Preamble: Under the laws of the Dispatch Act, any dispatch employee who has been dispatched for three years in the same position with the same client company is supposed to either be switched out and replaced with a new dispatch employee after three years or be offered a direct-hire contract with the client company (aka “the three-year rule”). If the dispatch company continues to outsource the same employee in the same position for longer than three years to the client company in violation of the Dispatch Act, under the law it is the equivalent of the dispatched worker having been offered a direct-hire position with the client company.
My question is, have any dispatch teachers or ALTs here ever tried to have the three-year rule invoked in order to get a direct-hire contract with the client school? If so, how did you go about doing it and were you successful? Did you ask your dispatch company to ask the client school on your behalf (which they are actually legally required to do under the Dispatch Act)? Or did you skip the shady middleman and ask the school directly yourself? If you were unsuccessful, were there any repercussions or consequences?
4 comments
In the past, I have tried this, and it didn’t work. With the help of the General Union, I even took the Board of Education to the Labor Standards Board and lost. So, here is my advice.
* First and foremost, look at your contract. Is it a full year contract? Most likely, it is not. For the three year rule to work, there must not be any gaps (even one day) in your contract.
* Second, what kind of contract are you under? Is it a haken (dispatch) contract or gyomu itaku (subcontracting) contract?
* Third, do no ask your dispatch company directly. Why? They will find ever way to terminate you or more likely force you to quit. They could also threaten you with a breach of contract.
* Fourth, do not ask your school directly about this. The school will talk to the dispatch company. You could talk to the Board of Education directly, but there is a good chance that they will speak to the dispatch company about this.
* Fifth, I would suggest speaking to either the General Union or the Tokyo General Union (Tozen) about joining.
* Sixth, you could go the the prefectural labor standards board and ask for advice on this issue. They often provide multi-language services to accommodate you.
I would like to know some perspectives about this too. No wonder something has been nagging at me – until I read the thread above. This is discouraging…
edit: looks like content was discussed in the longer thread. Great posts.
The OP sounds like a sociopath. I dread the thought of him coming to Japan. It is not going to end well for someone.