Peppy does not provide these in your daily workplace. When a group of Japanese teachers recently asked to see the working rules they were told they could come to the branch office to see them, and when they did they were under the supervision of someone. The spirit of the law is very much that you should be able to see the rules at anytime. By making teachers come to the branch office, in their own time, and at their own expense, we believe that the company is breaking the law. We also believe that making it so difficult to see the rules, the company is intimidating workers, and do not want you to know your rights. When the Japanese teachers did read the working rules, they found some interesting points. They had always been lead to believe by their area managers that they must give a much longer period of notice to take paid annual leave than what the rules actually stated.

Company Response

In negotiations on August 6, we discussed the problem of the working rules. The possibility of giving every employee a copy, or placing a copy in every classroom, were discussed. But when we received their official written response the company backtracked. They will make a complete English version but they will not provide them at every workplace. You would still need to travel to the branch office to see the rules.

We have to question the company’s reason for not wanting to make them easily available. Is it the cost of copying them for over 1000 schools, or is it that are trying to hide your rights from you? This is unacceptable and we believe it to be a breach of the Labor Standards Law.

We have now officially re-demanded that the company obey the law, and expect their reply in the coming week or so. Stay tuned.