Job Discussion Forums

TokyoLiz · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1548 Location: Tokyo, Japan

Dave, in his video, so succinctly describes the real conditions of Interac.

Dave, who's articulate and intelligent, could see there were major problems, yet he was poorly informed. He says in the video that he learned from a person responding to his video about the dodgy breakup of the company, intended to sidestep the requirement for insurance co-payment.

Interac is looking like one of Japan's so-called "black companies".

I became aware some very illegal things that Interac did when I was a direct employee of a school board. I heard about unpaid training (confirmed by the General Union website), teachers working without visas. The school boards are liable for these violations, and the exploited ALT bears the most risk.

Other sources like Debito report unfair (even cruel) dismissals of ALTs.

Dave says in his video that he ended up bearing the company cost of fuel for his car when he was sent to various schools.

See this Tofugu article about the exploitative companies that abuse Japanese employees - http://www.tofugu.com/2014/04/25/awful-japanese-black-companies/

Japan's work world is rife with exploitation. Before you take a job here, check the labour laws and the union websites.

Lamarr · Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 190

I worked two contracts for Interac some years ago. The first contract I did, things were as normal (lower pay for August and December, contract finished at the end of Feb, so you didn't get paid for March - fairly standard). The second contract I did with them, the BoE asked them for more teachers. So they hired a bunch of non-natives, at a lower rate of pay, with no transportation costs. They also shortened the contract to 10 months from the usual 11 months, so you didn't get paid for Feb either. When I eventually quit, they called me to tell me they were cancelling the guarantorship on my apartment the very next day, and gave me a week's notice that they were cancelling my health insurance. That is barely enough time to sort out a suitable alternative.

Even if you do a good job for these places, they won't recognize it in the form of pay raises (as he relates in the video). And there's the story of Michael Collison (Google it or see Debito's website). He worked for them for 3 years, getting a letter of commendation off them for his work, but then didn't have his contract renewed because he left school early twice without notifying Interac directly, as his wife was in labour with their miscarried baby, which eventually died. To add insult on top of that, the cheeky sh*ts tried to get him to resign from his contract, rather than letting it expire normally.

These stories typify the way these ALT and eikaiwa shysters operate, working on two basic business "principles": 1) reducing their costs (including salaries) to the bare minimum, maximizing to the final yen how much money they're making; and 2) cracking down on instructors that do anything that might p!ss off a school or a customer, which might lead to them cancelling or not renewing their contract/lesson package. Your "rights" or feelings as a person don't even come into it - essentially, the customer is always right and the instructor is always wrong, even when you're right. You're just another lump of meat chucked into the sausage mincing machine, to be mashed up and spat out the other end.

If you're going to come over and work for these places, assume that you WILL get reamed by them, and prepare for that eventuality.

TokyoLiz · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1548 Location: Tokyo, Japan

The Tofugu story says some black companies tell their workers, "Work until you die."

The cruelty I was alluding to is the Collison case. Interac's treatment of this man and his family was inhumane.

Shakey · Joined: 29 Aug 2014 Posts: 199

Another example that made the news is when Berlitz fired Catherine Campbell after she was diagnosed with cancer and had to return to Canada for her chemotherapy and radiation treatments in 2009.

Of course Berlitz did not enroll teachers in healthcare insurance, so she was forced to go back to Canada for her cancer treatment. And since Berlitz refused to grant her an extended unpaid leave of absence, they fired her when she could not return to work upon their demand.

Japan Times

Lamarr · Joined: 27 Sep 2010 Posts: 190

I don't know the Catherine Campbell story, but the Michael Collison case certainly shows the brutal reality of the way these companies operate. Your personal situation does not even come onto their radar. If you make an "infraction", even if you have more than enough justification for it, they're not even interested.

For anyone who doesn't know, Collison got dumped on because he didn't notify Interac about leaving school early, even though he told the principal of the school he was at, who of course understood his situation and obviously had no problem with allowing him to leave school early to attend to his wife. His second misdemeanour was to mix up his start times and come in late, the day after he'd been up all night attending to his wife. Again, the school understood his situation, and he even said he made up for the lesson he'd missed.

None of that mitigated in his favour, even after 3 years of sterling service for them: the instructor is always wrong. The other thing to note is that, legally, the school is supposed to be directly in charge of the instructor, not Interac. So Interac are breaking the law by demanding that instructors channel everything through them (in this case, requiring Collison to inform them first that he was leaving school early).

Apparently Interac showed how sorry they were for his treatment by donating Y100,000 to a charity of his choice.

teacherfromca · Joined: 02 Feb 2012 Posts: 47

I would stay away from Interac, unless you're only interested in staying in Japan one year then leaving. Their system of not paying into pension, not participating in the required national health insurance, and a few other things, will cause problems, costly problems to someone wanting to stay in Japan for more than a few years. Simply put, Interac sucks. stay away.

rxk22 · Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629

RM1983 · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 360

Corrupt might be an understatement, the owner was paying bribes to government officials if the news last week was true

steki47 · Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 1029 Location: BFE Inaka

The spooky thing is that Interac is one of the better ALT companies.

(I worked for them for one year and had no problems. Results may vary.)

fluffyhamster · Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2016 7:32 am Post subject:

I've never understood this type of YT clip. Go for a 10-minute stroll around a quite noisy neighbourhood (better than camming in a dingy room tho I suppose), all the while humming and hawing and pausing for breath while dodging members of the public, just to say stuff that could have been expressed in several sentences at most and that would only take a minute to read. Has everyone become a tad self-important and/or got a brand Me to push? I wouldn't mind so much if there were a few jet plane crashes and polished production values like in Abroad in Japan's generally amusing and irreverent clips, or if the clips were more to show (rather than "tell" you about) some genuinely visual aspect of life in Japan. Still, maybe this "information" is easier to find (and for some, to process) on YT than it is on a blog or forum, and the garrulous crown still goes to Gimmeaflake/breakman.