Editing Assistant Language Teacher (section)

===29.5 hours per week===

It is common for ALTs to be recruited with job contracts with private language companies such as W5, [[Interac (Japan)|Interac]], Borderlink and WING which stipulates ALT working hours as being 29.5 hours per week. In actuality, working hours usually range from 30 to 40 hours due to the fact that transition times between classes and other brief periods of time throughout the working day are scheduled as breaktimes. Employers often have employees sign such contracts in an effort to avoid paying into the employer based Social Insurance program, or [[Social welfare in Japan|''shakai hoken'']]. While Social Insurance law states that all regular employees should be enrolled by their employer in Shakai Hoken, some companies will consistently tell their employees that they are ineligible. Their reasoning is that the 29.5 hours a week working time written into the contracts fall below an erroneous minimum of 3/4 full-time necessary for eligibility. The Social Insurance Agency uses the 3/4 of the hours of a similar full-time as a guideline.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/nn20080105f1.html|author=Kanako Takahara|title=Assistant language teachers in trying times|publisher=The Japan Times Online|date=January 5, 2008}}</ref>  However, the Japanese government has recent stated that there is, in fact, no minimum legal work time requirement for enrollment in Shakai Hoken. Furthermore, no company would ever be prohibited from enrolling their employees in the Social Insurance program.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://interacunion.org/to-interac-info-on-health-insurance/|title=To Interac: Info on Health Insurance|publisher=Nambu Foreign Workers Caucus|date=November 5, 2009}}</ref> Some AETs dispatched to the City of [[Nagoya]] have a 35-hour work week and are not enrolled in Shakai Hoken, receive no paid sick leave, no paid holidays, no paid vacation leave, and are not enrolled in unemployment insurance. They are only paid for days worked and receive no pay between semesters except for a few training sessions.