threatened by a company...

[chiquiliquis]

I work for one of these 'Hakkengaisha' that distribute ALT's to public schools. Today I received a threat from the general manager of the company that if I did not file certain school related paperwork (paperwork not covered in my contract) by the end of the week, my pay for December (payed mid Jan.) would be withheld. This is not a problem for me, as I will have the paperwork in by Thurs. afternoon. Still, I'm PO'ed by the threat. Enough to call the Labor Standards Bureau?--not quite yet... but I am strongly considering.
Does anyone out there know about the legality of this? Can J-companies actually get away with this? Under what circumstances? I checked the Labor Standards Law (article 24), which goes as far as to say that companies must pay for hours worked, but it says nothing in regards to employee infractions. Anyone else been threatened like this?

[GaijinPunch]

if I did not file certain school related paperwork (paperwork not covered in my contract) by the end of the week, my pay for December (payed mid Jan.) would be withheld.

Apparently employers like to use this empty threat with their gaijin teachers, especially when new to Japan. Get a lawyer (or at least say you will). It's 120% illegal. You work the time - you get the money. Period.

You should not need a lawyer. That threat is completely against the law. All you have to do is go to the closest Labor Standards Inspection Office and report the company. If you need any help with this you can PM me. I'll go find the relevant law and copy/paste it here. Give me a few minutes. This server won't give me the time to look for it and stay logged on, so I'll log off for a bit.

But the key point here is you absolutely do not need to go to the expense of getting a lawyer. In fact, having to get a lawyer for any labor related issue should be your very last choice. It is much too expensive and there are a lot of folks out there that can help you. And I am NOT referring to the unions. I don't put much store in them.
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Article 16 doesn't seem to apply to your case, but check your contract, just to be sure. There should be nothing in the contract about taking money from you for this, that, or the other.

Chapter Three is clear: "Wages must be paid in full." That means exactly what it says -- no if, ands or buts.

Like I wrote above, if you need any help just send me a PM.

Chapter II LABOR CONTACT
Article 16. An employer shall not make a contract which fixes in advance either a sum payable to the employer for breach of contract or an amount of indemnity for damages.
(Ban on Offsets against Advances)

Chapter III WAGES
(Payment of Wages)
Article 24. Wages must be paid in cash and in full directly to the workers; however, that payment other than in cash may be permitted in cases otherwise provided for by law or ordinance or collective agreement or in cases where a reliable method of payment of wages defined by Ordinance of the Ministry of Health, Labour & Welfare is provided for; and partial deduction from wages may be permitted in cases otherwise provided for by law or Ordinance of the Ministry of Health, Labour & Welfare or in cases where there exists a written agreement with a trade union organized by a majority of the workers at the workplace concerned, where such a union exists, or with a person representing a majority of the workers, where no such union exists.
2. Wages must be paid at least once a month at a definite date. However, this does not apply to extraordinary wages, bonuses, and the like which will be defined by Ordinance of the Ministry of Health, Labour & Welfare (referred to as “extraordinary wages etc.” in Article 89).
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE? The server doesn't like my sig, so it isn't going to allow it?

[Glenn]

Signatures only appear once per page, if that's what you're referring to. If you mean that there are supposed to be some special effects in your signature, then I can't really help you there.

Sigs only appear once per page. Who would've thunk it. Never saw forum software before with that written into it. The Net never ceases to amaze. USENET was simpler.

Thanks for the heads up, Glenn. Didn't see that in the orientation, but probably missed it.
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Wait a minute, Glenn. Got it twice so far. Now I'm really confused.
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[Glenn]

I only see it once.

[Xkavar]

I know that retaining a *good* lawyer in the United States goes for about $200 per hour, and I expect Japan has roughly the same prices, so you'd want to retain one as a last resort.

But stopping by and asking their advice should be free. Don't put up with this crap, man.

You're right, Glenn, that's what I'm seeing now, as well. But when I posted that last message I was seeing all of them. I guess the server is slow for all things. Speaking of which, loading one sig per page per member is no way to solve a bandwidth problem. An upgrade is needed, plain and simple. It's obviously going to have to happen sooner or later. This business with sigs is a bit petty, in a number of ways.

You know, I, and probably a lot of members here in Japan have ADSL or DSL, so we are not inconvenienced so terribly much by a slow server, but for many people around the world a dialup service is all they can get and for them a slow server can be a really big turn off.

In fact, I just got bumped off, clocked out, before I could post this message. This is really uncomfortable and it may just keep me away as it may very well have done to others. No fun, man. No fun having to put up with trouble posting and navigating. Anyway ...

NOW:
To get back on topic, in Japan there are places one can go to get advice for free from lawyers, but one cannot just walk into or call an attorney here and get anything for "free". The best you can expect is to give a concise brief of your situation and a flat statement whether they will take your case or not, and in most cases without an explanation why they won't.

Like I said, there are places that provide limited services for those whose incomes aren't so high, and there are irregularly scheduled services available from time to time, but I don't know of any lawyers that take a labor related case pro bono.

If anyone has a different read on this, please do not hesitate to post here. Information is the key to success in most endeavors and so very much so when trying to protect yourselves from the increasingly disgusting techniques being used by ESL/EFL operators to save money. And the situation is not improving. Not by a long shot.

[gaijinalways]

You can also go to the local government labor bureau where your company is registered and ask the people there for help. You will need to bring a bilingual person with you as the information in English is more limited. They have a quite a bit of information and a threat to bring a complaint to the board or that you visited one will sometimes intimidate companies that simply get off on being powermongers.