Gaba ‘contractor’ status under fire from staff, courts

December 20, 2011 in Events, Gaba, News

“They told me I would be legally required to teach 160 lessons per month for visa sponsorship at a rate of ¥1,500 per lesson. But that didn’t happen.”

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Govt to limit 2nd-graders to 35 per class next year

December 19, 2011 in ALT, News

The government plans to limit the number of second-year students at public primary schools to 35 per class starting in the 2012 academic year, sources said Saturday.

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Young teacher’s 2004 self-immolation caused by job stress, court rules

December 19, 2011 in ALT, Harassment, News

On-the-job stress is what pushed an elementary school teacher here to commit suicide in 2004, the Shizuoka District Court ruled on Dec. 15.

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Average winter bonus for gov’t employees goes up 4.1%

December 19, 2011 in ALT, News, Wages

The government’s rank-and-file employees received on average of about 617,100 yen in winter bonuses, up 4.1 percent from a year earlier. The average bonus for a government employee is equivalent to 2.02 months pay.

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Nurses in Japan find language a barrier

December 16, 2011 in News, Nursing

As of May 2011—or nearly five years after the Jpepa was signed and nearly three years after it was ratified by the Philippine Senate—only two Filipino nurses have passed the licensure exam for nursing while 229 caregivers have been allowed to work here.

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Labor ministry proposes requiring firms to hire employees till age 65

December 16, 2011 in Discrimination, News

The labor ministry proposed Wednesday requiring companies to keep their workers employed till the age of 65 if they wish to continue working even after reaching the retirement age of 60, in light of the government’s plan to raise the pensionable age from 60 to 65 in stages.

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Occupy Wall Street resonates within Japan

December 16, 2011 in News, Wages

According to business consultant Masao Kitami, during 1997-2007, total wages declined by ¥20 trillion. “When people say Japan is becoming a society with a widening income gap,” he writes, “I tell them, we’ve descended into a ‘low-wage society.’”

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All employees in Japan are entitled to paid leave, period

December 13, 2011 in Dispatch, News

Paid leave is a right all employees are entitled to. A worker who has been employed continuously for six months from the day they were hired and has reported for work on at least 80 percent of their assigned workdays must be granted annual paid leave, according to Article 39 of the Labor Standards Act.

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Joytalk ALTs Unionized

November 18, 2011 in Action, ALT, Announcements, Dispatch, News

Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union and its Tozen ALTs Branch recently declared the existence of its Joytalk Shop to management and submitted a slate of 28 collective bargaining demands.

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Calm at J. Village belies the danger

November 14, 2011 in Dispatch, Health Insurance, News

“For example, one worker kept working at the Fukushima No. 1 plant for more than 10 years. Even after the accident, he kept working and he was fired after his dose exceeded 40 millisieverts,” Watanabe said. “He had once falsified his exposure records so he would not lose his job.”

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