SNA (Tokyo) — Kata-tataki, or taps on the shoulder, indicate a series of actions a boss takes to drive a worker to quit without outright firing them. It establishes that the subsequent contract termination is mutually agreed, as opposed to a unilateral and contestable firing. The legal jargon for such “shoulder tapping” is taishoku kansho. In this installment of Bread & Roses, I’d like to explain the practice and introduce a recent, surprising verdict in a court case over its validity.
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Shane English School must pay for unfairly firing Adam Cleeve…again
On October 19, 2022, Adam Cleeve concluded an in-court settlement with Shane English School, thereby ending a seven-year labor dispute that included him getting fired twice.
Adam had joined Shane Corp. in 2015 and soon joined the Tozen Union Shane Workers Union, due to his belief that all employees should unionize. He became executive president the following year. His active and effective leadership of the strike to win job security for teachers galvanized Shane management to launch a campaign to get rid of this troublemaker.
Many employers hoping to sack a union leader look for performance issues. But students lauded Adam as a talented and reliable teacher, a fact management admitted. Shane had to find another way.
First Firing
Adam’s daughter Luna was born in November 2016. When his wife found out she was expecting her first child, he took time off to be with her. Management used this chance to this leave by refusing to renew his one-year contract, claiming he had already taken his allotted discretionary paid leave days.
よだかれんさん、東ゼン事務所でスピーチ / Yoda Karen gave a speech to Tozen
(日本語 / English)
10月30日、新宿区長候補（野党統一候補）よだかれんさんが、大変お忙しいなか、山吹町の東ゼン事務所に立ち寄って、東ゼン秋季大会で心強いスピーチをしてくださいました。彼女が新宿区長になったら、日本初のトランスジェンダーの区長誕生となります。「ちいさき声をすくい上げる新宿」をスローガンにがんばってもらいましょう！
On October 30, Shinjuku Ward oppositional mayoral candidate Yoda Karen took time out of her busy schedule to stop by the Tozen office in Yamabuki-cho and give a heart-warming speech to Tozen Union’s Autumn Meeting.
If she becomes mayor of Shinjuku, she will be the first transgender mayor in Japan. Let’s urge everyone to fight under the slogan a ‘Shinjuku that lifts up minority voices.’
*Update*
On 13 November 2022, Yoda Karen lost the election 52,000 to 21,500.
Tozen organiser quoted in Yahoo news article about Twitter’s mass layoffs
Yahoo news journalist Konno Haruki recently interviewed Tozen senior organiser Louis Carlet about how workers should respond to dismissals from foreign-affiliated companies, after Twitter’s mass layoffs.
Find the article here (日本語 / In Japanese )
Toyo Keizai ranks Tozen’s Ibuski number one labour lawyer in Japan
Tozen Union’s Attorney Shoichi Ibuski topped celebrated labor lawyers throughout Japan, including Ryo Sasaki and Natsume Ichiro, to win the top post in Toyo Keizai’s poll of best labor lawyers in the country.
In the same poll, Tozen Union’s frequent opposing lawyers Shione Kinoshita and Ran Mukai ranked second and third best HR lawyers.
Los sindicatos de Apple crean una red de solidaridad mundial, de Maryland a Tokio pasando por Barcelona: qué demandan en España
La oleada de sindicalismo que atraviesa al sector tecnológico, especialmente en EEUU, ha copado titulares en los últimos meses. Las votaciones para formar sindicatos en almacenes de Amazon primero, y el mismo procedimiento en las tiendas de Apple después, ha llevado a diversos expertos a hablar de un fenómeno que ya cuenta con sus propios líderes.
La aparición de trabajadores organizados se da además en una encrucijada: el frágil escenario económico —que se está constatando en los resultados financieros de compañías como Google o Meta en este tercer trimestre— desatan el temor a oleadas de despidos, que algunos ya consideran inevitables.
Tozen Daigaku: How bosses screw with your work hours! 東ゼン大学：会社による労働時間制度変更時の注意点！
Attorney Kinoshita Tetsuro talks us through various changes to the work hour system.
木下徹郎弁護士によるに労働時間制度の様々な変更点について。
Important Message to All ALC Teachers on a GM Contract.
TO ALL ALC STAFF ON A GM CONTRACT
On August 3rd, ALC management announced that it is proposing new contracts to its employees on GM contracts. They have proposed two options.
Be aware that this is only a proposal and that management cannot force you to change your contract. You have the right to refuse this proposal and keep your current contract.
Before you take any action yourself, please contact Gerome Rothman, case officer of the Tozen ALC Local Union at the following email address. All contacts and consultations are confidential.
tozen.rothman@gmail.com
アルクエデュケーションのGM講師の皆様へ
２０２２年８ 月 3 日、 アルクエデュケーションのGM講師 に対し、２種類の新規契約（案）を提示しました。これは、あくまでも提案です。 経営側は、GM講師の合意を強制することはできません。GM講師は、同提案を受け入れない権利があり、受け入れない場合、現在の契約を続けます。
ご自身で何か行動を起こす前に、東ゼン労組ALC支部の担当者ジェローム・ロスマンまで以下のメールアドレスでご連絡ください。
Tozen organiser interviewed by scientific journal, Nature
In the article ‘I feel disposable’: Thousands of scientists’ jobs at risk in Japan, about universities terminating workers on fixed-term contracts, Tozen organiser Louis Carlet was interviewed and gave an explanation on how universities have responded to the 5/10-year rule.
Read the full article here
Bread & Roses 「同一労働同一賃金」―裁判所はどう判断している？ Japan’s same-work-same-pay law fails to live up to its promise
Many laud Article 8 of the brand new Part-time/Fixed-term Employment Act as Japan finally recognizing the principle of same-work-same-pay. But one word in that article gave me pause: unreasonable.
The Part-time/Fixed-term Employment Act (enacted in April 2020 for regular firms and small businesses a year later), prohibits unreasonable treatment of employees on regular and irregular/contingent contracts. Article 8 stipulates, “The employer must not create a disparity that could be deemed unreasonable between the base pay, bonus and other conditions of short-term/fixed-term employees and ordinary employees, with due consideration to what could be deemed appropriate in light of the nature and purpose of the compensation as well as the details of the operations the worker is involved, the degree of corresponding responsibility, the details of the work duties, the potential for job changes of the two groups of employees and other circumstances. (Emphasis mine.)”
Disparities between contingent and regular employees are forbidden if they are unreasonable. Does that mean that reasonable disparities are fine? Let’s see what the courts are up to on this front.