Job Discussion Forums

[zues]

The hits keep coming from the Interac yokohama office. Whomever is leaking these are not happy to be working there. If you weren’t sure about working for Interac before, this may settle things for you.


labor bureau investigation results‏

Dear Interac Yokohama
I have received the results from the labor bureau investigation. I understand your position not to pay my August salary. The labor bureau cannot force you to pay either, even though they know of the things you have done. Here is a new approach:

As a result, you must now pay for my unemployment insurance benefits. This will be much more money than what you owe me for a portion of the August salary. Much more. Anyone leaving Interac can claim these benefits for separation of any kind (dismissal or resignation) because they pay into this system with monthly deductions from their salary.

Additionally, you must pay for my November rent based on the rental agreement you signed, as my guarantor. So, when the owner of my apartment seeks this payment from you, you must pay that amount. This has already been decided by all parties. My new contract was started in December, not before your bogus November 1st deadline, purposefully, to keep you responsible for paying the November rent. This was by design as I knew you would not pay my August salary.

You have recently changed your policy regarding guarantor/co-signer and will not offer this in the future (because of my situation?????). You should not be doing housing matters anyway. You cannot yet do employment matters correctly. Workers who currently have Interac as their guarantor/co-signer can stay past the contract period, not renew or cancel (i.e. do nothing, signing no papers from Interac), thus forcing Interac to pay future month’s rent. Up to 3, 4, even 6 months. This was explained to me by the chintai, owner, and the housing authorities. So, if you attempt rip-off any more workers you are currently a guarantor/co-signer for, they can stay after the contract expires and you must pay. This is the law. No wonder you want out of this…. you can’t profit here and you can lose money! It is extremely difficult and slow for an owner to remove a tenant. So when you command workers like me to, “you must renew or cancel”, no, we don’t. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even have to contact you at all about anything related to my housing, and so I didn’t. The owner is the only one who can remove a tenant, not you. You have no legal jurisdiction.

Congratulations. You fired MC Matthew Fricke on my recommendation. You are welcome. Unfortunately it’s not going to fix the troubled Yokohama office business culture.

Maintaining your position about my August salary remains an error. One you purposefully do not detail in any paperwork. A large portion of that money was deducted based on threats made by Matthew Fricke. Yet, you do not detail what these deductions are for, anywhere, keeping this a secret. I have shared these details with all authorities (BOE’s, labor bureau, Hello Work) about these unaccounted for deductions. Hiding this now only portrays your guilt more, especially because you itemized, clearly, all deductions EXCEPT this glaring omission. Clearly, if you were to detail those unspecified deductions, it would be an admission that you support threats as an acceptable way to keep workers’ salary. You are no different than Matthew Fricke until you are open and honest about everything, not just the things you want to share.

Firing Matthew Fricke was only a partial admission of your complicity in the mishandling of my employment. The rest is for you to fix by asking me what happened. You didn’t and for this you have been exposed. And for other methods designed to take teacher’s money, of which there are many. I explained many methods Interac uses to the labor bureau and they confirmed they are illegal. Some of the BOE’s I’ve spoken to are not happy either. I have spoken with a number of former and current employees who have confirmed this systematic abuse and can corroborate these methods.

I was removed from my schools with no reason, I was threatened then had salary reductions FOR BEING THREATENED during August, I was later harassed at my private home about renewing my housing contract (under the false pretense of “checking my safety”), and I have never received the multiple apologies I requested or payment for August.

This is not how you handle business. More changes need to happen at Interac Yokohama. Firing one person, to protect your office from their incompetence, while changing housing policies in an attempt to save your company money will not change the illegal and abusive business practices you maintain elsewhere. That is your true problem now.

You will be receiving this letter again from the labor bureau as my final response to your decision to not pay my August salary. That investigation will then be over regarding my August salary only. However, further investigations may begin regarding your general business practices. You will be contacted in the future about further investigations by the appropriate party at that time.

Also, I was informed that Elizabeth Knight is the person in charge of contracting between the Yokohama BOE and Interac. Is this correct? I have spoken to some BOE’s but I have been unable to speak to this BOE.


Can anyone vouch for this? I, for one, would like to know.

[rxk22]

Yeah, this letter doesn't impress me. Would like less sensationalism, and more professionalism. This doesn't make ALTs look any better. Guy who is writing this, should calm down, and get some people to edit his emails. If he can do that, he could get good things to happen to ALTs

[milkman]

I heard that Interac Yokohama is mainly just part-time positions? It's your own damn fault if you sign that contract and then complain about not being paid in August if there's no classes.

I also don't know why the guy makes such a big deal with employment insurance. My mate left the company after working there and they didn't give him any problems, in fact I think the employee handbook talks about unemployment insurance. They even contacted Hello Work and gave them the correct papers so he could get the unemployment right away instead of waiting 3 months, so I don't think they really care about paying it out.

There are plenty of reasons to hate Interac and my mate had plenty of bad stories, but these seem like non-issues. The rest of the letter is too confusing to really understand what's going on, he just uses a bunch of unnecessary legal nonsense to show off his big boy vocabulary and look professional? Makes him look like a tosser so I'll just assume most of the shit he's complaining about are nonsense.

[stumptowny]

Scary. They apparently fired the boss but didn’t finish cleaning up the bosses mess. Why didn’t Interac just pay this person? Companies and garbage bosses operate with impunity until something is done so good for this person. Can only imagine how many other people have been gouged by Interac.

The impression many have of esl work in japan is that it’s like a make believe working world. That nothing truly matters to companies about how they treat workers. Just replace and repeat ad nauseum.

About the rest, the unemployment benefits check out. These are available to all employees whose company made salary deductions for these benefits during their tenure. Amounts vary based on age, time with company etc. but anyone can get these and for any reason of separation. I don’t think many workers know they can do this. They should and they should get this money.

Regarding housing, I do know it is very difficult for tenants to be kicked out. Tenant rights are very strong in Japan, much stronger than landlord rights, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it took owners, courts, and red tape, 4 - 6 months before evicting someone. I have been told this by multiple Japanese. Guarantors / co-signers cannot evict, as the author stated. They are responsible financially (hoshonin system). Correct.

Effective use of the BOE’s. This is the nemesis of any dispatch company, that people complain directly to the BOE. If you mess with the wrong person, bound to happen. Probably not the first time. If enough teachers came together and went to the BOE’s directly who knows what could be achieved. More should speak up here until there is change with whatever illegal things this branch is doing.