…The General Union Interac Branch…

Interac Health Insurance MIS-information and The Birth of the Corrector:
Act Two - The Information

Dennis Tesolat of the General Union, sent out this email to about 100 Interac teachers through an email list we have compiled through various sources. Although we have requested it from the Interac head office, we unfortunately do not have the contact information for all of Interac’s teachers. This is the text of the email:

From: “Dennis Tesolat General Union” (tesolat at generalunion dot org)
Subject: Your health insurance
Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 12:50:58 +0900

Dear Interac instructor:
You have recently received an email regarding your health insurance and how it may effect your employment with Interac.
Here is a short explanation regarding your duties and rights in regards to health insurance.

1. If you are a resident of Japan, you must be enrolled in either, KOKUMIN KENKO HOKEN (National Health Insurance) through your ward office or city hall, or enrolled in SHAKAI HOKEN (Employee’s Health and Pension Insurance) through your employer.
Interac’s information regarding InterGlobal will not help you meet YOUR legal responsibility to be enrolled in health insurance. We have recently had many members who have gotten in trouble for this, and even worse, have been asked to back enroll two years into the system.

2. More importantly the union believes that any Interac teacher working thirty plus hours per week or ¾’s of the hours of a full time teacher (real work time as opposed to what your contract states) must be enrolled in SHAKAI HOKEN. This means that you and Interac will both pay 50% of the costs.

Do you think you meet the qualifications for SHAKAI HOKEN?
Want to know more about your rights in regards to shakai hoken?

Please see the attached PDF file or contact the union directly at 06-6352-9619.

Sincerely,

Dennis Tesolat, General Secretary

P.S. If you wish to stop receiving emails from the union, please send us an email with your name and ‘please stop’ in the subject box.

Now, you would think that this is a fairly straightforward email right? Not really a big deal, just informing people of the law, an offering consultation right?

Well, the people of Interac Osaka didn’t think so, and they unleashed a torrent of libel that triggered an unfortunate messianic specter, yours verily, on the very same day.