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aya1412
Joined: 02 Aug 2010
Posts: 6
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 Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 3:12 am Post subject: Contract legality questions |
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Hello, I have a question about contracts. I tried finding the answer online, but had no luck. Yesterday I received my renewal contract for next year from my eikaiwa employer. There are a few sections that I am unsure are legal (or legally binding in some cases):
1. A non-competition article that states I cannot work in three specified surrounding cities for 14 months after employment. If I do, I must give back my completion bonus. I also cannot teach any student or former student of the school for 24 months. Is that legally binding if I agree to it? This question is largely hypothetical, as after the new one-year contract is over I intend on moving to chiba-ken and finding work there to be near family.
2. If I am accused of a crime by a detective, the school reserves the right to fire me. This is also a bit unclear. Do they mean formally charged or just brought in for questioning? Obviously, I don't intend on doing anything illegal or that would put me in that situation, but sometimes people get caught up in things they weren't involved in.
3. There is a clause where the school reserves the right to fire me if I hurt a student or staff member's feelings. -Seriously?
4. Is an English language contract legally binding anyway? I was never given a Japanese contract to sign.
My boss basically just copied the contract from our sister school. When I pointed out there were a few sections that made no sense, some that didn't apply to our school, and a lot of grammatical errors, he took me up on my offer to revise it. But there are so many errors it almost feels like I'm writing my own contract!
The boss is actually really great, and listens to my input. He also removed a section that said I would be charged for leaving a little early because I felt it was unfair to do so when I often end up having to stay a little later than the specified ending time for my shift. I didn't push him on the part charging me for showing up late! So there's a chance he'll just remove #3 when I ask him about it. |
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G Cthulhu
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Posts: 1373
Location: Way, way off course.
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| Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 5:02 am Post subject: Re: Contract legality questions |
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| aya1412 wrote: |
| Hello, I have a question about contracts. |
We're not lawyers. But if you insist... 
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1. A non-competition article that states I cannot work in three specified surrounding cities for 14 months after employment. If I do, I must give back my completion bonus. I also cannot teach any student or former student of the school for 24 months. Is that legally binding if I agree to it?
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Non-competes *can* be legal, but they have to hit several points to be so.
a. The length of time must be reasonable and in proportion to the scope of the role. 14 (let alone 24) months for an eikaiwa monkey not hardly reasonable.
b. There must be some *specific* skills or competitive advantage that your going to another employer that would cause or likely cause harm to your current employer. Again, it's highly unlikely IMO that simply being an eikaiwa monkey is going to count as unique.
c. The person being restricted in their employment *must* be compensated for their lack of competition. My current non-compete, for example, gives me two years salary for not working in the same area (work and physical) for 18 months if I leave. You can't just stop someone from earning a living.
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2. If I am accused of a crime by a detective, the school reserves the right to fire me. This is also a bit unclear. Do they mean formally charged or just brought in for questioning?
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Who knows? What does it say? 
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3. There is a clause where the school reserves the right to fire me if I hurt a student or staff member's feelings. -Seriously?
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| Quote: |
4. Is an English language contract legally binding anyway? I was never given a Japanese contract to sign.
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Yup. Japanese courts have ruled English language contracts binding, but they tend to favour Japanese text contracts. If you never signed a Japanese language contract then the English one is the controlling one.
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But there are so many errors it almost feels like I'm writing my own contract!
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How is this a negative? |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 10:49 am Post subject: Re: Contract legality questions |
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| aya1412 wrote: |
| 1. A non-competition article that states I cannot work in three specified surrounding cities for 14 months after employment. |
Uh, are you a CEO or some high-ranking R&D director with company secrets? If not, as G Cthulhu wrote, that article is non-binding. What are they going to do? Watch for you to show up at the competition in the next 2 years? What exactly does "surrounding cities" even mean? They have no way whatsoever to enforce or police that.
You might want to ask the Labor Standards Office near you for further advice on how to handle such a thing, before you have to deal with the employer (theoretically) asks for your completion bonus back.
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| 2. If I am accused of a crime by a detective, the school reserves the right to fire me. This is also a bit unclear. Do they mean formally charged or just brought in for questioning? |
Interesting wording, isn't it? So if the chief of police accuses you, or your neighbor, landlord, girlfriend, local judge, parking meter girl, or store owner accuses you, you are not going to get fired, right?
I would really have serious doubts about continuing to work for this employer in the first place!
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| 3. There is a clause where the school reserves the right to fire me if I hurt a student or staff member's feelings. -Seriously? |
How do they measure such hurt?
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| 4. Is an English language contract legally binding anyway? I was never given a Japanese contract to sign. |
I've heard (and you should confirm with a legal source) that only the Japanese one is binding. Maybe G Cthulhu can provide a link you can source for the info he provided.
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| he took me up on my offer to revise it. But there are so many errors it almost feels like I'm writing my own contract! |
So, he's not the one to blame, eh! Take him up on his immense (and apparently sincere) feelings (the ones you don't want to get fired for hurting), and magnanimously help him out. Make it clear that is exactly what you are doing.
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| The boss is actually really great, and listens to my input. He also removed a section that said I would be charged for leaving a little early because I felt it was unfair to do |
Depending on circumstances, it may also be illegal. Check the labor laws.
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/laborinfo/library/documents/llj_law1-rev.pdf |
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aya1412
Joined: 02 Aug 2010
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 11:37 pm Post subject: Re: Contract legality questions |
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Thank you both for your help! I appreciate the assistance -even if you aren't lawyers.
| Glenski wrote: |
| What exactly does "surrounding cities" even mean? |
Sorry to be unclear. The contract lists the specific cities they don't want me to work in; I just didn't write them down in my post.
| G Cthulhu wrote: |
| c. The person being restricted in their employment *must* be compensated for their lack of competition. My current non-compete, for example, gives me two years salary for not working in the same area (work and physical) for 18 months if I leave. |
Does that hold true even if you find a job elsewhere?
| G Cthulhu wrote: |
| How is this a negative? |
It's not a bad thing at all!
| Glenski wrote: |
| I've heard (and you should confirm with a legal source) that only the Japanese one is binding. Maybe G Cthulhu can provide a link you can source for the info he provided. |
I hope that isn't true, since I didn't sign a Japanese one in the first place!
| G Cthulhu wrote: |
| Yup. Japanese courts have ruled English language contracts binding, but they tend to favour Japanese text contracts. If you never signed a Japanese language contract then the English one is the controlling one. |
Do you have a link for that? It's not that I think you're wrong (because obviously I had no idea either way), it would just be easier to have something to point to if a situation comes up.
| Glenski wrote: |
| I would really have serious doubts about continuing to work for this employer in the first place! |
This contract this is actually the only probelm I've had with them. And even with that, it's still so much better than my job back in the US. I raised my eyebrows at it when I first signed on, but I was being hired from overseas and didn't feel like I was in a position to negotiate. Otherwise it's been rewarding working for them. The school has only been open about two years, I am the only full-time teacher, and I have a feeling he just copied the contract without reading it through properly. He used to work at our sister school, which is where he got it, so it may be that he just used their English equivalent of what he himself signed. Or it might be laziness or inexperience writing contracts.
| Glenski wrote: |
| Take him up on his immense (and apparently sincere) feelings (the ones you don't want to get fired for hurting), and magnanimously help him out. Make it clear that is exactly what you are doing. |
Oh, I am!
Thanks again for helping me out. Hopefully my boss (or his wife, since he often defers to her when it comes to these kinds of things) will be willing to change the sections I feel uncomfortable with. At least they gave me a raise! |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:13 am Post subject: |
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| Always wondered about that. When I worked for Seiha, the JTEs had some serious clauses in their contracts. They couldn't teach anywhere near a Seiha school for 2 years, nor work for a competitor. I always thought that it was silly, and really just a scare tactic. Can't contract people outa working, esp at what JTEs make. |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan
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| Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:15 am Post subject: |
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| aya1412 wrote: |
| 1. A non-competition article that states I cannot work in three specified surrounding cities for 14 months after employment. If I do, I must give back my completion bonus. |
That's bullshit. If they don't pay your bonus, take it up with the Labour Standards Office.
| aya1412 wrote: |
| I also cannot teach any student or former student of the school for 24 months. |
If you're not actively scheming to steal students, I don't think there's anything to worry about.
If you are, tread very carefully. I've no idea whether that clause is enforcable but, in general, the bond of trust between employer and employee is taken very seriously in Japan. For instance, selling your employer's trade secrets is a criminal offence.
| aya1412 wrote: |
2. If I am accused of a crime by a detective, the school reserves the right to fire me... .
3. There is a clause where the school reserves the right to fire me if I hurt a student or staff member's feelings |
The phrase "we reserve the right to" is the language of formal warnings and has no place in a contract. Legally, these clauses have no meaning.
That doesn't mean they can't sack you. Poor attitude ... breakdown in relationship ... school's reputation ... you get the idea.
| aya1412 wrote: |
| Do they mean formally charged or just brought in for questioning? |
They mean brought in for questioning. If memory serves, you can be held without charge for 3 weeks, and for the first two days you can be held incommunicado. That's not something the school wants to deal with.
| aya1412 wrote: |
| 4. Is an English language contract legally binding anyway? |
Of course it is.
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| My boss basically just copied the contract from our sister school. When I pointed out there were a few sections that made no sense, some that didn't apply to our school, and a lot of grammatical errors... |
In some ways a poorly written contract is a gift. A contract written by employer never gives -- it only takes away. If you ever get into a legal dispute, and if your employer thinks his contract is stronger than it really is, that might give you an edge.
If you'd come to me before you offered to rewrite the contract, I'd have said: don't get too hung about it. Concentrate more on the actual terms of employment (like what happens when you leave your shift early) than some chunk of garbled, copy-pasted legalese your employer has probably never even read. |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan
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| Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2011 3:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Pitarou wrote: |
| aya1412 wrote: |
| 1. A non-competition article that states I cannot work in three specified surrounding cities for 14 months after employment. If I do, I must give back my completion bonus. |
That's bullshit. If they don't pay your bonus, take it up with the Labour Standards Office. |
I've just spoken to someone who knows far more about these matters than I do, and it's not as clear cut as I first thought.
She couldn't say with any certainty whether they could withhold your completion bonus or not. She said: "I'm not sure, and it may depend on the precise circumstances. But there's no problem with concealing who your next employer will be, and once they've paid you they're not likely to try and ask for it back."
Sorry if I misled you. |
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aya1412
Joined: 02 Aug 2010
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:29 am Post subject: |
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| I've got a bit of an update. My boss agreed to take out the part about being accused of a crime, since there was another section that said committing a crime was grounds for dismissal. The part about hurt feelings was changed to repeatedly making comments intended to harass or offend students or staff members. Parts that were vague, such as reserving the right to dismiss an employee who does not follow public morals, he is "thinking about" in order to decide whether to cut them out completely or find ways to reword them. I have a feeling he want to consult his wife, too. To be honest, I don't really anticipate having any problems with them. Even if they don't want to alter it further than it already is, it's not like I plan on doing anything scandalous. Again, I appreciate the help from everyone. |
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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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| Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 1:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| The part about hurt feelings was changed to repeatedly making comments intended to harass or offend students |
I hope the teacher's no doubt insistent use of English in the classroom isn't construed as harassment!  |
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