News

Asahi Shimbun interviews Tozen Executive about the Permanent Residency Bill

by

This article was originally hosted on the Asahi Shimbun website. Written by Hirayama Ari.

永住権を持つ外国人の永住資格を取り消せる規定を含む法改正に反対する在日外国人らが19日、東京都内で記者会見し、「不安でたまらない」などと訴えた。

政府は、外国人労働者を受け入れる在留資格「育成就労」の創設を柱とした入管難民法などの改正案を15日に閣議決定した。従来の技能実習制度に代わり、就労1～2年で職場変更（転籍）を可能とする。一方、永住許可を得た外国人が故意に税や社会保険料を納付しない場合に永住者の在留資格を取り消せる規定があり、日本弁護士連合会が撤回を求める会長声明を出すなど懸念の声がある。

19日の記者会見は、法改正に反対する弁護士グループが主催した。指宿昭一弁護士は「急病や失職で税金を払えなくなったり、在留カードの携帯を忘れたりしただけで永住権を剝奪（はくだつ）される事態が起きてはならない」などと指摘し、「永住者を一生不安にし、安定を与えない法律だ」と批判した。制度改正を検討した有識者会議では議論されなかった規定が突如、浮上したとも述べた。

会見に出席した英会話学校講師で英国人のアダム・ブラウンさん（35）は、日本人の妻との間にいる11歳の息子から「パパ、送り返されちゃうの？」と聞かれ、「胸が苦しかった」と語る。「（外国人が）常に家族崩壊や強制送還におびえながら暮らす国を選ぶだろうか」と問いかけた。

To continue reading please check the Asahi Shimbun website.

Gaba Teachers Interviewed

by
Gaba is forcing teachers to register as “qualified invoice issuers” in order to shift a new tax burden onto those who provide Gaba’s main service.
Podcaster Ryan Michaels grills Tozen Gaba Workers Union leader Musashi Sakazaki and union rep Louis Carlet on the details.From the notes on the show:
Ryan welcomes a panel from Japan’s Tozen union to discuss working conditions at a prominent English school (eikaiwa) in Japan. A slew of bad policy decisions from Gaba Corporation including forcing instructors (treated as independent contractors by the corporation) into a qualified invoice system, has led to union action and recent strikes. Another new horrific policy announcement would see teachers fined per lesson if they become unable to teach, which could even result in a negative paycheck. In addition to demanding an end to the qualified invoice system requirements, Gaba Instructors, who have not received a raise since 2008, are fighting for a modest raise of 200 yen per lesson ($1.33 U.S. as of the currency exchange rate on 11/06/23). Ryan and the panel discuss the importance of unions, past victories Tozen has achieved for workers, and how Gaba instructors as well as counselors can join the union and strengthen bargaining power in the fight for fair working conditions. Tozen union panel guests include the Tozen Union Gaba Workers Union Executive President Musashi Sakazaki, Tozen Union Gaba Workers Union General Secretary Mitch Brown, Tozen Union Gaba Workers Union Member Paul Bowen, and Tozen Union Deputy Finance Officer and Organizer Louis Carlet.
Check it out here: 
https://reasonbound.libsyn.com/38-fighting-for-fairness-japans-tozen-union-vs-gaba-corporation

Tozen Welcomes Begunto

by

Tozen Union would like to welcome Berlitz General Union Tokyo (Begunto), who recently voted to join us. Begunto has a long, illustrious history as a fighting union  going back a quarter century. It is an honor to count them now among our ranks.

 

Begunto, the Berlitz union.

 

If you work for Berlitz and have any questions at all, feel free to contact Begunto here.

Tozen Union Scores Paid Leave Win Over JCFL

by

Tozen Union members Todd, Tim, and Mark won a crucial court victory Friday over Japan College of Foreign Languages (Bunsai Gakuen). The school had denied paid leave to the teachers who work on zero-hour contracts, claiming that intervals between the one-semester contracts disrupt the continuity of their employment and therefore preclude any right to paid leave.

Tokyo District Court ruled that their employment is effectively continuous enough to claim the legal minimum allotment of paid holidays. The court ordered JCFL to pay for the paid leave already taken, plus interest, and to put up 1% of the plaintiffs’ legal costs.

Management has taken a hard line against Tozen Union and JCFL Workers’ Union in collective bargaining and is expected to appeal to Tokyo High Court. The union members lost a claim that the school’s refusal to give a copy of its work rules constituted power harassment.

東ゼン労組JCFL(日本外国語専門学校)支部組合員であるトッド、ティム、マークは、学校法人文際学園　日本外国語専門学校（JCFL）を相手に、自らの有給休暇の権利を求め、裁判の場で闘ってきましたが、2018年11月2日、東京地方裁判所は、原告勝訴の判決を下しました。なお、本件では、組合員に対して就業規則の付与を拒絶し、その場で書き写すことのみ許可するという対応がパワーハラスメントであるという主張もしましたが、こちらは認められませんでした。

 

学校法人文際学園は、講師の契約を1セメスター＝5か月と設定し、契約と契約の間の期間を2か月空けることにより、契約は継続性を持たず、したがって、すべての講師には有給休暇の権利は一切発生しないという扱いをしてきました。16年勤続の組合員も、これまで有給は「ゼロ」だったのです。本判決では、たとえ契約と契約との間に2か月のインターバルがあったとしても、契約の継続性は認められると判断したのであり、大変重要な内容を含んでいます。同じような働き方をしている人たちにも、大きな影響を及ぼすものと思われます。

 

学園はこれまでと同様、控訴して徹底抗戦するでしょう。私たちも、団結の力を緩めることなく、これからも組合を挙げて闘い続けてまいります。

 

引き続き、みなさまの心強いご支援、ご指導を、どうぞ宜しくお願い申し上げます。

Teachers claim dismissals were invalid in suit against Shane English School

by
Chris Beardshall (left), Louis Carlet and Adam Cleeve, members of the Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union, hold a news conference Thursday at the labor ministry after Beardshall and Cleeve filed a lawsuit against Shane Corporation Ltd. | DAISUKE KIKUCH

Two British language teachers who worked for Shane English School Japan filed suit Thursday against the school’s operator Shane Corporation Ltd., claiming that their dismissals were unfair and invalid.

Chris Beardshall, 46, and Adam Cleeve, 44, demanded that Shane pay their monthly salaries until the day of the case’s final judgment. The two were hired on fixed-term, one-year contracts, with annual renewals possible.

Beardshall said he joined Shane in 2003 and that he was dismissed as of Dec. 31, 2016, after refusing to sign a contract that included a drastic pay cut.“Shane decided to cut my salary by two-thirds … yet they know I have a wife and a child,” Beardshall said during a news conference held Thursday at the labor ministry

Read more

‘Five-year rule’ triggers ‘Tohoku college massacre’ of jobs

by
Venerable site: Students taking part in an anti-war rally file out through the gates of Tohoku University in Sendai in 1950. The storied university recently revealed that it plans not to renew the fixed-term contracts of up to 3,200 employees, thereby ensuring that they will not be able to become regular staff according to a recent revision to the Labor Contract Law. | KYODO

I have discussed the “five-year rule” several times before in this column — the revision of the Labor Contract Law (Rodo Keiyaku Ho) enacted in 2013. Under the amendment, any worker employed on serial fixed-term contracts (yūki koyō) for more than five years can give themselves permanent status. See my earlier stories for more details, particularly my March 2013 column, “Labor law reform raises rather than relieves workers’ worries”

The amendment was supposed to give workers more job security. Or at least that is what lawmakers claimed the purpose was. From the start I had my doubts — doubts that are now being borne out.

Read more

私の原点はマンハッタンデモ

by

全国一般東京ゼネラルユニオン（略称：東ゼン労組）

執行委員・主任オルグ　ルイス・カーレット

1995年８月６日。アメリカによって日本に原爆が投下された日からちょうど50年。私はニューヨーク、マンハッタンのど真ん中で、反戦、反核を叫んでいた。私はその日のデモのために、渾身の力を注いでいた。アメリカでは、かつて日本に原爆を投下した事実についての認識が薄いこともあって、私は自らの使命の如くデモの成功に向け奔走した。マンハッタンの中央通りで大勢の仲間とデモ行進をしたことは、今でも昨日のことのように脳裏に刻み込まれている。

Read more

Time to consign ‘death by overwork’ to Japan’s history

by

A 24-year-old pressured to work long, hard hours beyond what she could tolerate at the largest advertising agency in Japan jumped from her third-floor dorm room on Christmas Day of last year.

This story went viral, and labor researchers around the country mumbled to themselves, “Dentsu again?”

Dentsu is an ad giant notorious for brutal work hours and its merciless management style. Any labor law textbook worth its salt that covers karōshi (death by overwork) will also introduce the Supreme Court’s famous Dentsu death-by-overwork case. In August 1991 a man, also 24, hanged himself at his home. In 2000, Japan’s highest court ruled that the “suicide was caused by horrendous working conditions.” Eventually Dentsu and the surviving family agreed on a settlement of ¥168 million.

Read more

Sagamihara massacre begs question: Do we want a society that only values usefulness?

by

Let me apologize up front for tackling an issue that is not purely about labor per se.

The brutal mass murder in July in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, made me feel that our society must address a simple yet difficult question: What does work mean to human beings? I feel that I must candidly convey to you, dear readers, what this tragedy says to me, and then ask you for your opinions.

Read more

東京学芸大学事件命令書交付について

by

当委員会は、本日、標記の不当労働行為救済申立事件について、命令書を交付しましたのでお知らせします。命令書の概要は、以下のとおりです（詳細は別紙）。

1　当事者

申立人
全国一般東京ゼネラルユニオン、全国一般東京ゼネラルユニオンTGUISS支部
被申立人
国立大学法人東京学芸大学

2　事件の概要

Read more