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The unraveling of Interac Yokohama continues

osakabob

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23 Nov 2014
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The latest about that branch from a very unhappy worker. What was that about blacklisting? Yikes...

"labor bureau investigation results‏

Dear Interac Yokohama

I have received the results from the labor bureau investigation. I understand your position not to pay my August salary. The labor bureau cannot force you to pay either, even though they know of the things you have done. Here is a new approach:

As a result, you must now pay for my unemployment insurance benefits. This will be much more money than what you owe me for a portion of the August salary. Much more. Anyone leaving Interac can claim these benefits for separation of any kind (dismissal or resignation) because they pay into this system with monthly deductions from their salary.

Additionally, you must pay for my November rent based on the rental agreement you signed, as my guarantor. So, when the owner of my apartment seeks this payment from you, you must pay that amount. This has already been decided by all parties. My new contract was started in December, not before your bogus November 1st deadline, purposefully, to keep you responsible for paying the November rent. This was by design as I knew you would not pay my August salary.

You have recently changed your policy regarding guarantor/co-signer and will not offer this in the future (because of my situation?????). You should not be doing housing matters anyway. You cannot yet do employment matters correctly. Workers who currently have Interac as their guarantor/co-signer can stay past the contract period, not renew or cancel (i.e. do nothing, signing no papers from Interac), thus forcing Interac to pay future month's rent. Up to 3, 4, even 6 months. This was explained to me by the chintai, owner, and the housing authorities. So, if you attempt rip-off any more workers you are currently a guarantor/co-signer for, they can stay after the contract expires and you must pay. This is the law. No wonder you want out of this…. you can't profit here and you can lose money! It is extremely difficult and slow for an owner to remove a tenant. So when you command workers like me to, "you must renew or cancel", no, we don't. I didn't. In fact, I didn't even have to contact you at all about anything related to my housing, and so I didn't. The owner is the only one who can remove a tenant, not you. You have no legal jurisdiction.

Congratulations. You fired MC Matthew Fricke on my recommendation. You are welcome. Unfortunately it's not going to fix the troubled Yokohama office business culture.

Maintaining your position about my August salary remains an error. One you purposefully do not detail in any paperwork. A large portion of that money was deducted based on threats made by Matthew Fricke. Yet, you do not detail what these deductions are for, anywhere, keeping this a secret. I have shared these details with all authorities (BOE's, labor bureau, Hello Work) about these unaccounted for deductions. Hiding this now only portrays your guilt more, especially because you itemized, clearly, all deductions EXCEPT this glaring omission. Clearly, if you were to detail those unspecified deductions, it would be an admission that you support threats as an acceptable way to keep workers' salary. You are no different than Matthew Fricke until you are open and honest about everything, not just the things you want to share.

Firing Matthew Fricke was only a partial admission of your complicity in the mishandling of my employment. The rest is for you to fix by asking me what happened. You didn't and for this you have been exposed. And for other methods designed to take teacher's money, of which there are many. I explained many methods Interac uses to the labor bureau and they confirmed they are illegal. Some of the BOE's I've spoken to are not happy either. I have spoken with a number of former and current employees who have confirmed this systematic abuse and can corroborate these methods.

I was removed from my schools with no reason, I was threatened then had salary reductions FOR BEING THREATENED during August, I was later harassed at my private home about renewing my housing contract (under the false pretense of "checking my safety"), and I have never received the multiple apologies I requested or payment for August.

This is not how you handle business. More changes need to happen at Interac Yokohama. Firing one person, to protect your office from their incompetence, while changing housing policies in an attempt to save your company money will not change the illegal and abusive business practices you maintain elsewhere. That is your true problem now.

You will be receiving this letter again from the labor bureau as my final response to your decision to not pay my August salary. That investigation will then be over regarding my August salary only. However, further investigations may begin regarding your general business practices. You will be contacted in the future about further investigations by the appropriate party at that time.

Also, I was informed that Elizabeth Knight is the person in charge of contracting between the Yokohama BOE and Interac. Is this correct? I have spoken to some BOE's but I have been unable to speak to this BOE."
 
What does the guy think "chintai" means?

That whole thing sounds like a very long-winded way of saying "The labor bureau decided against me" while desperately still trying to sound like the opposite is true. It comes off sounding like a whiny kid who gets the snot kicked out of him and blusters and threatens to call his imaginary big brother to thrash everyone for him.
 
The whole thing, in leaden, juvenile prose, reads like a young person's sarcastic and heavy-handed attempt at intimidating a business with unspecified threats of a vaguely legal nature, liberally garnished throughout with a sense of self-righteous entitlement.
 
Analyzing the literary merits of the non-fiction prose… yes yes. Truly, to be great, there needed to be subtle imagery, allegory and metaphor, to contrast the sardonic tone as a yearning for juxtaposition. Yes yes (takes another puff from the corn pipe, rocking back into his chair). And then there is the font used. Cliché in its attempt for nostalgia. It all just reads like, they couldn't choose the correct font. You ding dongs.

Work for Interac at your own risk. This person had a poor experience. There must be many workers there who are quite happy, bound to be with a company that size, but no one hears from them. Clearly some who are not. For all the people who got snubbed during the interview process, this is a silver lining and a: Wow, that was close

Good for getting this out though. People can make their own choices about how to deal with a company like this.
 
No one doubts this. You portray yourself well as clueless, all around.

I am especially thankful for my ability to be clueless regarding the scam world of faux English teaching.

Imagine being able to live here with something you find so incredibly vexing not being on your radar at all. It's very pleasant.

Have you familiarized yourself with our Forum Rules?
 
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I am especially thankful for my ability to be clueless regarding the scam world of faux English teaching.

Imagine being able to live here with something you find so incredibly vexing not being on your radar at all. It's very pleasant.

Have you familiarized yourself with our Forum Rules?

I take my hat off the the guy. standing up to Interact, but he is obviously not very intelligent. Firstly they don't pay his August pay and they don't have to as it is clearly written in the contract, so he threatens them with having to pay his unemployment benefit, which is actually paid by the government. Then he says he will become a squatter in his apartment, then Ineract has to foot the bill? Okay that may be a smart move.
So, why does he need to write this letter to Ineract it doesn't make sense. It doesn't actually ask Interact to take any kind of action.
 
BTW do you know what happened to Paul H from gaijinpot and Kurogane?

I don't know Paul H. I think I may have been registered on gaijinpot, but barely participated at all. It seemed to be nothing but transient English teachers and I had nothing to talk about with them. I had no idea it was closed down and your post was the first I have ever heard of Kurogane.
 
"his unemployment benefit, which is actually paid by the government..." You are wrong. Here's why.

It is paid for by contributions by both the employer and employee.

I know this to be true because my wife has gone through this with Hello work. On the claim form itself is the recipient's bank account information and the employers bank account information is at the top. The money is withdrawn from the employer and deposited into the recipient's account directly. Pretty straight forward.
 
"his unemployment benefit, which is actually paid by the government..." You are wrong. Here's why.

It is paid for by contributions by both the employer and employee.

I know this to be true because my wife has gone through this with Hello work. On the claim form itself is the recipient's bank account information and the employers bank account information is at the top. The money is withdrawn from the employer and deposited into the recipient's account directly. Pretty straight forward.

That doesn't even make sense and is self-contradictory.

What is the name of this claim form? Would that be the 離職票?

You've come to a corner of the Internet where gaijin don't get to just parade their ignorance of Japanese civics and have it pass for fact without having it challenged.
 
((I thought everyone was talking about 雇用保険, which is a monthly, mandatory deduction from my salary. Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled programming.))
 
I think you are wrong.

I thought the employer and employee pay the unemployment insurance contributions each month 50/50, that money goes to the government which pools the money from all people in the scheme, while the employee is working for the employer. When the employee gets fired he is paid unemployment benefit by the government, not the employer. It makes sense as that is how most insurance products work, there is a pool of money, which everyone pays into and only a few people use.
Anyway why would they pay you, you haven't been fired yet, and you are still working with them. You would have to quit and wait 3 months or get fired to get unemployment. Why should they pay you for your August salary if it says in the contract that they won't pay for it. You signed the contract and agreed to the situation. Have you quit Interact yet? if so you will need to wait 3 months to get anything from Hello Work. If they have fired you, you can get your money straight away. So the best solution for you is to go to work in sweat pants and a t-shirt and sit in the teacher's room and refuse to teach until you get fired. Go to Hello Work and get 3 months paid vacation. One thing I know for certain is that you won't get another contract with Interact again, they have already identified you as a trouble maker, so you should start looking for a new job for April.
 
. Why should they pay you for your August salary if it says in the contract that they won't pay for it.

I couldn't get through that entire letter, but it sounds like Interac is docking the writer his August pay for not coming in to the office when asked by his supervisor. (And then axed the supervisor for being a jerk about it? )

I work for Interac and get 60% percent of my regular month's salary during August. New guys only get 50%. I can complain about a lot in this racket, but I can't complain, about that. I don't think I've done a lick of work for Interac during the month of August ever. I don't have my contract handy, but I am pretty sure it says something like, "Salary for the month of August is reduced to 60% of the base monthly salary. The employee agrees to remain available for any work assignments during the month of August." So you do agree to be "available", but as there is a 99% chance that nothing is going on in August, it's really just a retainer to keep their employees around until September. Also I seem to remember hearing that if there is a long break in paying salary, it can void an employment contract, so they have to pay something just to keep the contract in force. Could be wrong about that last one though.

One thing I know for certain is that you won't get another contract with Interact again, they have already identified you as a trouble maker, so you should start looking for a new job for April.

Yep.
Though I think your advice is wasted. The guy posting these letters is not the letter writer. He's getting them from a friend of a friend of something.
 
I work for Interac and get 60% percent of my regular month's salary during August. New guys only get 50%. I can complain about a lot in this racket, but I can't complain, about that. I don't think I've done a lick of work for Interac during the month of August ever.

I urge you to think about that a bit more. For you see, Interac owners who profit handsomely from BOE contracts also don't do a lick of work in many more months than just August. They are merely running an agent type organization, but taking near 50 percent of the money that was actually meant for YOU. They don't get monthly installments. They get a massive lump sum and dole it out to you.

What other agent gets 50 percent that is a) legal and b) not prostitution?

By your claim, all I hear is that you are quite happy to be Interac's (sounds like "boar" with an "h").
 
While I cannot take sides on this issue for lack of information and processing time at this time, I am happy to hear about resident gaijin English teachers finally standing up and taking some action. I have seen far too many take some very unreasonable garbage while the boss drover a BMW and money falling out of their pockets, with plenty of time to take foreign holidays once or twice a year.

And my experience with Interac tells me the good MCs eventually quit in frustration, and the teachers get the lousy MCs they deserve because they don't fight or help their good MC.

But with the bottom dropping out of the yen and people wary of Japan for Fukushima, the opportunity is there for imported English teachers to make demands without much fear. A company like Interac NEEDS us to stay in business.

I just suggest using that power wisely and not make stupid demands. Band together, vote, and decide what demands to present. No more of this stupid holiday pay cut business would be a good start. Next would be getting your pay within a week after the month has ended.
 
While I cannot take sides on this issue for lack of information and processing time at this time, I am happy to hear about resident gaijin English teachers finally standing up and taking some action. I have seen far too many take some very unreasonable garbage while the boss drover a BMW and money falling out of their pockets, with plenty of time to take foreign holidays once or twice a year.

And my experience with Interac tells me the good MCs eventually quit in frustration, and the teachers get the lousy MCs they deserve because they don't fight or help their good MC.

But with the bottom dropping out of the yen and people wary of Japan for Fukushima, the opportunity is there for imported English teachers to make demands without much fear. A company like Interac NEEDS us to stay in business.

I just suggest using that power wisely and not make stupid demands. Band together, vote, and decide what demands to present. No more of this stupid holiday pay cut business would be a good start. Next would be getting your pay within a week after the month has ended.

They do need warm bodies to stay in business, but unfortunately they know that there are plenty of people who are willing to come and live the dream in Japan. All they need to do is lower the standards of who they recruit each year and lower the pay and I am sure that would happen. There needs to be a interact union, if you want that you should join a labor union and create a Interact union I think you only need 2 people to create one. Then you can stick it to the them.
 
Paul is alive and well and still teaching in Japan. I forget what Kurogane did. Why?

I used to read the gaijinpot forums when I moved to the ME to get a taste of things Japanese. Where does Paul H post now that gaijinpot has gone? Same question with Kurogane.
 
I would think that they would want you to respect their privacy. With the forum gone, I have no access to my notes from Kurogane about where he decided to go/post. I used to post there quite a lot, too, you know.
 
Gaijinpot people went to Gaijinnot for a while, but the latter has since disappeared--not even an archive left.
 
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