Hey guys I have a question that I can’t find any answer to online.
My current private school has a contract with my dispatch company. But they want to direct hire me. When they called my company, my company told them that it’s forbidden to direct hire me until one year after my current contract has ended.
I’ve never heard of this rule or law so I was wondering are there anyone here who went through this process and what’s the best route or method to take?
Thanks
12 comments
How many years have you worked at the school?
It’s not a rule. It’s part of the contract that the company has with the school. Dispatch companies have a clause in the contract stating that their ALTs can not be hired directly by the school. They usually state that the time period is 1 year.
If your contract is a Haken one then after three years you have to be hired directly, so typically dispatch companies will move you before the third year or after. If your Itaku then it doesn’t matter how long you work at the school, the contract stops them from being able to hire you directly.
Edit: wrote Shaken instead of Haken.
I was directly hired a day after finishing my contract with the dispatch company.
This is a non-enforceable non-compete clause, the company would have to prove that you were taking business away from them or directly harming them in some way.
The school just has to say that they wouldn’t hire anyone from the company for the position they want to give you anyway. To even get that far, the company would have to be willing to take you to court.
I’ve been in this position, even after being there for only six months (started in August). Absolutely zero consequences. The BOE told the dispatch company (yes, THE worst one) that they were hiring me directly starting that following April and that was that.
The school needs to contact the BoE. They may have a multiyear contract with the dispatch company, which will have to expire before taking on a new teacher. Also, dont expect any help from your dispatch company, direct hires mean fewer schools for them to leech off.
I have a friend who had a similar issue with a fintech company. He was working for a big fintech company through a tech dispatch company. Big company wanted to direct hire him. There was some rule in his contract that the big company had to wait a period (6 months or a year, can’t remember clearly) after his contract with the dispatch company ended before they could hire him directly.
Long story short… you and every other Interac ALT wanna be hired directly. I get it.
While this may make sense on an individual basis where you have a good ALT and wanna keep them, the BOE will be thinking about their policy for the entire prefecture. Thus we get this thread every other week… “my supervising teacher agrees with the idea of hiring me directly but the school’s not allowed to”.
Honestly, I encourage people to look at their next career move rather than spending too much time trying to negotiate their way into a direct-hire role. It kinda like applying for a leadership role at Maccas. You’ll get a few extra bucks but ultimately, a junior role elsewhere is gonna pay better & have more opportunities to progress.
Just so you know better for next time when a company tells you they’d like to hire you directly instead of paying another company part of your salary, you should probably do what you can to avoid talking to the company that is happily receiving part of your salary about this potential change.
If it’s a private school, the school has to pay a fee (negotiated between them and the dispatch company) in order to be able to hire you. Basically your school will have to negotiate with your dispatch company.
When you say you’ve been at the school for three years, does that mean you have completed 3 years, or are currently in your third year?
If you are haken, which has a 3 year period, then even if the dispatch has written that clause , it doesn’t have any validity and can be disputed. Therefore if this is your third (so, final) year, then come next March you can just inform the dispatch you’re leaving/going back home etc and the school could say they’re using another JET or whatever. Then you’re free to become a direct hire and they’re free to hire you.
If you’ve already started your 4th year at the same school, then on paper your contract would look the same, but it would likely be itaku because this allows both the dispatch and the school to keep you beyond 3 years without breaking any haken laws.
In that case, such a clause about not hiring you until a year has passed would unfortunately be valid since itaku aren’t covered by Haken Labour laws and the dispatcher can add any rule they want which has to be followed. If they’ve included a breach of contract/ headhunting fee too, then the school would be on the hook to pay that (I think it’d be a one time fee of something like 30% of your annual direct hire salary.)
I believe your school with have to pay a fine of a fee to match what they would have earned from you salary to compensate the losses the dispatch company will incur. That’s what happened in my case.
After three years I asked my dispatch company to give me a raise and they refused. So then I asked the school to hire me directly.