Job Discussion Forums

[nabichan]

My fiance has been working for Interac ever since May of 2007. While he originally wanted to stay for another year, personal reasons, as well as a bit of incompetence on Interac's part, have made it so he would most likely have to return to the states very soon (possibly for good).

The problem is, he has already renewed his second year contract with Interac. He only signed it during the middle of last month, but we all know that a contract is a contract.

My question to you all is this: How does Interac deal with people who go home early and break their contracts? Is there a penalty fee people have to pay? Are they even allowed to go back home? My fiance wants to be able to use this job as a reference, but he's slowly accepting the fact that the company may not be too happy to let him use them as a reference if he goes through with this.

I kind of know from others that if a person were to break their contract at during the first year (especially if s/he had to buy a car so they could drive), one would definitely have to pay some sort of penalty fee to reimburse the company for both the training and the car. Thing is, the car was fully paid for during my fiance's first year, and one doesn't need to go through any sort of training to stay here a second year. Despite all this, would one still have to pay that same penalty fee? Wouldn't it be better for both the company and the schools to have an employee leave early when they're still training new people, rather than during the middle of the school year?

Any sort of response would be very helpful. Thank you all in advance.

[TokyoLiz]

Do your homework -

The Foreign Workers Handbook
http://www.generalunion.org/handbook

Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/index.html

F u k u i Prefecture on employee contracts
http://info.pref.fukui.jp/kokusai/tagengo/html_e/konnatoki/3sigoto/b_zyouken/a_2.html

[Glenski]

Article 16. An employer shall not make a contract
which fixes in advance either a sum payable to the employer
for breach of contract or an amount of indemnity for
damages.
Labor Standards Act
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/laborinfo/library/documents/llj_law1-rev.pdf

Just give sufficient notice and leave the apartment in good condition.

[nabichan]

Thank you for the responses. I'm rather clueless when it comes to Japanese Labor Laws.

What these sites say are very helpful, and it seems like my fiance will be okay, if these rules are followed.

I guess I am a little curious to see if anyone here has had any of their own personal experiences in this sort of situation. I've heard so many horror stories about Interac, and how they like to not follow certain laws.