Job Discussion Forums

c-way · Joined: 19 Nov 2004 Posts: 226 Location: Kyoto, Japan

I think the reason I'm musing is because:

1) Who the he.ll wants to be the guy that's being ripped off by his company AND whistling a tune on the way into the office. So partly, its a defense mechanism.

2) I don't think its quite as simple as saying "You're splitting a large portion of the payment that the BoE pays with your dispatch company so you're being ripped off". I say this because mostly because of the reasons given in my previous post but also because I've been in a far worse working situation that was totally legal. So while things could be a lot better, I know first hand that they can also be a lot worse.

But I'd like to take the thread in a new direction and hear from posters about why they think that the BoE prefers to distance itself from foreign teachers via dispatch companies and ideally what kind of working situations should ALTs expect from the BoE.

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:25 pm Post subject:

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:38 pm Post subject:

cornishmuppet · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 642 Location: Nagano, Japan

I work for a BoE. I do exactly the same job as any ALT, 3 classes a day, hours of 8 to 4, no responsibilties outside of that time (bar the occasional sports day) and very few within that time, which is when I do most of MY posting on this board.

I don't get paid over August, but I get all national holidays paid and time off over Xmas and Spring (which there is a little dispute over, but I've posted about that before and am not bring it up now). I get paid about 60k more than the average JET, yet I do the same job. For my supposed 'extra' salary I am expected to do nothing extra at all.

Now, the reason I see for BoEs to hire through a dispatch company, is to cut out the pain of hiring people, checking on them, maintaining them. For these reasons they pay a dispatch company, who takes a cut. On the last two occasions that my BoE has hired any new people, three applicants dropped out after being given the job, creating a headache for the BoE, precisely the kind of problem that a dispatch company would be getting paid to deal with.

Back in England, I worked in a bank and my position was internal finance. I recieved all the invoices for the temping agencies like Adecco and Pertemps, and I can tell you that their fees were about 1/3 higher than the employ was getting paid. For an employee getting paid 5.50, the company would pay Pertemps or somewhere about 9 pounds. All the ever did was send a girl around once a week to collect the timesheets, and provide a new temp whenver someone quit. Now, if a teacher is receiving say, 260 from Interac, and the BoE is paying 350k to Interac, then this is about the same fee percentage.

People keep saying Interac and all the others are totally illegal. I can understand if they are screwing you for holidays, but when essentially they are a temping agency, why are they so illegal when a temping agency in any other country isn't? And since they have been operating for years and years and have thousands of employees, yet nothing has ever been done about it, I can't help but think they can't be as illegal as they are said to be.

Please, enlighten me.

c-way · Joined: 19 Nov 2004 Posts: 226 Location: Kyoto, Japan

Finally, some intervention,

furiousmilksheikali has had me on the ropes for about a week now.

cornishmuppet · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 642 Location: Nagano, Japan

C-way, I was hired completely by luck. I'd handed my notice in at my horrible eikawa, was planning to leave on Feb 9th last year. Then, out of the blue, I got an email from a Japanese woman I'd done some summer school teaching with the previous summer. She told me about a job at the BoE, advertised in Japanese at the local Hello Work. I ran down there, handed in my CV, literally bang on the deadline, and got given an interview for the following Monday. As it was advertised in Japanese (the previous guy got it apparently only because his girlfriend had been reading through a Japanese job paper) there were only 5 applicants, but one dropped out at the last minute, one lived in Nagoya, and two couldn't get out of their contracts. Something like that. I was the best of a bad bunch in terms of qualifications, having never taught large groups except on sparse occasions, not having the required car, etc.

I can only imagine that it was advertised in Japanese to attract the long termers of the area. All the other current BoE ALTs have wives and kids here. Two positions came up this year but they were advertised in the local international centre, while we were asked to recommend people.

Strangely enough, my BoE also have five JETs on board as well as seven direct-hires. I don't know why they have both. That's for JHS. The high schools ALTs are all JETs I think, but they are hired by the Kencho, not the city BoE so I don't know anything about that.

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:17 am Post subject:

I didn't mention anything about the legality/illegality of dispatch companies and personally would like to see some evidence of that also. I'll leave it up to the union types to spell out the law to us, I think it would be extremely useful information.

I was describing the way that they are run. Cornishmuppet points out that recruitment agencies are common in the UK also and they operate on the same basis of providing employees to a company and taking their own rather large cut for themselves. If you are happy with this situation then there is not a lot I can say about it.

Some dispatch companies will offer contracts of 170 days work at 10,000 yen per day. 1,700,000 yen a year! With some of these agencies you are required to register with them for a fee and then have to do unpaid training. It is only after registration and training that you will be offered contracts.

This may vary depending on the dispatch company. But the trend is for for companies to become worse rather than better.

c-way · Joined: 19 Nov 2004 Posts: 226 Location: Kyoto, Japan

cornishmuppet · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 642 Location: Nagano, Japan

On a slightly different angle, regardless of how much the dispatch company takes from your salary, are you still getting a better deal than an eikawa teacher?

For example -

Eikawa - 25 classes at an hour each a week. Most different, perhaps one or two for which you can use a different lesson plan. Perhaps 20 different lesson plans a week.
250,000y.

Dispatch ALT - 15 classes at 50 min each a week. Three or four classes in each different grade, meaning you can repeat lesson plans. So maybe seven or eight lesson plans a week. Or, depending on how controlling your teachers are, not make any at all.
250,000y.

Ok, so as an ALT you're generally expected to me there from 8 to 4 roughly. Yet during that time you might have no work. I'm currently typing this email. Yesterday I studied kanji for two hours. An eikawa might say you're free between classes, but if you live far from your school are you really going to go anywhere if you have say, five classes spread over 8 hours? More realistically you would sit in the school, and write emails, or study, or prepare.

While these are no more than examples, personally I think the ALT is getting the better deal. And when you bring average vacation time in, plus flexibility of aforementioned vacation time, I personally would say that working for Interac sounds like a way better deal than working for, say, Nova or Geos.

Just a thought.