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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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 Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:14 am Post subject: |
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| Maybe the BOEs do shadier deals than before because they aren't being given the funds, especially nowadays, to do everything by the book like Monbugakusho would like. (Just a theory of mine LOL). |
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SirZephyr
Joined: 06 Nov 2004
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:58 am Post subject: |
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Mr. Glenski.
Did you accept the job offer from Korakuen?
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yamanote senbei
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 8:53 am Post subject: |
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| Big John Stud wrote: |
| I am in the same boat! I also wonder if so illegal why does most BOE use out seourcing companies! |
It's easier for them, even though it's more expensive. For schools outside of Tokyo and Osaka it's really difficult to find local foreign teachers anyway. The school administration may not even know that it's illegal to outsource teachers, and so they see it as a convenient solution. |
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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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| Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 9:08 am Post subject: |
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| yamanote senbei wrote: |
| Big John Stud wrote: |
| I am in the same boat! I also wonder if so illegal why does most BOE use out seourcing companies! |
It's easier for them, even though it's more expensive. For schools outside of Tokyo and Osaka it's really difficult to find local foreign teachers anyway. The school administration may not even know that it's illegal to outsource teachers, and so they see it as a convenient solution. |
Surely the school/local government admin would know very well what was strictly legal or not (I haven't met many of these types who do ANYTHING unless they are absolutely sure their ass is covered)...which leads me to ask, what exactly would the legal ramification of/penalty for this "illegal" outsourcing be? I'm beginning to suspect that it is more a difference of opinion between the guy in Monbugakushou (an idealist) and the "realists" entrenched against him rather than anything that is clearly actionable. I'm also still a bit surprised that using agencies works out more expensive than direct hires would (the latter with full pay and benefits for each and every ALT).
Hmm, dispatchers providing a service in rural areas? I bet even one-cow towns have umpteen potential AETs lolloping around dreaming of that direct hire... |
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wangtesol
Joined: 24 May 2005
Posts: 280
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| Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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[sarcasm]Ya, that's right. It was a single idealist from Monbusho who decided to issue the advisement highlighting the illegal use of gyomu itaku contracts. Right there at the Dec. 5 2004 union press conference at the Diet, he lept from his chair and shouted, "I must right his wrong. To hell with my bosses! Foreignes rights are being abused!"[/sarcasm]
Fluffy, have you ever hear of political will to do something? Just maybe the forces of outsourcing are stronger than the forces of seeing the rule of law applied to protect foreigners.
You might see that one of leaders in publishing ESL teaching materials (Dennis Stevenson of Pearson Corporation) is also on the board of directors of the largest outsourcing corporation in the world, Manpower Corporation. He also has had very close government and business ties with Japan ever since he negotiated a deal between UK Prime Minister Heath and Japan Prime Minister Tanaka.
see...
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dennis_Stevenson |
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wangtesol
Joined: 24 May 2005
Posts: 280
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| Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:06 pm Post subject: |
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Sorry, I have to add, that if anything, labour voices on this forum are too conservative. Saying that Boards of Education may not be aware that they are violating laws is very generous. I would rather explain why Boards of Education do not follow the law when it comes to foreigners is largely due to nihonjin rombun (or kokutai) sociological racism theory that is given serious intellectual study in Japan.
I mean, the Saitama Board of Education hired onto its board, in December 2004, one of the chairmen of the revisionist publisher that denies historical atrocities during WWII.
Here's the article from the Japan Times...
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SAITAMA (Kyodo) The Saitama Prefectural Government will nominate to its board of education one of the authors of a controversial history textbook criticized for having a nationalist bias, it was learned Monday.
Shiro Takahashi, a Meisei University professor and former deputy chairman of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, has agreed to take up the post at the request of Saitama Gov. Kiyoshi Ueda.
The governor will make the recommendation to the prefectural assembly Dec. 20.
Takahashi would be the first senior member of the group that penned the contentious textbook to sit on a prefectural education panel, according to group members.
Ueda and Takahashi are acquaintances, and the governor asked the professor to join the panel in October, according to the scholar, who added that he replied that he was willing to accept.
Takahashi was a founding member of the textbook group and was its deputy chairman from 1999 to last month, when he quit because he "would be required to be neutral as a member of an education board," he said.
But Takahashi added that he does not intend to leave the group.
In September, Ueda praised the group's history textbook, calling it a "new exercise that stimulates the education community as a whole."
The textbook, published by Fuso Publishing Co., has been criticized for lacking a reference to "comfort women," and for portraying World War II in the Pacific theater as a war "aimed at liberating other Asian countries."
During the war, Japan used a large number of women, mostly from Korea, as sex slaves for its soldiers.
The textbook passed the education ministry screening in April 2001, adding fuel to a fierce domestic debate on how Japan's history should be portrayed in school texts.
The Japan Times: Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2004
(C) All rights reserved
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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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| Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Don't get me wrong, wang - I'm not in favour of dispatching (who would be?). I'm just wondering what more can be done besides waving pieces of paper from one bureaucrat in the faces of the others (and this tactic seems useful more for those fighting to keep their direct-hire status than those being hired for the first time by a BOE). Do you have any hardcore advice you can give us? |
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wangtesol
Joined: 24 May 2005
Posts: 280
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| Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:29 pm Post subject: |
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Okay. Sure. Nothing gets done by a single person. You gotta organize with others. Already there exists organized labour in the form on the National Union of General Workers, who fought to raise the gyomu itaku issue in the first place.
maybe join them...
http://www.nugw.org |
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womblingfree
Joined: 04 Mar 2006
Posts: 826
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| Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 1:27 am Post subject: |
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| fluffyhamster wrote: |
| Maybe the BOEs do shadier deals than before because they aren't being given the funds, especially nowadays, to do everything by the book like Monbugakusho would like. (Just a theory of mine LOL). |
Not only the BOE's, universities are more and more hiring unqualified teachers through dispatch companies. This is all very much hushed up.
Berlitz was sending teachers to several universities that I know of. They pay a fraction of what you would normally receive. Actually that's slightly misleading...The Universities are paying more, but the dispatch companies are passing far less onto the teacher. A complete false ecenomy.
My old dispatch company also farmed us out to various universities, not an MA or even TEFL cert' in sight!
And all done with no insurance cover whatsoever. The headteacher at my high school admitted once that the school were breaking the law in several respects regarding my employment, so it's not just the dispatch companies at fault. |
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yamanote senbei
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 7:45 am Post subject: |
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| womblingfree wrote: |
| And all done with no insurance cover whatsoever. The headteacher at my high school admitted once that the school were breaking the law in several respects regarding my employment, so it's not just the dispatch companies at fault. |
You can find a summary of what's wrong here:
http://nambufwc.org/issues/alt
A lot of what's on that page also applies to university and technical school teachers, minus the violations of the School Education Law. Most of what Korakuen is doing wrong, other illegal teacher dispatching companies are also doing wrong:
http://nambufwc.org/current-disputes/korakuen-english-centre/
In cases like this, womblingfree is right. It's both the illegal dispatch company and the school that receives teachers illegally that are to blame. |
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angrysoba
Joined: 20 Jan 2006
Posts: 446
Location: Kansai, Japan
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| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 8:33 am Post subject: |
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| yamanote senbei wrote: |
In cases like this, womblingfree is right. It's both the illegal dispatch company and the school that receives teachers illegally that are to blame. |
What's worse is that, as an employee for a dispatch company, you are having to play to the tune of three different employers - the BOE, the school and the dispatch company itself.
They are all operating illegally but if one of those employers doesn't like you for any reason you can have your contract cancelled and end up with very little legal recourse. |
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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 4:08 pm Post subject: |
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| angrysoba wrote: |
(A)s an employee for a dispatch company, you are having to play to the tune of three different employers - the BOE, the school and the dispatch company itself.
They are all operating illegally but if one of those employers doesn't like you for any reason you can have your contract cancelled and end up with very little legal recourse. |
Yup, having a third party, the dispatch company, provides disgruntled JTEs with an outlet they wouldn't have if the AET were a direct hire or a JET (the JTEs are hardly going to complain so much to their bosses at the BOE if that is where the buck will have to stop - the JTEs would get a reputation as whingers).
It's been my experience that AETs suffer far more abuse when dispatched than when directly hired. Ironic, isn't it, that they are paid less to potentially put up with more. |
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wangtesol
Joined: 24 May 2005
Posts: 280
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| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 5:58 pm Post subject: |
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| For the record, in legal documents (e.g. education law) the English teacher is refered to as the ALT. Not AET. |
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fluffyhamster
Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
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| Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Whatever. I myself say AET because most ALTs, including myself, are indeed AETs. I'm sure people could have worked that one out for themselves when faced with 'ALT' in a document. |
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yamanote senbei
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 3:59 am Post subject: |
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| wangtesol wrote: |
| For the record, in legal documents (e.g. education law) the English teacher is refered to as the ALT. Not AET. |
The word ALT, or the Japanese equivalent, isn't used anywhere in Japanese education law. Neither is AET. |
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