Job Discussion Forums

[PAULH]

Here is a new labor law that may be of interest to people that are in the process of renewing or not renewing contracts with their employers, or having employers threaten to not renew you.


Did you know that a company cannot fire you if you refuse to sign a new contract? Did you know that you may be considered a permanent employee at your place of employment after working there just over a year? Did you know that your employer has no legal right to decide whether or not your contract is renewed? That is YOUR right under the law (unless you have done something really bad to warrant termination).

This is so far brand new, its not common knowledge yet, but if an employer threatens to "fire" you by not renewing your contract, or firing you becuase you choose not to renew, he is in fact breaking the labor laws.


KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. It's all you have to protect yourself.

[canuck]

Please provide a link.

So you're saying it's lifetime employment now and the only way to lose your job is for the company to go under, or to have done something really bad?

[PAULH]

[Glenski]

Yes, by all means give us a link to an official source.

canuck,
I'm sure that if an employer wants to give you a new contract that you don't like, and you refuse to sign it, you will probably leave the company anyway. If you don't, my question is this: since your original contract had a specified expiration on it, just what contract do you use if you want to stay? He can't fire you for not signing the new contract, right? So, what is the legality here?

Plus, you don't have lifetime employment. I'm sure whoever came up with the change has taken that into account. One way to leave is to do something that your employer doesn't agree with, like breaking a clause in the contract.

However, my original question still stands. If you don't want to leave, but if at the same time you don't like any new contracts, what is the situation? Are employees going to just camp out in their offices claiming this new law permits them to stay? I'm sure there is a simple explanation.

[TokyoLiz]

So, this law implies that a contract is only there to determine the company
s obligations to the employee, the salary, benefits and employee's roles for the term of a year, right? The gist of this information indicates that the company still has to have a justifiable reason to terminate.

Just like most teaching jobs on contract that I've seen in Canada.

This tidbit of news also suggests to me that the terms in many contracts are in fact misleading and illegal...

[PAULH]

Sacked without notice


(from a recent newpaper article by Louis Carlet of the Tokyo Labor Union)

I was working for an English-language school in Tokyo and got fired without any notice at all. My one-year contract doesn't expire for four more months. Can they do that?
YES and no. In the short term, employers fire workers for good reasons, bad reasons and for no reason. An employer must have a very good reason to fire an employee for it to hold up in a court of law, particularly in the middle of the term of an employment contract. Such reasons include excessive tardiness or absence. If performance is the reason, it must be extremely poor performance.

What can you do if you think you've been unfairly dismissed? Lots. First of all, refuse the dismissal explicitly both verbally and in writing, saving a copy for your records. Then while you, your union or your lawyer prepare a strategy to fight the dismissal, make sure to show up for work at your ordinarily scheduled hours, even beyond your official dismissal date.

This is a practice known as "shuro toso," or "reporting-for-work struggle." Each day you show up, bring a signed and dated statement of your intention to work, again with a copy for your records. If your employer tells you to leave, come back the next scheduled working day. And so on.


Probation confusion

I was with a language school for only three weeks and then got fired. My employer told me she doesn't have to pay me the one-month dismissal allowance because I was still under probation and also because I had poor teaching skills. What can I do?
EMPLOYERS set "probation periods" somewhat arbitrarily, anywhere from a few weeks to six months. If you are dismissed, however, your employer must either give one month's notice or one-month pay in lieu (or a combined total of one month).

The only exceptions are: If you commit a crime against the company and your employer registers for a special exemption from the Labor Standards Office (LSO -- "rodo kijun kantoku-sho"); or if you have worked with the company for less than two weeks. So in effect the law recognizes only two weeks as a "probation period" exempting employers from the one-month obligation.

If your employer refuses, go to the LSO and ask the folks down there to investigate.

[The Dog Ate My Keitai]

I seriously doubt that anything can protect you against contract expiry...

What if you work in a situation where you must re-apply for your job on a yearly basis?

For example, say I work for 3 years somewhere, each year having had my contract renewed for another year. Then following my yearly "job interview" they inform me that my candidacy wasn't successful and that they've hired someone else in my stead. I sincerely doubt that I have any recourse in such a situation... Union or no union, all what they did was hire a "more qualified" person, right?

[PAULH]

[The Dog Ate My Keitai]

How very Japanese... There is nothing you can do... and... You can do a lot.

Nevertheless. I suppose being a union member might facilitate such negotiations.

I hope I never find myself in such a situation... Just FYI, Paul, the situation I presented is HALFWAY hypothetical... It does represent my own case, at least so far as the fact that I DO, in fact, have to re-interview for my job every year... This year I was successful. But what if next year I'm not? Or the year after that? And, no, we're not talking about an eikaiwa here, either... We're talking board of ed.

However if I ever were to ever find myself in such a situation, it may get interesting, as I've never signed any sort of contract with the BoE where I work (at least not to my knowledge) and the only sort of "contract" that exists has been written only in English and doesn't get signed -- it's given out almost as a handbook or guide.

I know that you're supposed to have a written contract, but I tend to think that if I DON'T, my argument can always be that I never agreed to being hired only as a temporary (1yr contract) worker and that the fact that I've worked there for a number of years should entitle me to some employment permanency.

[PAULH]

[Glenski]

[The Dog Ate My Keitai]

[PAULH]

[J.]

Probably this isn't going to add any to the discussion but I just have to register my outrage, once again, over Boards of Education making people interview for their own jobs every year and keeping them perpetually on a certificate of employment. Such shoddy treatment only happens where there are no unions to support the individual. Is there any way to join the general union and get a little more protection?

As for University professors also being on 1 or 3-year "contracts", I feel the same way. This is shoddy, pure and simple. That this wouldn't be considered for Japanese staff makes it also xenophobic, as Paul pointed out. Can't English teachers join the union for other professors, assuming there is one, and get a little support?

[PAULH]