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Mike L.
Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 519
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 Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:34 pm Post subject: |
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| They've only been able to drive down working conditions because people have been willing to take the jobs. Read "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. Blame employers all you want, but w/o willing employees, they cease to exist; dispatch companies in Japan cannot "outsource" available positions overseas. |
Agreed!
Nor would they be able to do it if the BOE's behaved like proper public institutions.
With all the complaints about the teachers and these dispatch companies comming from BOE's sooner or later there will be a regulatory backlash I would think.
I've heard it's already being talked about. But who knows?
Clearly BOE's, newbies and Monbusho need to develop some common sense in dealing wiht these parasites! |
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hip-hop boy78
Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Posts: 90
Location: Hip-hop land
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| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2005 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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I don't think it's so much a question of being paid in arrears, i think the problem is that in the past, INTERAC, were known to have paid staff late, i.e. later than stated on their contracts....which equals LATE PAY, which should be completely unacceptable to anyone. If a company cannot be responsible enough to pay their staff on time then clearly they are not capable of providing a proper service and should be given a wide berth by all.
It seems that companies like INTERAC largely rely on inexperienced and somewhat clueless newbies who have no idea about japanese labour law and who are very unlikely to complain or kick up a big stink. Either that or the people who accept jobs with such dispatch companies are either A)desperate to find a job B)not fussed about such issues or C)not up to date with the facts.
Anyhow, i tend to agree with the majority of people who dislike the dispatch companies that have pushed down wages and standards of english teaching in Japan during the last two years or so. Japan would be better off without them and so would teachers. And for those of you who don't really care about or take teaching english seriously, then maybe you should have left the country long ago. It's imbeciles like you who accept such s****y jobs in the first place that allow these companies to exist.
Fire in the hole!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  |
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guest of Japan
Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 1601
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 12:40 am Post subject: |
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Homersimpson wrote:
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They've only been able to drive down working conditions because people have been willing to take the jobs. Read "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. Blame employers all you want, but w/o willing employees, they cease to exist; dispatch companies in Japan cannot "outsource" available positions overseas.
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People take these jobs because they are seen as a being better than eikaiwa jobs. There are more holidays, the hours are in the daytime, weekends are off, and there is more opportunity to use Japanese. I think that in general interac is better than working in an eikaiwa.
However, jobs like interac which used to be a stepping stone have proliferated due to the three year visa. The ample supply of fresh faces have turned the stepping stone into an apex. The standard salaries in Japan have been dropping. Interac has led this trend with it's partial salaries during time off. Competing companies have followed suit by making time off completely unpaid.
My own company has averted this trend by focusing only on private schools. Most private schools are a little more selective about who they put in their classrooms and generally pay for all holiday time. There are far more responsibilities for the teacher and the rewards are greater. I think I work for a top notch dispatch agency, but I still see it as a parasite on teachers. If you work for a temp staff company, it's to be expected that you have the opportunity to become a full time worker. But if you work at a dispatch company, the company uses all of it's power to insure that you will not have that opportunity. The business models for dispatch agencies is to exploit the labor market to garner jobs which are already in existence. Unlike eikaiwas, they do not create new jobs.
Mr. Simpson, it's funny that you use Grapes of Wrath as a parable for what is happening in Japan. I personally find what is happening in Japan to be far more limited, but actually more sinister. In the Grapes of Wrath displaced labor is exploited to drive down labor costs for businesses to thrive and grow. Dispatch companies aren't growing into new markets, they are exploiting to take over a previously established market. The Grapes of Wrath clearly shows that capitalism left unchecked creates misery on the human condition. That book, along with many others helped to foster the labor movement in the US which put capitalism in check. To reference that book shows that you find the state of things here in Japan to be worthy of intervention.
Unfortunately there will be no intervention. The displaced labor and the immigrants which were exploited in the US at that time came to make lives for themselves. They had a stake in the system. Those western foreigners who choose to make a life for themselves in Japan are in a small minority compared to the one or two year travelers who flood the labor market and then leave only to be replaced my new ones. It's a downward spiral and companies like interac will come out as the winner, because they see how the dynamic works and correctly exploit it. |
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homersimpson
Joined: 14 Feb 2003
Posts: 569
Location: Kagoshima
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| Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 11:36 am Post subject: |
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guest of Japan:
People take these jobs because they are seen as a being better than eikaiwa jobs.
However, jobs like interac which used to be a stepping stone have proliferated due to the three year visa. The ample supply of fresh faces have turned the stepping stone into an apex. The standard salaries in Japan have been dropping. Interac has led this trend with it's partial salaries during time off.
My own company has averted this trend by focusing only on private schools. Most private schools are a little more selective about who they put in their classrooms and generally pay for all holiday time. The business models for dispatch agencies is to exploit the labor market to garner jobs which are already in existence. Unlike eikaiwas, they do not create new jobs.
Mr. Simpson, it's funny that you use Grapes of Wrath as a parable for what is happening in Japan. I personally find what is happening in Japan to be far more limited, but actually more sinister. In the Grapes of Wrath displaced labor is exploited to drive down labor costs for businesses to thrive and grow. Dispatch companies aren't growing into new markets, they are exploiting to take over a previously established market. The Grapes of Wrath clearly shows that capitalism left unchecked creates misery on the human condition. That book, along with many others helped to foster the labor movement in the US which put capitalism in check. To reference that book shows that you find the state of things here in Japan to be worthy of intervention.
Unfortunately there will be no intervention. The displaced labor and the immigrants which were exploited in the US at that time came to make lives for themselves. They had a stake in the system. Those western foreigners who choose to make a life for themselves in Japan are in a small minority compared to the one or two year travelers who flood the labor market and then leave only to be replaced my new ones. |
You make many good points, but ... I don't know why these jobs with dispatch companies are seen as a stepping stone; to what (?). Regarding private schools (HS/JHS), many of them do indeed use dispatch companies as well. Eikaiwas create new jobs? I was completely unaware of this; what evidence suggests this? Eikaiwas recycle existing positions when teachers leave, but I'm not convinced they create new jobs. Please help me with this. I referenced The Grapes of Wrath not for any political/socio-economic reasons, but to show how when some people will willingly accept unsatisfactory working conditions it only perpetuates the cycle. Unlike here in Japan, most of those in Steinbeck's book had little or no choice; they had families to feed. Ultimately those teaching in Japan are not in that situation. Assuming most English teachers are from industrialized nations, coming to Japan was an active choice. You were not forced by some natural catastrophe (i.e. The Dust Bowl) to come to Japan and eke out an existence. And if you got married to a Japanese person and/or have children, again, that was a choice. Often choices have consequences. Does that justify that some dispatch companies abuse the "system?" Of course not, but you're free to move on at any time. Unlike those in the above-referenced novel, you are not stuck (t)here. |
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guest of Japan
Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 1601
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2005 12:39 am Post subject: |
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HS, rather than try to make any new points, I'll just try to answer some of your questions.
About eikaiwas making new jobs - You are right, eikaiwas do indeed recycle old jobs, but they are active in advertising to increase the number of customers. By increasing the number of customers more jobs are created. Their are more foreign teachers working in eikaiwa jobs now than in the bubble days. Nova opens new schools every year. Aeon seems to have changed it's focus from expansion to internal improvements, but I'd suspect that they intend to open new schools. You could argue that the big eikaiwas just put the little ones out of business, but I think the little ones mostly just take the frugal learners or the big chain drop-outs. They don't put much into advancing the cause of learning English.
Interac being a stepping stone - Before people could work at interac, get experience working in a Japanese school and improve their Japanese in the process. Later they were able to use this experience and skill to land jobs working directly for private schools and BOEs. These jobs had far better working conditions and salaries. Unfortunately, due to the proliferation of Interac and the like, these jobs are disappearing.
You talked of us having the freedom of choice, and I agree with you at the introductory level. However, the issue of marriage and families are completely comparable here and in the Grapes of Wrath. All ties bind.
In all honesty I don't really care about interac. I'm much more concerned about the general trends in English education in Japan. These trends will force me to make the choice to leave Japan. Is a forced choice really a choice? |
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