by Daisuke Kikuchi
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.
Cleeve, who joined the company in 2015, was dismissed as of Feb. 28,
after the company determined his 24 days of absence to be unreasonable.
Cleeve said he told the company in advance that he needed to take days
off due to the birth of his child.
Contacted by The Japan Times, a Shane spokesman declined to comment, saying the company has not yet received details.
The former teachers are now technically jobless, but claim in the
suit that their contracts should still be considered active. Beardshall
also said that Shane refused to give him a letter of resignation.
“This means not only are they denying me a salary, they are also denying me my unemployment insurance,” Beardshall said.
Both Beardshall and Cleeve are members of the Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo
General Union, which has led labor strikes demanding that Shane hire all
teachers under permanent contracts.
“All I want is to do my job to raise my child, and to fight for better working conditions for all teachers in the eikaiwa
industry,” Cleeve said, referring to the private English conversation
school industry. “Because of the labor shortage, more people would come
to Japan.”
For years, non-Japanese language teachers have been fighting for job
security, most of the time regarding low wages and unstable contract
conditions.
“Foreign teachers in language schools are suffering from horrible
working conditions,” said Shoichi Ibusuki, the plaintiffs’ lawyer.
“This March, many workers who have worked in fixed-term contracts were dismissed,” he said.
Ibusuki said the amended law on labor contracts, which took effect in
2013, requires employers to hire workers in fixed-term contracts
permanently, if requested, after they work for five years.
“Because of that, cases of dismissals are occurring frequently” this month, he said.
The Japan Times