Job Discussion Forums

[wangtesol]

Kevin, although you worked as a manager there a few years ago, you are not considering what impact the union and the 2005 advisement of the Ministry of Education has had on the company.

The company is trying to assert that it does indeed have full control over the ALT, not the principal, by saying that the ALT cannot discuss lessons with the JTE. Of course it is bs but it cover's Interac's ass.

As for your Mormon content, I think you missed out on the "Teaching English as a Missionary Language" issue. Who cares if they are a Mormon business or not. What is important is the missionary agenda behind the company.

For one thing, tithing is very important to missionary missions. Putting 10% of ones salary to the Church means buying goodwill with the organization.

Further, in a complex missionary program, converts will be sought where it is most suitable and appropriate. If you think Interac would have a system of converting its employees, that is ridiculous. The Mormon Church's converting system in Japan relies more upon making first contact with a current Christian (non-Mormon) and putting them on a mail list (which is virtually impossibel to get off) and stealing this Christian as one that they can claim to be a Mormon. Very few actually become practicing Mormons, but as long as the local bishop can claim that he has got 10 new people to join, well the numbers are what the church officials are looking for.

And hey, if Interac can eventually get 90 tithing Mormon ALTs into Kanagawa in the next few years, that would mean almost 3 million yen each year in tithes for the Church.

Further are these Mormon ALTs serving missions or not? If they are officially serving a mission with the Church, they cannot talk about their experiences with anyone. It is a fact. Any Mormon missionary that talks about his/her experiences a missionary is threatened with excommunication. As such, in not being able to talk about their work, it is virtually impossible for them to join a union where the one makes an agreement to share information about one's working conditions.

So you see Kevin, Interac is a very different company.

[Seeker of truth]

[wangtesol]

I talked to a person in the Internship Office of Brigham Young University, and I asked her if thier office checks to see if the companies they do business with are obeying the law.

She said no, that would be impossible because there are too many companies.

I asked if they had any ethical guidelines. She said no.

However, she said if a company had been found of not obeying the law by Brigham Young University's legal department then the practice is to "blacklist" the company.

I told her that all school in Japan are being investigated for violating Health Insurance Law regarding shakai hoken, including Selnate/Interac which they do business with. But sicen their office has no responsibility in checking this, she didn't care.

Well, there you go. Brigham Young University's intership office just doesn't care if Interac is violating the law. It is not their responsibility to even know.

Hopefully, ALTs will be hired directly by boards of education rather than through a company such as Interac that constantly violates Labour Standards Law, Trade Union Law, Dispatch Law, School Education Law and Health Insurance Law.

[Willy_In_Japan]

I have worked for them for a few years now, and I have never seen any evidence of anything 'Mormon'.

Recently however, I have seen the CYA (Cover your rear) rules regarding your schedule.

The JTE is supposed to email your schedule to Interac and they are supposed to 'approve' it and send you instructions.

You are allowed to discuss what to do in the classroom etc with the JTE, but you are not allowed to put that into 'practice'. The JTE is expected to call interac, and then they inform the ALT to do the work.

In reality, it ends up being the JTE sending in a general schedule every month and considering it a pain in the rear. Not everyone follows it exactly to the letter. Your mileage may vary.

[borg]

I am not Kevin, wangtesol. Never said I was. Lets not get personal huh. By the way, thanks Willy. It's always nice to hear from someone who is actually working for Interac!

[greatteacherterry]

Hello Tooth Fairy,
Or is it Borg?
[quote="borg"]If you believe that ALTs and Japanese teachers cannot ever (or do not) discuss lesson plans then I'm the tooth fairy. If you believe that any Interac manager would want teachers sending in lesson plans for each class then you must think they are workaholics. It's amazing how much nonsense is written about Interac on this thread.
1.
Training has been going on for the past week and the new teachers' contracts don't go into effect until April 5th. All of the training days have been without pay or transportation reimbursment.

The BOE (along with the principal) makes the final decision on whether a teacher works for a school or not. If the principal says no do you really think Interac could force a teacher on him/her?
2.
The main reason for the Kanagawa BoE contracting Interac is because they don't want to deal with scheduling, and placement of the ALT/PFT.
I don't think that Interac can or will force a principal to accept teacher from Interac, but the poin is in the past the principal helt interviews and selected the teacher of hie/her choice. Not the other way around.

If Interac cannot provide a teacher Interac loses the contract (in the two years I recruited for Interac we were always able to find enough teachers).
3.
I'm courious....
Is that one of the (89) positions or is there a percentage?

It's just a regular company, not the best but not the worst either. You guys make out it's Enron. I used to work for Interac and I never met a single teacher who was a Mormon. The owner's a Mormon but he never mentions it.
4.
I'm really not concerned with boss's religious beliefs either.

As for the holidays, training seldom takes place then. Even then it'll just be a day. Teachers might have to hang round for a day ot two for meetings or school activities, but usually they can go away on holiday. The conditions do vary slightly from school to school.
5.
That is not what the contracts I saw said or what the 8 pages of instructions for the up coming school year said. Maybe things have changed in the past 2 years.

I moved teachers to new schools wherever possible if they were unhappy. Actually, Interac doesn't have much of a profit margin on these contracts these days. They make their money on having a lot of contracts.
6.
Yes Joel said the same thing at the training last week. And if the PFTs gain their old positions back Joel said that they would send us where we were needed.

Mind you, I have no great love for Interac and it does amuse me to think of how you must be pissing them off. But try and stick to the actual reality of working for them eh.
7.
Everything I have posted on this site I have seen in black and white and heard with my own ears.

You are probably better off working for a school directly, but when a breakdown in relations happens between you and the school it can get very messy. Going direct is better if you are an experienced teacher who understands Japanese culture, doesn't need training, and has good negotiating skills.
8. This is the best solution... I just finished my negotiations with my school and I have my job back as a direct hire by the principal, not the BoE.

[/quote]

[greatteacherterry]

I still don't get this quote thing...
Just call me computer disadvantaged...
Terry

[JimDunlop2]

In the "real world," for instance when reading a book, sentences that are inside a set of quotation marks are a quote. For instance:

"The river has gotten rough," Tom said rapidly.

In the Internet forum world of phpBB (the system Dave's uses), instead of quotation marks we use square brackets and a quote tag.

So, if I wanted to quote Tom (above) on Dave's, I would have to write it like this:

[quote="Tom"]The river has gotten rough.[/quote]

OR like this:

[quote]The river has gotten rough.[/quote]

Or, if I were quoting your previous message, like this:

[quote="greatteacherterry"]I still don't get this quote thing...
Just call me computer disadvantaged...
Terry[/quote]

This will cause what you wrote to be set apart from what I wrote, and the ="name" part of the tag credits you with having said it. A simple quote tag like this [quote] text [/quote] is OK too but no one is given credit for having said it... But it's still set apart from the rest of the message.


You can either type in the quote tags manually, OR highlight the text to be quoted with your mouse, then hit the "Quote" button that's sitting above the message input box, next to Bold, Italics and Underline.

Same goes for other effects, for example:

colours:

[color=blue]This text would appear blue.[/color]


[u]This text would be underlined.[/u]

[size=7]This text would be very small.[/size]


Give that a try... Maybe go to the newbie section of Dave's to test it out... Good luck!





P.S. You should be able to see all my tags intact because I've checked the "Disable BBCode in thist post" box above the Submit button.

[yamanote senbei]

If the BOE or the principal makes the final decision with an outsourced teaching position, it' a violation of the Employment Security Law. A company is not allowed to be an employment agency or pretend to be Hello Work.

If it's a dispatched position, it's illegal for the dispatcher to even show the resume of the candidate teacher to the BOE.

Interac shouldn't be in business.

[wangtesol]

Yep. And according to Dispatch Law, only the dispatch company can interview you. The Board of Education is in violation of Dispatch Law when they do these interviews. It shows how much they care for the rule of law.

Really, the Board of Education is just susposed to pay up and shut up. Legally, they cannot tell you do anything.

[yamanote senbei]

It's not only the unions and the government who say you can't do it. Even corporate lackey lawyers admit that dispatch companies cannot specify employees in advance:

http://www.andersonmoritomotsune.com/en/info/09/pdf/LELB15.pdf

[greatteacherterry]

This was in my PFT mail box today...
Thank you so much, Terry!

Well, it looks like I am 80% towards saying NO!!! to Interac.
Maybe
100% deep down using my gut feelings. I am very glad that there is a
meeting on the 27th but I must work from the early afternoon at my
second
job, unfortunately. I will stay posted with the play by play web site
news
as it unfolds. Crossing my fingers for good luck. Hopefully, the BoE
comes
to their senses!
It's kind of screwey how Interac is trying to ration out working
hours
and schedules. I just last week attended that 4 hours of unpaid
"orientation" and was mostly unimpressed at the whole style and system
they
presented to us. Out of morbid curiosity I went in vain hopes that
something appealing and fair might develop from it. Well...more of a
lame
attempt to trick us into team spirit and summer camp seminar feelings
so
that people would ease into their scheme. Nice attempt on thier part
but
didn't cut the mustard as no important issues were really covered.
Just a
bunch of "We are still waiting for BoE blah blah...." and " The
schedules
and salaries are still blah blah blah...."
In the end, I lost a full day of wages, and a couple morning hours
from
another full day shift. Yep, Interac sucks.

Thanks for your help and I am very glad to have been able to talk
with
you....though under happier circumstances would have been better.
Take care!
SBM

Here is another fellow PFT that looked at Interac with an open mind, but has since changed his position about Interac and this person still has not worked for them (on the payroll). I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to see the writing on the wall. Interac does not belong in the public schools.
I'm sure Interac has good points in the business and corporate world; places that have no established teaching carriculem. Whereas the schools all ready have an established carriculem (??some being better than others??), qualified teachers teaching, (??and some of them not worth the bird droppings on the fence post??).... Interac could and should only be a provider (recruiter) of qualified teachers. They should be doing the initial interviews, turn over the applicant to the BoE for employment and placement at the schools. They shouldn�t be skimming any money from the applicants� monthly paychecks. They should if anything get a one-time finders fee (if the applicant is hired), then finished, they would no longer be in the picture.
Ah... what a perfect world we would live in then...
The meeting between The BoE, Labor Committee, and the PFT Union did not go well last night. The PFTs were shot down by the BoE and lost some ground with the Labor Committee. The Kanagawa PFTs are going to have another pow-wow to plan the next line of attack. We don�t hear the fat lady singing yet...

Terry

[wangtesol]

There have been some comments earlier that it is irrelevant whether Interac is owned by the Mormon Church or not.

The issues to me is more about corporate ownership and access rather than anything. Considering the Berlitz School, one can buy shares in its parent corporation, Benesse, and directly ask questions to the President and Board of Directors of the Benesse Corporation at the annual general meeting for shareholders.

But since Interac is part of a private religious organization, not a public corporation, there is no forum to pose questions to the President and board of directors to hold them accountable.

In the case of Interac, its parent organization is the Church of Latter Day Saints and the General Authorities (think of this as the board of directors) and the President of the organization ultimately direct the President of Interac, Seiichi Matsumoto.

As a company president and as a sub-section of the Latter Days Saints organization, Matsumoto does have to answer to President Hinckley and the General Authorities.

But since there is no annual general meeting for the organization, how can one even make the General Authorities and the President aware of the illegal wranglings of Interac, much less hold them accountable?

I doubt they even know what laws Interac is constantly violating in Japan.

And here is an article on 400 Brigham Young University students being sent to China every year. Plus a reference to the University being on the American Association of University Professors censorlist.
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/24/123209.php

[Amphilanthus]

[yamanote senbei]

I heard that Interac couldn't fill all of the outsourced Kanagawa positions, but I haven't confirmed it. I believe the problem is that the Kanagawa BOE had many part-time positions and most people are looking for full time work or at least something semi full time.