Job Discussion Forums

kahilm · Joined: 12 Apr 2007 Posts: 43

So I recently started working for an ALT dispatch company. A well known one. For a 1 year, full time contract, I'm given "10" paid days off. I think this is the legal bare minimum, right?

I put the "10" in quotes because it's not that simple. 5 of those days are "planned" and 5 are "unplanned." What that means is that before I started working, the company decided 5 of those days without my consent. And surprise, all 5 of them are during summer vacation when there's no class anyway so I wouldn't need to use them to begin with. So that leaves me with 5 paid days off that I can actually use at my discretion.

Is this legal? It doesn't quite sit right with me. If not, then what (if anything) could I do about it?

P.S. I don't get full pay during the summer vacation.

David W · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 457 Location: Japan

Well these companies do lots of slimy underhand things, which if you'd done your homework you'd know already. However asking you to take your holidays at the same time as the kids is not unreasonable. Legal? Probably not. Worth getting your knickers in a knot over? Probably not.

cornishmuppet · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 642 Location: Nagano, Japan

Are you expected to be in school during summer vacation? If so, you should receive full pay. If not, I wouldn't worry about it. It's pretty long. I used to work for the local city as an ALT in JHS, and we got off whatever the kids did in addition to our flexible holiday days (nenkyu). There was always someone who had to be awkward and want a vacation during term time, but most of us felt so guilty about getting three week blocks of holiday that we rarely took our nenkyu.

If, of course, you're expected to turn up and sit at your desk for four weeks on half pay, I'd consider jumping ship because that's not on. Whether you're teaching or not, you'd still effectively be 'at work'. Find out for sure what the situation is before you start to panic though. A lot of people get flustered after a week or two and bail, when the situation might not be as bad as it at first seems.

wayne432 · Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 255

Legal. Places are allowed to allocate 5 of your days off... stinks sorta, but nothing you can do.

fluffyhamster · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:59 pm Post subject:

What irritates me is that the company (and I can guess which one the OP is talking about) is somehow free to allocate those five days for you before you have worked for them for six months, but they will very likely obstruct (i.e. not make at all easy) your taking just one of the remaining five days owed even after you've worked for them beyond those six months.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

To clarify what the hamster wrote, law says you aren't even obligated to get any paid days off for the first 6 months. Consider yourself fortunate if you get something. After the first 6 months are up, law says you must have 10 days for the next 12 months (with another day or 2 added per year thereafter). See Article 39, especially the table provided there.
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/laborinfo/library/documents/llj_law1-rev.pdf

fluffyhamster · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:13 pm Post subject:

I haven't looked at the pdf, but wouldn't ten days off for the next 12 months equate to ten days off for effectively an 18-month contract (and who gets one of them?!)?

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Hamster,
You could look at it that way, but I think it is just safer and saner to think of it like this:

First year, don't expect more than 5 paid days off by law, and if the employer wants to give you more, that's his prerogative.

fluffyhamster · Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:55 am Post subject:

Yes, a 'glass is half full/only half empty' way of thinking is probably best, especially 'when in "Rome"'!

firehorseglass · Joined: 07 Apr 2009 Posts: 8

We didn't get any days off for the first three months at Aeon. Then it was five days off for the rest of the year.

Individual managers can make it easy or hard for you to take these days off. My first amanger was accommodating and adjusted students' timetables, asking private students to change days so that we could have our days off. At my second Aeon the former HT said it was hardly fair to the students to shift around.

generalunionone · Joined: 21 Dec 2004 Posts: 29

It is only under special circumstances that companies are able to set half of the paid leave. Many of the companies doiong it haven't met the requirements to set the days and are breaking the law by doing so.

www.generalunion.org

gwynnie86 · Joined: 27 Apr 2009 Posts: 159

What worries me is that you have to use those days if you're ill, and after that you can potentially get fired?? Reading the poor story of the guy who was fired when his daughter died, anyway... it makes me terrified of getting ill if I go over there, and considering the stress of living there and the new diet I probably would be!

Anyway. Not that I'm assuming which company you mean, but read http://interac.generalunion.org/nenkyu/ this ...

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

The case of the guy who was fired after his daughter died was obviously a very unique one- things like that do not happen every day here. I had a family member pass away suddenly while I was working at an eikaiwa- I took the next 2 weeks off unpaid to fly home and be with my family- it was not an issue.

Incidentally you probably do not need to change your diet that drastically once in Japan unless you are going to live in a small village- many, if not most, of the things you normally eat are likely to be available here as well.

gwynnie86 · Joined: 27 Apr 2009 Posts: 159

Well, I'm glad to hear it Smile

... just don't want to end up being so worried about getting ill, that I end up getting ill!
For me, I've only ever worked paid-as-you-work jobs, i.e. part time jobs where you are only paid for the hours you've worked, so the idea of paid days off is still quite exciting to me.... !!

Great Teacher Umikun · Joined: 28 Mar 2004 Posts: 63 Location: Back in Japan