This means that, regardless of your employment status (meaning NOVA subcontracted teachers and GABA teachers are not included in the below information) you must be paid at least 60% of your average wage if you are ordered not to attend work.
You may be ordered to not attend work because you have symptoms or because your workplace has closed.
Regardless, you must be paid at least 60% of your average wage.
According to the Osaka Labour Bureau, dispatched ALTs are relatively safe as the contract fee to the dispatcher must still be paid regardless of if the school is closed.
So, in fact, we have a strong argument for full pay in this situation – especially if we can verify that all contract fees were paid to the dispatcher.
Based on the above paragraph, this would extend to other kinds of dispatched workers.
Furthermore, a dispatched worker is employed by the dispatcher, not by the school board or other schools where the teacher works.
Therefore, even if the school board or other school closes, any temporary layoff of the dispatched worker must be paid at least 60% of wages.
We are hearing from a few employers that while they agree that they have to pay full-timers at least 60% of their average wage during any shutdowns, they believe the same does not apply to part-timers.
At this moment, the only thing the union can say is that the payment of 60% of wages to cover temporary layoffs is in the Labour Standards Law and this article does not differentiate between full-time vs part-time, limited vs unlimited, two-hours-a-day workers vs eight-hour-a-day workers.
Remember: things are changing by the day; but, at this point, the information we have has been verified by the Osaka Labour Bureau.
Could there be a law passed to deal with this? Maybe.
We do know that the government is preparing subsidies for employers to deal with the problem.
Finally, we’re not saying that members have to be happy with 60% – but, for now, this is the information we have; this is the starting point.
Branches may decide they want to make demands later, and that is up to them.
Average wage: Article 12 of the Labour Standards Act: https://www.jil.go.jp/english/laws/documents/l.standards2012.pdf