just saying that we probably shouldn’t just blindly assume that every single company is run by soul-less Scrooge McDucks rolling around in vats of dollar bills.
Also note – in some cases you’re significantly better off as a shokutaku / contract employee, as salaries and bonuses can be bigger.
It is illegal for them to do this without your consent.
Don’t sign any agreements, no matter how much they push. And don’t agree verbally either.
If they do it without your consent, contact the labor bureau.
Regardless of how they proceed, start job hunting – they’re obviously in financial difficulty.
They cannot do that. This is what a lawyer told me.
HR tried me to get me to accept it, just like you are experiencing now. When the biggest HR boss found out, even he said it was illegal.
You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip. Start looking for a new job.
While you could explore the legal route, it really doesn’t change the end outcome — you are working for a dead-end company (or one that doesn’t see you as a valuable employee/contractor).
Trust me, your goal is to find a company that will absolutely do anything to retain you — provided you are an exceptional employee and not just managing to the average.
Try getting in contact with one of the labor unions. The General Union is one that handles a lot of cases.
The legality depends on your employment contract and the company’s work rules. I would look into finding a new job immediately. If you play your cards right and with a little luck, you might be able to offer to resign in exchange for a severance package, then hop over to your new gig.
Most Japanese companies will do literally anything to avoid paying a living wage.