TozenAdmin

Tozen Union and its Japan Times General Workers Union (JTGWU) chapter took strike action Wednesday as the paper threatened to lay off 39 staff, one third of the company’s workforce.

Negotiations had broken down after management failed to justify the necessity of the layoffs.

JTGWU fears the cuts will make The Japan Times unable to function as a news organization. Such irreparable damage to the 123-year-old institution would come at a time when its coverage, including that of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, is more important than ever. 

These cuts follow a voluntary redundancy program in spring 2020 that significantly reduced the newspaper’s workforce. JTGWU has 16 members, representing staff from across The Japan Times. The union set a July 17 deadline and implored The Japan Times’ management to postpone the layoffs for a month to give both parties enough time to negotiate. Management refused, preferring instead to rush through the mass layoff.

Gerome Rothman, Tozen organizer and the local’s case officer, said, “We’re shocked. The Japan Times and Tozen Union have a history of excellent labor relations.

“In Japan, an employer has the responsibility to do everything in its power to avoid even one layoff. Instead, The Japan Times has chosen to violate social norms, unilaterally deciding to turn a third of the company out into the street in the middle of a pandemic.”

Chris Russell, president of JTGWU, said, “Every member of the local is dedicated to the long-term success of The Japan Times. We believe that this success is, and will continue to be, driven by the company’s talented staff. It’s a major disappointment that the company doesn’t feel the same basic commitment to its employees, particularly given the excellent COVID-19 coverage everyone has produced in the past half year.”

Jane Kitagawa, an editor and writer, said, “Union members are upset that they have been forced into this position. They think the company has made a terrible decision to implement layoffs that are not in the best interests of the company, its readership or its staff.”

Media Contact:
Gerome Rothman
Tozen Union
Japan Times General Workers Union case officer
tozen.rothman@gmail.com

Last week Konno Haruki sat down with members of Tozen Union and the Shane Workers Union local to discuss the recent goings on at the company.

The original article is here

Here is an English translation of the article provided by Louis Carlet:

Outraged teachers strike after Shane says corona furlough pay was a ‘loan’
by Haruki Konno, labor policy academic and leader of NPO Posse 12:01pm, Tuesday, 7 July 2020.

Countless workers struggle to make ends meet as coronavirus leads to non-renewals, dispatch agency firings, and even non-payment of the kyugyo te-ate furlough allowance. This includes eikaiwa English conversation schools, whose foreign instructors face economic hardship after losing their jobs.

Shane Corporation runs eikaiwa classrooms around the country. Some of its foreign language teachers belong to Tokyo General Union (Tozen Union). They went on strike last month.
Why did they strike? The roots of the dispute can be found in the spread of appalling work conditions stretching back to pre-covid times; to financial hardship due to a cash advance system instituted by Shane management; and to the anger felt by employees toward a company that has ignored their voices for too long. Let’s look at the details.

Setting work hours at 29.5 hours/week to skirt health insurance enrollment
You may have heard little about labor issues language teachers face. You may think they enjoy high hourly wages with proper benefits and protections. The truth is a very different story.
Tozen Union estimates that Shane employs about 800 full-time teachers. They are hired on one-year fixed-term contracts with contract non-renewal hanging permanently over their heads.
Shane sets their weekly work hours at 29.5 hours, likely a device to evade the legal obligation to enroll employees working 30 or more in the public health insurance system called Kenko Hoken.
Thus, Shane instructors must enroll on their own in the national health insurance system – Kokumin Kenko Hoken. Instructor contracts guarantee about 250,000 yen a month gross, but their take-home pay is much less, particularly if you factor in the national health insurance premium they must cough up without help from their employer.
Shane claims the interval between classes is unpaid break time, but this is a break in name only. Teachers cannot leave the school and must wait on standby in case a potential student drops in for a taiken demo lesson.
Tozen Union began to address these issues in 2012, with the formation of its Shane local chapter. The three founding members demanded an end to fixed-term employment as well as enrollment in the public Shakai Hoken health and pension insurance scheme (which includes Kenko Hoken). The union has maintained these demands to this day.
During the intervening years, there have arisen many problems with Shane’s treatment of teachers. Tozen Union says it has fought against unfair dismissals and other issues with three unfair labor practice cases in the labor commission and four court battles.
A Tozen Union member sued Shane over a non-renewal. The company had refused his application for paid leave in order to prepare for childcare leave, deeming the period absence without leave. In an upset victory for the union, Tokyo High Court overturned a lower court’s ruling as well as Shane’s dismissal of the union member.
Eikaiwa School Instructor Wins Upset Victory as Court Rejects Paid Leave Fixing, Non-Renewal

Corona Aggravates Dispute: It’s a loan, not kyugyo te-ate furlough pay
Tozen Union says Shane closed its schools between April 8 when the state of emergency was declared and May 31. This ended up escalating the labor dispute that had built up over many years.
Shane paid the monthly quarter million yen as normal for the period it had ordered workers to stay home. From the employees’ perspective, management had paid the guaranteed 100% of their wages, just like a ‘decent company.’ Shane, however, had other ideas.
Later they discovered that the 250,000 yen was not kyugyo te-ate furlough pay at all. It was an advance on future salaries for extra work to be done after the June reopening. Shane said workers would have to work to pay back the quarter million yen they had received for April. They obtained no agreement from the employees for such an advance. In effect, workers would receive not a single yen of furlough allowance.
Several times during collective bargaining, Tozen Union asked the company to explain what the April and May payments represented, but management offered no acceptable explanation. On June 29, the company presented two options in a letter to employees.
The first option addressed what was paid for April and May by stipulating that employees would pay back all that had already been paid in excess of the legal minimum kyugyo te-ate furlough allowance. (The Labor Standards Act sets that at 60% of average daily pay, but it often amounts to about 40% of ‘real’ pay.) The second option was to keep the full 100% of what had been paid but provide free make-up lessons to students in order to repay their debts. Barring such future overtime hours, their future pay might even be docked.
Possible Labor Standard Act Violations

Twenty-Three-Member Simultaneous Strike Wins Concession!
In the end, Shane provided Tozen Union no satisfactory explanation and instead unilaterally tried to force each teacher to choose from two options by July 13. Tozen Union determined that collective bargaining was going nowhere and decided to exercise their right to collective action by going on strike.
On June 27, 23 foreign instructors in Tozen Union struck. This was the largest strike by Shane instructors ever in Japan.
Tozen Union demands 100% payment of the furlough allowance; an extra fortnight of paid leave granted to instructors infected with coronavirus; and a management-union committee to discuss workplace safety during the pandemic. These come in addition to the longstanding demands to change the contract period and enroll members in Shakai Hoken.
In the past, the company managed to arrange a replacement teacher to cover for striking teachers, minimizing any potential adverse impact on classes. Some schools had to cancel lessons, however, when the 23 teachers struck. Then, 19 teachers struck on June 30, and 22 again on July 1.

Company operations have begun to see an impact.
Some previously ununionized instructors came to mistrust the company, saw the strikes, and began themselves to get involved in the union. Shane told employees to “repay the full amount if you resign before paying it all back.” (!) One worker confided to the union that, “With the way they treat me, I want to quit. But I have no money, so I can’t quit until I pay it all back. It’s like being held captive.” Dissatisfied and anxious workers flood into the union, Tozen reports.
In face of the strikes, the company has been forced to give ground. Initially, Shane asked employees to pay back the full amount. This meant they had no intention to pay even 1 yen of the kyugyo te-ate furlough allowance. But after 23 teachers struck on June 27, management softened and said workers could keep the 60% as a furlough allowance and only need repay the other 40%(as I explain above). This is clearly insufficient wage coverage, and Tozen Union is fighting for the full 100%.

Problems rack up in the eikaiwa English conversation industry
These problems are not unique to Shane in the language industry.
Tozen Union has a local chapter at Berlitz Japan (in Benesse group). In response to the government’s request to suspend operations, this language giant switched to online lessons. But student numbers fell, nonetheless, and management used this to pay the reduced 60% furlough allowance for time when no online lessons took place.
But the reason is the reduction in students, and the company should be able to find teachers other work to do. Tozen Union therefore insists Berlitz must pay 100%.
Instructors are also getting only 60% kyugyo te-ate furlough allowance at English conversation school Nova. Many teachers are treated not even as employees but rather as individual proprietors (in name only). So, this category of Nova teachers received no furlough allowance at all, putting enormous pressure on their household finances. Nova teachers are ordinarily paid 1,350 yen per 44-minute lesson. The 60% works out to just 810 yen. Barely able to make Tokyo’s minimum wage, even these employee teachers are finding it tough to get by. The General Support Union recruits Nova employees and has been striking since June for 100% payment and measures to avoid the san-mitsu three crowding conditions.

As globalization proceeds, more and more people attend language schools. You may think that foreign workers’ conditions in the language industry are better than other industries. You would be mistaken, as I explained in this piece.

We consumers must stop ignoring workers who are striking and raising their voices in order to make things better.

幼児教育（０～９歳）サービスを提供している株式会社ピアソンの中村博一校長は、昨年１２月に２か月後に二つの学校を閉校することを、保護者と講師宛てに突然かつ一方的に発表した。それに伴い、全講師が雇用を打ち切られることとなった。

　同社は、茨城県つくば市で「つくば・インターナショナル・ナーサリー・スクール」および、東京都世田谷区で「羽根木インターナショナルプリスクール」の2校を運営していたものの、2020年2月16日、どちらも発表通りに閉校した。

　東ゼン労組のシュミーラー組合員は、「憤りを感じる」と言いながら解雇撤回に向けて闘っている。「学校において何か問題が起きていたなんて初耳だった。順調な状況が続き、突然これ！」

　東ゼン労組は、株式会社ピアソンに対して、シュミーラー組合員への解雇撤回を目的に、団体交渉を申し入れた。しかし、中村博一校長は、同申し入れ、数回にわたるファックス、メール、電話のいずれも無視し続けた。団交申し入れを拒否する行為は、憲法と労働組合法に定められている講師の権利の侵害に当たる。

　打つ手の無くなった組合側は、東京都労働委員会に団交拒否問題として救済を申し立てた。しかし、ピアソン株式会社は、労働委員会からの連絡さえも拒否した。中村校長は、従業員のみならず、行政機関からも逃げ通している姿勢である。

　それだけでなく、新型コロナウイルス感染症による影響もあり、「まさにゴミのように使い捨てられましたね。コロナ禍中に再就職は極めて難しい。」とシュミーラー組合員は話す。

　組合側は、ピアソン株式会社は既に倒産したと認識していたが、そうではなかった。シュミーラー組合員は、解雇されてから2か月以上経った時点の2020年4月17日に、つくば・インターナショナル・ナーサリー・スクールが、新しいウェブサイトを立ち上げ、2020年4月27日の放課後講習を発表した。禍中としても運営が順調であることが窺える。

　会社が出頭を拒否している労働委員会の件に関しては、2020年10月頃命令が出ることとなる。幼児教育を提供しているにも関わらず、上記のような「ブラック企業」と言わざるを得ない会社である。東ゼン労組は、シュミーラー組合員の復職、バックペイ支払いを実現するまで闘い、この恐ろしい禍中においても社会通念を逸脱しているピアソン株式会社の責任を追及する。

　ご支援とご協力のほど宜しくお願いします。

• 東ゼン労組の主任オルグ ジェローム・ロスマン

Preschool* Proprietor Pearson KK flees union, labor commission, and accountability

*Hanegi International Pre-School and Tsukuba International Nursery School

 [Tokyo, June 12, 2020] Last December, Principal Hirokazu Nakamura informed parents and teachers that Hanegi International Pre-School (in Shimokitazawa) would close on February 16, 2020. In other words, teachers’ jobs would be gone in two months. 

“I was gobsmacked,” says Adam S, a Tozen Union member fighting to get his job back. “I had no idea the school was having any problems. Things were just humming along, and then suddenly this!”

Tozen Union sought collective bargaining (CB) with Pearson KK, the company that owns Hanegi International Pre-School and runs Tsukuba International Nursury School.  Nakamura ignored countless union faxes, emails, and phone calls trying to set up the CB session to negotiate Adam’s return. Pearson’s refusal violates the teachers’ and the union’s constitutional rights.

When Tozen sued Pearson in the Tokyo Labor Commission, the company wouldn’t take the labor commission’s phone calls. Nakamura refuses to face his employees and even his government. 

Then, the Covid-19 crisis arrived. “They turned us out into the street like garbage,” Adam added. “Used us and threw us out into this horrible pandemic. There’s no work.”

Maybe the company simply disappeared? Nope. Tsukuba International Nursery School rolled out a new website on April 17 and announced a new after-school program for their students on April 27. Pearson appears to be doing brisk business.

Without a defendant, the labor commission will issue a ruling in October 2020. Tozen Union will not give up the fight to bring burakku kigyo Pearson KK to the table, pay Adam S. his back wages, and take responsibility for its anti-social behavior during this terrible pandemic.

Tozen Union Senior Organizer Gerome Rothman 

https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASN5K6T20N5GOIPE01H.html

　全国すべての人に配るとされている一律10万円給付が受けられるのか、中小企業や個人事業主の売り上げ減を補う「持続化給付金」の手続きを知りたい、といった問い合わせもあり、支援制度が伝わっていないと感じる。「日本人でも熟知している人は少ない。ましてや外国人は言葉の壁などもある」周囲にサポートできる人がいなければ、こうした制度にたどり着くことも難しい。奥貫さんは「多言語対応の労働相談など、何かしらの手段はある。1人で悩まず、ぜひどこかにつながってほしい」と呼びかける。（記事より）

朝日新聞で東ゼン労組の執行委員長、奥貫妃文のコメントが取り上げられました。

5月24日に、国の支援制度や在留資格に関する講義も行います。ぜひ御覧ください。