Job Discussion Forums

[Sage]

I'd like to work in a small/large town or city in Northern Japan doing ALT work. (So long as I have broadband internet)

Do you have any suggestions for me?

[Big John Stud]

Sage wrote:

I'd like to work in a small/large town or city in Northern Japan doing ALT work. (So long as I have broadband internet) Do you have any suggestions for me?

Since you have a specific region you want to work in talk to the BOE of cities in the area. Also find out what agancies are providing ALTs to those cities and apply.

[Big John Stud]

Glenski wrote:

Glenski wrote: Any company that avoids collective bargaining is one to be avoided itself. meowcarrot wrote: They can't avoid us for much longer. What are you going to do? Break down the door that they close to avoid you?

Thanks Glenski! You make sense! I have a bad feeling about Interac. I am working for a good company and so I am going to stay where I am at for now.

[Been There]

[Iwantmyrightsnow]

From what I have seen in Japan, demands for negotiations are usually sent by fax with follow-up registered letters.

I imagine the saturday demo was just a low level warning, not so unusual here. There would have been people in the offfice and it would have been embarassing for them as other tennants tend to complain.

[nawlinsgurl]

So Interac is worse than Nova? Or on the same level?

[meowcarrot]

Glenski wrote:

Glenski wrote: Any company that avoids collective bargaining is one to be avoided itself. meowcarrot wrote: They can't avoid us for much longer. What are you going to do? Break down the door that they close to avoid you?

No, file for arbitration. But your idea does sound like fun.

[wangtesol]

Now that Glenski has touched on the issue of civil disobedience ("breaking down the door"), I think non-violent civil disobedience does have a place when taking action against an unjust employer.

But outsourcing companies are very weak and vulnerable mind you, and I think one could also approach Interac's connections with the Mormon Church and the TESOL bigwigs in the US before reaching that point, but it is an option to consider.

Legally, any worker who is not a Japanese national is a migrant worker in Japan and the Solidarity Network with Migrant Workers http://www.jca.apc.org/migrant-net/English/English.html has asked the Japanese government to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families which includes such basic rights as health care and adherence to labor law which Interac seems to have some problems with.

[/quote]

[borg]

Speaking from experience, Interac are not the best employers but they are really not all that bad either. I used to manage one of their branches and can safely say that most of the teachers were reasonably happy and also signed on for another year. You may find better ALT jobs but if not I think you'll be happy enough working for Interac as they mostly just leave you to it (especially outside of Tokyo).

[Been There]

[yamanote senbei]

[wangtesol]

How would an Interac manager objectively know if the employees are happy? As the ALT system works, it is in the interest of employees to lie to their managers and tell them that things are fine and suppress any problems. How can things be fine when even the very contract between the school board and the company is illegal (gizo haken)? The ALT companies themselves create even more systemic problems by doing this.

JET surveys usually show that a significant portion of ALTs face some sort of harassment at the workplace. How can an ALT trust her company to deal with a board of education with harassment issues if it has no respect for the law in the first place and signs illegal contracts?


Also, if Interac informed employees of their rights by posting the Labor Standards Law in their offices as they are legally required to do so, then people would know more about their rights and possibly more complaints would emerge. Perhaps commenting that most were happy is more of a reflection of how little employees knew about their legal rights at the time when you were a manager compared to now. Perhpas keeping people ignorant of their rights is considered successful managing.

Here is a link to Japan's Labor Standards Law
http://www.jil.go.jp/english/laborinfo/library/documents/llj_law1.pdf

By the way, a foreign teachers union is being established in South Korea.
http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,,1512123,00.html

[meowcarrot]

Interac has agreed to arbitration as requested by the Japanese government, so we will be cancelling our July 2nd leafletting.

If you want more information about us and our union, please check our (newly updated! yay!) website at:

http://www.interacunion.org

[yamanote senbei]

Congratulations. You might want to ask the Interac negotiators if they themselves are enrolled in Shakai Hoken and Rosai Hoken, and if they are illegally outsourced just like their teachers.

[borg]

How did I know that teachers were unhappy or had problems when I was their manager? Are you kidding? They certainly didn't hold back. They called me (in some cases often), they came into the office and told me, and sometimes they raised problems at meetings. I'm sure they didn't view me as some sort of intimidating figure. I went out drinking with most of them at one stage or another and was friends with some of them. Bear in mind too, that teachers are also not perfect, one or two were incompetent and unpopular even among the other teachers. As a manager, you go out to all the schools and you know all the teachers and that gives you a broader perspective than an individual teacher usually has. Most of the problems didn't involve Interac itself (the pay was delayed once though, including my pay) but were personality clashes or teaching style clashes between the Japanese teachers and the AETs. I'm simply telling you about my experience. I'm not attacking anyone! As for the health insurance etc, I'm fairly sure from memory that it was outsourced. Good luck with arbitration.