December 16, 2010
Foreign assistant language teachers (ALT) in Chiba’s public schools work five days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. without having social and labor insurance.
Japanese Communist Party member of the Chiba Prefectural Assembly Okada Sachiko, at a meeting of the assembly’s Committee on Education on December 14, revealed that ALTs in Chiba have been excluded from social security.
The Chiba board of education is outsourcing the ALT program to a staffing agency, Maxceed Co., Ltd.
Okada asked a representative of the board, “Do you know if the staffing firm gives ALTs social insurance?” The board official replied, “Yes, ALTs have healthcare insurance, unemployment insurance, and automobile liability insurance.”
However, the staffing firm was responding to an Akahata inquiry that it does not give such security to foreign teachers, saying, “The Japan Pension Service judges that they are not eligible for social insurance.”
Shown by Okada this fact, the board member could not say anything at first but after a long moment of hesitation, he said, “We believed that they were insured. We will look into the situation and sort out the problem.”
An ALT told an Akahata reporter, “I’ve been an ALT for almost 10 years and I’ve never had social or labor insurance. ALTs in Japan work as independent contractors and most of them are not covered under the social security system. I want Japan to treat foreign workers in the same way as Japanese workers.”
- Akahata, December 16, 2010
Japanese Communist Party member of the Chiba Prefectural Assembly Okada Sachiko, at a meeting of the assembly’s Committee on Education on December 14, revealed that ALTs in Chiba have been excluded from social security.
The Chiba board of education is outsourcing the ALT program to a staffing agency, Maxceed Co., Ltd.
Okada asked a representative of the board, “Do you know if the staffing firm gives ALTs social insurance?” The board official replied, “Yes, ALTs have healthcare insurance, unemployment insurance, and automobile liability insurance.”
However, the staffing firm was responding to an Akahata inquiry that it does not give such security to foreign teachers, saying, “The Japan Pension Service judges that they are not eligible for social insurance.”
Shown by Okada this fact, the board member could not say anything at first but after a long moment of hesitation, he said, “We believed that they were insured. We will look into the situation and sort out the problem.”
An ALT told an Akahata reporter, “I’ve been an ALT for almost 10 years and I’ve never had social or labor insurance. ALTs in Japan work as independent contractors and most of them are not covered under the social security system. I want Japan to treat foreign workers in the same way as Japanese workers.”
- Akahata, December 16, 2010
