Through a quirk in our company’s contract, a coworker of mine found out that we’re all getting changed to full-time employee status from the beginning of next school year. Our program director was surprisingly candid about the whole situation. It seems the Pension Office is cracking down on the English education sector for creating contracts designed to allow teachers to avoid paying into the system. In his case, this meant an effective ¥60000/month pay cut. Our director also mentioned that many large ALT/eikaiwa companies have already been visited as well.
Has anyone else heard about this? I can’t imagine Interac would find many people willing to work for much less than they already pay.
EDIT: I know how the math works. My friend took a 6 man paycut because he was pocketing the portion our company was giving him to pay on his own and not paying nenkin at all. I do pay my nenkin, so I won’t be taking a pay cut. I’m just curious if anyone else has heard news of this and how other companies might be reacting. We don’t work for Interac; it was just an example of a low paying job.
UPDATE: After getting some more info from my director, it seems the labor law is changing. Previously 29.5 working hours or less per week meant your company didn’t have to put you in Social Insurance. That’s being lowered to 20 hours per week starting in October 2022. This will have significant repercussions to many jobs and contracts.
12 comments
If everyone is changed to full-time status, wouldn’t that mean that they would have to change everyone to shakai hoken as well?
A good chunk of alts are on shakai hoken, so this won’t really change much.
60k paycut? How much are you making? Social insurance won’t cost you more then 26k on a average 230k/month salary.
Where does the cut come from? If they are making you full time employees, then they will be paying for shakai hoken and nenkin on your behalf, and you no longer have to make similar payments to city hall, which should be about the same in the end.
It’s about time they cracked down on this, to be honest. Too many dispatch companies getting away with doing the bare minimum.
All Eikawas want you to work 40 hours a week now… 15 years ago when I first came to Japan I was on a 28.5 hour contract per week and earning ¥270,000 a month.. and was always asked to work overtime at my overtime rate… because it was cheaper than using long term employees who had a really high per lesson rate.. the unions pushed for a ¥200 raise per year for a per lesson rate.. Which was a couple of 100 yen higher than my base rate.. I was earning ¥380,000 a month. Every month for three years.. now all new recruits are forced to work 40 hours minimum for the same money! You should see our classrooms it’s wall to wall in laminated shit that would never have been made 10 years ago now that there is so much down time between the 10 am start and the 7pm finish. Today I taught 3 classes with a total of 4 kids. in one of those “fishbowl” Eikawa that you often see in shopping malls! What did I do today… laminate flashcards and create a stupid laminated daisy chain gate barrier! It’s gone beyond a joke. I also handed out flyers from 10am to 2pm! It’s a major chain! I arrive at work most days at 10 am and don’t have a first lesson until 4pm! 15 years ago.. I taught and If the student was more than 10 minutes late for their first lesson then it was a”free lesson” and I could leave.. there were one or two office lessons a month. I managed to teach 40… 40 minute classes at ¥1,900 per class in less than 28.5 hours.. now the Eikawas have pushed for a similar model to the convenience stores.. they want the same for their employees as the Thai and Vietnamese that now work universally across Japan. 15 years ago… it was rare to find a foreign worker working at convenience stores. I believe the laws have been changed because of Japan’s labor shortage and now the Eikawa chains are taking full advantage of it! What will happen next year! I remember when I first started at an Eikawa in Japan! My boss was one for rules and regulations. A union member.. he had a copy of all of the contracts since the 1980’s on file within the school and directed me to them on my first day of work… wow.. the era of ¥2,500 per class has ended.. it’s all about minimum wage now. Sadly. Oh.. and I will add… my current employer has found a loop hole in the law that enables them to require me to work 22 for every 28 days regardless of the calendar month.. split days of of course and 6 day weeks.. weekends are work days always. So I’m married with 2 kids attending elementary school in Japan and I see them after 4pm weekdays and never on weekends! Japan’s worth ethic. Corporate greed. I don’ know. Maybe they just want me to be as miserable as possible! I’ve never been allowed credit in Japan.. I have it back home in the UK but can’t get it in Japan! Want to buy something in Japan as an Eikawa teacher!! Must pay cash up front! Looks like I’ll never be able to purchase a house.. permanent block on my entire family! Discrimination of the worst sort.. 15 years of paying taxes and being a reliable foreign/citizen and what do the banks do.. stop me from moving forwards.. it’s all a plan.. keep Japan Japanese!
>I can’t imagine Interac would find many people willing to work for much less than they already pay.
You’d be amazed. I’m guessing if they paid nothing, people would still be lining up to work there, just for the opportunity to work in animeland.
As someone who accepted a position starting in March with Interac, this post made me realize how badly I need to apply to JET for this coming recruitment cycle lol.
If social insurance kicks in at 20 hours, wouldn’t it be more cost effective for the dispatch companies to try to get more people on 3-day contracts (less than 20 hours)?
Wow, I hadn’t heard this – and this is good news. It’s about time English teachers enjoyed the same contractual benefits that regular Japanese employees get. I assume this also means that the companies will be forced to pay employee’s health insurance, as well, as that goes together with the pension.
This is not a pay cut, by the way. It’s only fair that everyone pay into the pension and insurance system, just as they would in their home countries.
Just as you pay taxes, you pay for the pension.
It’s important that people are aware of this. It is due to a change in labor laws. Interac was planning on spinning it so it seemed as though they “negotiated” for better healthcare. Don’t be gaslighted by your company if you are switched to a Shakai Hoken contract next year.
I heard that this change will be brought in over two stages. The one next year will be for companies with over 100 employees and the next in 2024 for those with over 50.
Wonder if the bigger dispatch companies will try and worm their way out of it with some sort of corporate spin-off to keep their employee numbers under those amounts. They’ve definitely saved themselves a fortune by having their teaching staff shoulder the full 100% national pension/health burden instead of the shared shakai hoken which also includes unemployment insurance and industrial injury cover.
I’m full time and work from 8:00 am to 4:30 as an ALT but my company doesn’t pay national health and pension. Since lunch times and break times aren’t “counted” as “work” therefore I didn’t hit the hours to be enrolled in it. It’s a joke.