Job Discussion Forums

[wangtesol]

From the original post...

[JimDunlop2]

self-edit. removed threadjacking.

[Seeker of truth]

What is the website for the Interac Union?

[yamanote senbei]

As far as I know, there isn't a Interac Union. There is a Interac branch within Tokyo Nambu.

http://www.interacunion.org

http://nambufwc.org/branches

[greatteacherterry]

Hi,
My name is Terry. I am one of the 89 Kanagawa teachers are being outsourced to Interac. We had our last face-to-face meeting (union reps from the general union and the Kanagawa labor committee) with the Kanagawa Board of Education, and the outcome was not anything close to what we had hoped for. We are moving into the next stage... On the March 16th there is going to be a protest at 1:00 then a press conference on all the unfair treatment we have been given since the outsourcing process started.
The BoE�s main reasons for contracting Interac is because they don�t recruit new teachers and they don�t hold training for them throughout the year. The BoE feels that Interac can do this for them, but when doing so we would receive a 15% reduction in pay per hour, and a reduction in total weekly/monthly hours.
We gave the BoE several ways for us to help them solve the problems and that we wanted our direct hire jobs back. The BoE denied our request and denied our help.
If any of you are thinking of contracting with Interac for any of these teaching spots, please remember that we still want our jobs back and our fight is not over yet. But, if hundreds of warm bodies run to fill our vacant spots we will surely loose the fight. Remember that with an Interac contract you can be gone as fast as lightning strikes. You will just be another number in their money making machine. You won�t be paid commencing and concluding months of your contract; they are both paid on a pro-rated basis. The basic working unit is a schedule of 4 classes per day 4 days a week. Within this, although we cannot guarantee either at this stage, and use you until they are finished using you then they will dispose of you like a used tissue.
Our fight against the contracting of this teachers� nightmare has just begun. We are done being diplomatic the gloves have come off and we are going to start to fight. As the saying goes, �It�s not over until the fat lady sings!�

[wangtesol]

Terry, what can people do to help you and the other ALTs whose jobs are being privatized into illegal Interac gyomu itaku jobs?

[The Dog Ate My Keitai]

Hello... A friend of mine was reading the forum, particularily the post from Terry, and requested to put up a reply on the forum. Since my friend doesn't (YET ) have an account on Dave's, I agreed to let my friend use my alias for the purpose of posting....


Hi Terry,

I want to respond to anyone considering any job posted by Interac and to you. I have been eagerly waiting to hear from one of you guys in Kanagawa since reading about this injustice in The Daily Yomuri's letters to the editor.... As I have been in Japan for several years, your school board disgusts me. I saw a number of members of the Kanagawa Union out at the March In March in Tokyo. For some reason I didn't get to meet any teachers from Kanagawa at the march.... Did you come to this?

I hope everyone will smell the coffee. Especially those of you applying to work in Japan from America, Canada, Britain, Australia etc. I totally understand your need to pay off student loans or other debts but with the expense of setting up here, the cost of living here and the drop in wages here, and growing local animosity towards Interac, please choose wisely. You'll likely have a much better experience at a local eikaiwa than from Interac headquarters, which will be hours away from your work. Kindly, reconsider your Interac application.

Interac applicants, don't think for one second that Interac won't hesitate to place you in a position out in a remote village, or near an expensive or infrequent train-line. Interac wants to win every contract with every school board, their slogan says so. By default they have no choice to fill remote locations. Local people have applied and been promised not to be offered positions which are an unreasonable distance from their home. But in the end Interac does exactly this. They throw out a baited hook to see whom they can catch.

If Interac says it will place you in a reasonably convenient location then understand that Interac preys on people desperate to get a job. Interac is recruiting business only. Applicants from abroad: Don't think for one minute that the teachers are really valued. At one introductory meeting at Interac's headquarters, the spokesperson's inexperience as a company promoter caused them to several times admit that professional ALT positions with Interac actually pay the teacher less than private language schools. The applicants at the meeting didn't believe it because they had not done their research. Your low wage should speak volumes about the amount of time and money they are willing to invest in your full adjustment to life here. As for Interac, someone saw a way to make money as a middle man to support their other companies.

Interac has an endless supply of employees, if not in Japan, then from abroad. Contracts are only 1 year. It's almost certain that in the near future that the gross wage Interac offers you will eventually drop. School boards are paying less and less to Interac because Interac continually underbids local language schools to win new contracts. However, since school boards think Interac is "convenient," this perceived convenience still wins Interac many financially viable contracts. Interac just passes the money lost in undercutting others on to you. Once Interac has all the contracts in your prefecture it will be even more impossible to negotiate a wage with them and easy for them to drop your wage or end your contract.

If you work for Interac now, at least consider the situation in Kanagawa carefully. You might think that Terry is complaining about "only" a 15% cut but you fail to realize that Interac is the middle man who waits to cut more and more every year the contract is renewed or when it becomes available again.

Interac is growing so fast (despite it's issues, eg. the use of the nearly bankrupt health insurance company Global Health). If you are employed with Interac and if you encourage others to work there too, you will not only hurt well deserving direct-hire employees but you will hurt yourself by adding to Interac's supply of teachers. We need to decrease teacher supply and increase demand to maintain reasonable wages in order to make this experience in Japan financially viable. Please discourage potential applicants.

Recently in my prefecture the competition for direct-hire jobs has become greater in part because of the large number of foreigners but also because of Interac. The very few direct-hire positions left anymore, typically pay 360,000 yen (gross) per month. Compare this to what Interac pays.

Interac, instead of charging the school board a one time finders fee (like some other dispatch companies) forces the teacher to sign a contract so that the TEACHER (instead of the school board) pays a fee every month. Every month Interac keeps even more than a third of the teacher's potential salary had the teacher been hired directly. So you get 250,000 yen or 230,000 yen gross. Or 200,000 yen. When's the last time YOU paid your BOSS for having work? That's twisted!

Selti, Max...Co., Interac it's all the same. According to a recent posting with "Selti", the wage here has dropped even to 200,000yen. 200,000? Minus national health care, pension, ( both recently have become law for all English teachers/jobs) employment insurance, rent, food, transportation/national car inspection/insurance, utilities/kerosene heat, costs of moving here, debts from home and possibly city living tax (from second year). Good grief, what's left? Choose carefully if you are thinking of coming.

If you are sympathetic towards Terry please write a letter to the editor of the Japan Times or Daily Yominuri, and better yet get it translated into Japanese and ask a friend how to send it to a Japanese paper. Then ask your friend to watch for responses in Japanese, translate these and share the results with us. Japanese teachers of English and parents of children usually express concern when I tell them what we are up against. Write Monbusho and demand that they AGAIN recommend to school boards that school boards hire directly. If you have only been in Japan a year or two, chances are that it will only be a matter of time before you will be seeking to be hired directly as well. If you don't want to stay in Japan longer, please consider supporting those who will. Does anybody have e-mail or snail mail names and addresses for these? Terry I'd like to know how many teachers of the 89 who lost their jobs are fighting this. You may send a PM and TDAMK will pass it along to me.

[The Dog Ate My Keitai]

Hello... A friend of mine was reading the forum, particularily the post from Terry, and requested to put up a reply on the forum. Since my friend doesn't (YET ) have an account on Dave's, I agreed to let my friend use my alias for the purpose of posting....


Hi Terry,

I want to respond to anyone considering any job posted by Interac and to you. I have been eagerly waiting to hear from one of you guys in Kanagawa since reading about this injustice in The Daily Yomuri's letters to the editor.... As I have been in Japan for several years, your school board disgusts me. I saw a number of members of the Kanagawa Union out at the March In March in Tokyo. For some reason I didn't get to meet any teachers from Kanagawa at the march.... Did you come to this?

I hope everyone will smell the coffee. Especially those of you applying to work in Japan from America, Canada, Britain, Australia etc. I totally understand your need to pay off student loans or other debts but with the expense of setting up here, the cost of living here and the drop in wages here, and growing local animosity towards Interac, please choose wisely. You'll likely have a much better experience at a local eikaiwa than from Interac headquarters, which will be hours away from your work. Kindly, reconsider your Interac application.

Interac applicants, don't think for one second that Interac won't hesitate to place you in a position out in a remote village, or near an expensive or infrequent train-line. Interac wants to win every contract with every school board, their slogan says so. By default they have no choice to fill remote locations. Local people have applied and been promised not to be offered positions which are an unreasonable distance from their home. But in the end Interac does exactly this. They throw out a baited hook to see whom they can catch.

If Interac says it will place you in a reasonably convenient location then understand that Interac preys on people desperate to get a job. Interac is recruiting business only. Applicants from abroad: Don't think for one minute that the teachers are really valued. At one introductory meeting at Interac's headquarters, the spokesperson's inexperience as a company promoter caused them to several times admit that professional ALT positions with Interac actually pay the teacher less than private language schools. The applicants at the meeting didn't believe it because they had not done their research. Your low wage should speak volumes about the amount of time and money they are willing to invest in your full adjustment to life here. As for Interac, someone saw a way to make money as a middle man to support their other companies.

Interac has an endless supply of employees, if not in Japan, then from abroad. Contracts are only 1 year. It's almost certain that in the near future that the gross wage Interac offers you will eventually drop. School boards are paying less and less to Interac because Interac continually underbids local language schools to win new contracts. However, since school boards think Interac is "convenient," this perceived convenience still wins Interac many financially viable contracts. Interac just passes the money lost in undercutting others on to you. Once Interac has all the contracts in your prefecture it will be even more impossible to negotiate a wage with them and easy for them to drop your wage or end your contract.

If you work for Interac now, at least consider the situation in Kanagawa carefully. You might think that Terry is complaining about "only" a 15% cut but you fail to realize that Interac is the middle man who waits to cut more and more every year the contract is renewed or when it becomes available again.

Interac is growing so fast (despite it's issues, eg. the use of the nearly bankrupt health insurance company Global Health). If you are employed with Interac and if you encourage others to work there too, you will not only hurt well deserving direct-hire employees but you will hurt yourself by adding to Interac's supply of teachers. We need to decrease teacher supply and increase demand to maintain reasonable wages in order to make this experience in Japan financially viable. Please discourage potential applicants.

Recently in my prefecture the competition for direct-hire jobs has become greater in part because of the large number of foreigners but also because of Interac. The very few direct-hire positions left anymore, typically pay 360,000 yen (gross) per month. Compare this to what Interac pays.

Interac, instead of charging the school board a one time finders fee (like some other dispatch companies) forces the teacher to sign a contract so that the TEACHER (instead of the school board) pays a fee every month. Every month Interac keeps even more than a third of the teacher's potential salary had the teacher been hired directly. So you get 250,000 yen or 230,000 yen gross. Or 200,000 yen. When's the last time YOU paid your BOSS for having work? That's twisted!

Selti, Max...Co., Interac it's all the same. According to a recent posting with "Selti", the wage here has dropped even to 200,000yen. 200,000? Minus national health care, pension, ( both recently have become law for all English teachers/jobs) employment insurance, rent, food, transportation/national car inspection/insurance, utilities/kerosene heat, costs of moving here, debts from home and possibly city living tax (from second year). Good grief, what's left? Choose carefully if you are thinking of coming.

If you are sympathetic towards Terry please write a letter to the editor of the Japan Times or Daily Yominuri, and better yet get it translated into Japanese and ask a friend how to send it to a Japanese paper. Then ask your friend to watch for responses in Japanese, translate these and share the results with us. Japanese teachers of English and parents of children usually express concern when I tell them what we are up against. Write Monbusho and demand that they AGAIN recommend to school boards that school boards hire directly. If you have only been in Japan a year or two, chances are that it will only be a matter of time before you will be seeking to be hired directly as well. If you don't want to stay in Japan longer, please consider supporting those who will. Does anybody have e-mail or snail mail names and addresses for these? Terry I'd like to know how many teachers of the 89 who lost their jobs are fighting this. You may send a PM and TDAMK will pass it along to me.

[wangtesol]

Sure, you can contact Mr. Kawano. He is the person from the Ministry of Education who issued the advisement against using illegal gyomu itaku contracts.

He is on our side so be nice!

[email protected]

[greatteacherterry]

I saw a number of members of the Kanagawa Union out at the March In March in Tokyo. For some reason I didn't get to meet any teachers from Kanagawa at the march.... Did you come to this?

I really wanted to come to the March in March but because of other coomitments I was unable to go. However there were 5 from our group who did go and on the 6th three of us were able to attend the face to face hearing held between our Union Representatives and the Kanagawa BoE as well as representatives from the various ministries concerned (ie, Education; Health, Labor and Welfare; Labor Law Standards).

The first order of business was the Union Representatives� charge of the BoE claiming to be unaware that dispatching teachers from outsourcing companies is in direct violation of the School Education Law (which requires all persons involved with classes to be under the authority of the principal).

Second charge: Interac is the largest violator of labor laws and some ALTs work 35 to 40 hours per week under the school�s instructions although Interac�s contract specifies less than 20 hours.

Third charge: Boards of Education across the country are starting to turn to outsourcing companies to dispatch ALTs in order to take advantage of the low wages and complete disregard of the standard work laws (re: social benefits) that is customary with such companies.


Fourth point: thanks to organised efforts to protest and roll back the Osaka BoE�s ill-advised decision to engage in illegal gyomu-itaku contracts, the Osaka Labor Bureau sent out a September 2004 directive to all municipalities in Osaka Prefecture to take corrective measures in line with the Ministry of Education�s instructions. We demand that the Ministry of Education take action against Boards of Education that illegally enter into gyomu itaku (outsourcing) contracts with private companies to dispatch ALTs to their schools. Aside from the illegality of such contracts, this practice destroys the premise that schools provide proper classes under the authority of the principal.



Terry I'd like to know how many teachers of the 89 who lost their jobs are fighting this.

We have 26 people listed on our discussion board

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KanagawaPFT/

However some of these people are SOFA sponsered and they cannot become members of any union in a foreign country without permission from the base athorities, but we still consider them one of our flock. Just because they cannot pay union dues doesn't mean they are not in the same boat as we are.
We are expecting this number to increase drasticly soon from one last effort to contact the rest of the Kanagawa PFTs through a letter sent direct mail to the PFTs schools. Other attempts (phone, fax...) were stoped in the schools' offices. We havn't given up and were are not about to give up either.

Thursday we have a demonstration in Yokohama. The Union has set up an early Rally in Chigasaki, followed by the Yokohama rally. The first rally is in front of the Chigasaki city Hall at 9:00, followed by the
Yokohama rally at 2:30. We want to meet at the JR Kannai station at 2:00, near the stadium exit.

[einsenundnullen]

greatteacherterry and The Dog Ate My Keitai,

F@#$ great posts. Very informative.

Keitai,
On what do you base your comment about Global Health being near bankruptcy? I have a policy with them!

[greatteacherterry]

Oh I have an obviously slight reading problem too�
Sorry�

GREAT TEACHER TERRY

[greatteacherterry]

What is Global Health? Is this health insurance for travelers?
Am I correct when I look at the site and see that I�d pay 20%
of the medical costs? That is more than I pay now� I only pay
10% and many times when I go to my dentist he doesn�t charge
me anything. I know for a fact that here in Japan you must have
health insurance, because if you don�t and go see the doctor or
dentist they must charge you 120% of the fees for services
rendered.
Oh I understand why Interac uses this company instead of the
official government insurance policy offered at any city hall
throughout Japan. They don�t want to be bothered by teaching
the teachers from other countries how it works how to pay
and how to apply. Wow Interac really cares about its employees.
Now this being a non recognized insurance company at the
neighborhood clinic. I would be expected to pay the 100 or
120 % of the medical costs and be reimbursed by the
company later. Is this how it works?

[wangtesol]

So how did the demonstration against Interac go today? Or was it just the press conference?

[canuck]

Please provide some specifics. What were the direct BOE monthly salaries? What are Interac offering you guys?