Long story short, ALT dispatch company lost the contract in the city I was working in. They offered me a position across the country, with no moving reimbursement or pay increase, but with certain other perks including a different working schedule and a reasonable commute that were very attractive to me (which I still have the emails to back up). After arriving in the city I was transferring to and getting a place, I was told one week before my start date that they were not honoring the previously discussed perks… which were the only reason I moved across the country.
I know zero people here, no connections, and very little money as I was told I’d be starting work right away, but the position is absolutely outrageous. (2 hour commute btw, one way). I plan on going to the labor office tomorrow, and was thinking about contacting immigration? Any advice would be super helpful. My Japanese is good, should I maybe test my luck at raising concerns directly with the BoE?
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EDIT: my main worry is that I’m between contract and still haven’t been sent my next contract, but they did tell me to move, and pushed me to do so as quickly as possible, while making these promises in emails.
EDIT 2: Also, would it be unwise to start the position? I feel like if I sign a contract I’m screwed and held to that despite what they already promised, but they did this at the last second and they have the “take it or leave it, it can’t be changed this late” excuse (even though it being this late is obviously on them). Main issue being that even with a 4 hour commute each day (2 hours there and back) I can probably only last 2 months without a source of income.
8 comments
What does immigration have to do with this?
And as long as you have e-mails you should be fine.
Man, that sounds infuriating. I don’t know what to do, but I’m wishing you luck.
I recommend that you contact the General Union as soon as you can. They offer email consultations and they’ve helped me in the past with a previous employer.
My experience with the labor board was that unless it was a clear cut, extreme case, they shrug. We were told that we could reasonably win, but that lawyer fees would cost more than we might receive.
The BoE uses dispatch companies because they don’t want to deal with ALTs or foreigners. Their usual policy is: this is a legal contract. Unless there is a disaster and it makes it to NHK, they will smile and ignore you.
If you have been promised a job in writing, and you move and they don’t give you a contract, you should have some case, but you’d still be way in the hole. I don’t think they’d do that though. Interac, the biggest and “best”. puts things off to the last minute, but they tend to be legal. If it’s another dispatch, I can’t say, but they’d have to be sadistic to ask you to move cities without giving you a job.
You’d probably be best trying to snag a position with whichever dispatch took over in your current city.
Sounds like a three letter company I’ve heard much about. You’re not the first to say they’ve done something like this.
My honest answer? If you’re strapped for cash, take the job and spend every working hour you have getting another one. Put in your two weeks notice and leave ASAP.
Let this experience motivate you to study Japanese and GTFO of dispatch work. It’s bottom barrel shit. You shouldn’t be doing it for more than one season
>my Japanese is good, should I maybe test my luck at raising concerns directly with the BoE?
I mean you could try, but they are under no obligation to do anything for you as you don’t work for them. You work for the dispatch company.
>and was thinking about contacting immigration?
They won’t help either. Although if youre on a work visa work for a different branch of your dispatch company you might need to notify them.
But certainly take it further, either labor bureau or consult the GU etc. because if you have a contract/offer with conditions, they can’t just last minute change those conditions unless you agree to the change
FYI, there is a **Labour Bureau** for each region of Japan. So your experience will vary. If you suck at Japanese, then use this phone number.
[相談機関のご紹介(Advisor for Foreign Workers Section)｜確かめよう労働条件：労働条件に関する総合情報サイト｜厚生労働省 (mhlw.go.jp)](https://www.check-roudou.mhlw.go.jp/soudan/foreigner_eng.html)
So there are a few life lessons to take away from this experience.
**So basically, you moved to a new location without first singing a new contract (or addendum).** That was a big no no; although, it’s kind of immaterial in this case. It typically goes that if you sign a contract, then the working conditions are different than what was promised in writing (on the contract), then you have leverage.
If these things are deal breakers and you have time remaining on your visa, then it may have been or may still be more beneficial to go on unemployment and use that time to search for a new job. It’s not ideal, but it’s an option.
It sounds like the main “perks” you wanted were a different working schedule and a reasonable commute, but those things would be hard for any dispatcher to guarantee. Those really aren’t “perks”. I don’t think that your local Labour Bureau can do anything about those things. Where I’m at, schedules and workloads tend to change depending on student enrollment figures, and commute times depend on where your apartment is located in the relation to your school. The dispatcher has no control over those things. Whoever made those guarantees was either trying to take advantage of you… Or he or she was an idiot.
Did the dispatcher change the working location once you arrived? How can the commute time change? Were there no apartments available that were close to your school? I’m not trying to scold you. I’m just trying to understand more about your situation. I used to spend 4 hours on a train daily. It’s just a part of life here sometimes.
If it was **me** in this situation. I would sign whatever they put in front of me because it’s better than being on unemployment. I would then spend the year looking for a new job. Something to understand is that if you call your local Labour Bureau and you are not an indefinite term employee (無期雇用), it’s unlikely that you’ll be renewed. Generally speaking, the bar to fire someone is set really high in Japan, but the bar to refuse contract renewal is a lot lower.
I still have to hear about ALTs not being screwed over in one way or another tbh…