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General Union
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 12
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 Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2004 4:51 am Post subject: Dispatch Teachers |
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The number of dispatch teachers across the industry is growing. This is coupled with a derioration of working conditions. The General Union is holding a seminar to discuss the issues on March 7th in Osaka. Even if you cannot attend, we ask that you participate by taking our survey.
www.generalunion.org |
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General Union
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2004 6:05 am Post subject: Dispatch teachers-high schools, company classes etc |
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| Have you taken the survey yet? |
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shmooj
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1758
Location: Seoul, ROK
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| Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:18 am Post subject: |
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I presume you're not schizophrenic and having a conversation with yourself then 
You might want to mention that the survey you invite us to take is only for those in despatch teaching jobs.
That might save some people the time of looking to no purpose... |
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fat_chris
Joined: 10 Sep 2003
Posts: 3198
Location: Beijing
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| Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2004 5:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Huh? |
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shmooj
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1758
Location: Seoul, ROK
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 12:00 am Post subject: |
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| Eh? |
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denise
Joined: 23 Apr 2003
Posts: 3419
Location: finally home-ish
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 2:34 am Post subject: |
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You might also tell us who you are and what the purpose of the survey is. I haven't looked at it because I am not part of the target population, but still, I get a bit suspicious when asked to look at random surveys that dont' come with explanations.
d |
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fat_chris
Joined: 10 Sep 2003
Posts: 3198
Location: Beijing
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 6:28 am Post subject: |
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| denise wrote: |
You might also tell us who you are and what the purpose of the survey is. I haven't looked at it because I am not part of the target population, but still, I get a bit suspicious when asked to look at random surveys that dont' come with explanations.
d |
Agreed. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 12:11 pm Post subject: |
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| denise wrote: |
You might also tell us who you are and what the purpose of the survey is. I haven't looked at it because I am not part of the target population, but still, I get a bit suspicious when asked to look at random surveys that dont' come with explanations.
d |
The Osaka General Union is a union representing teachers at high schools, eikaiwas, universities and colleges and is based in osaka. at the moment OGU has about 400 or 500 paid up financial members
This is the blurb on their website if you bothered to look.
The Immigration Departments relaxation of visa regulations has brought about new employment patterns in the language teaching industry. Employers have leapt at the opportunity these changes present, introducing working conditions that not so long ago would have been unbelievably bad. Conditions for those dispatched to business, university and school classes have all deteriorated.
Companies such as Westgate have been able to manipulate the system to their advantage; offering short-term contracts of 3-4 months duration at colleges and universities with immigration granting teachers 1-3 year visas. Teachers are denied paid leave during school vacations and are reliant upon whatever part-time work they can obtain just to survive. Another company, Ziac, dispatching to Board�fs of Education are paying teachers as little as 10,000 yen per day.
Teachers at ECC-Best Career are in a similar bind. Best Career has turned reasonably paid full-time positions at Osaka Board of Education into sub-standard jobs that do not allow teachers to meet their financial commitments. Publicly, the Board stated they were introducing a new kind of position � 3 days per week at 160,000 per month. This is far from the reality. ECC-Best Career only pays teachers for the time worked, leaving teachers unpaid throughout the long summer and winter vacations.
Dispatching denies teachers the stability of a regular monthly salary, and in the case of ECC-Best Career, teachers are left with salaries as low as 80,000 some months. Teachers are also denied basic working conditions such as paid preparation time, health, pension, and unemployment insurance.
Until recently, the majority of teachers were employed at one company with the occasional side-job. Today, it is not uncommon for teachers to rely upon multiple part-time employers for their livelihood. While this change has brought some benefits for teachers in flexibility, ultimately it has lead to the deterioration of working conditions and the quality of education across the industry.
Companies such as Interac, ALC, OTC, Time TI, and ILC, traditionally hired full-time teachers, mainly dispatching them to company classes. Rather than pay legally guaranteed working conditions to full-timers, these companies have been quick to take advantage of the changes in immigration rules. With a more disposable, part-time workforce available, these full-time positions are disappearing. |
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easyasabc
Joined: 13 Jul 2003
Posts: 179
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 12:58 pm Post subject: |
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| PAULH wrote: |
This is the blurb on their website if you bothered to look.
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I just noticed that my company is listed as ones of those which is taking "advantage of the changes in immigration rules" so I went and did the survey and wrote that I think they are being very unreasonable tarring all those companies with the same brush because:
- I'm full-time
- I'm very generously paid (most people I know say they would kill to have my job)
- I get paid annual leave
- I get health insurance
- I get very generously reimbursed for my travelling costs
- My company is very supportive whenever I need anything
- As far as I know all the people teaching for my branch office have been working for my company for at least as long as me (4 years) because they realise what an extremely good deal we have.
- If people are dumb enough or unqualified enough to work in bad conditions, that's their stupid fault. We shouldn't feel sorry for them like the union website seems to, we shoul be annoyed at them for accepting those conditions and setting a precedent. If nobody took jobs with the said working conditions those working conditions wouldn't exist. |
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easyasabc
Joined: 13 Jul 2003
Posts: 179
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 1:07 pm Post subject: |
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Oh!
I just noticed this on the union website info:
".........dispatching to Board�s of Education are paying teachers ......."
What's with the apostrophe in "board's"?
If they don't even check their own website to make sure their information uses correct English how professional are they?????
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 1:13 pm Post subject: I just couldn't do it, babe. |
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At first glance, the survey seemed relevant and useful. But I won't fill it out because including the details they ask would compromise the privacy of my coworkers. And unless I choose to be a member, I would rather not give my personal details. For these reasons, I wouldn't fill out the survey.
Why doesn't the General Union produce a survey that would protect the anonymity of the teachers and schools and gather a wider spectrum of survey-filler-outers.
I'd be happy to respond to a survey which is less personal. I feel that the kind of information you're intending to collect would be useful to all foreign national teachers in Japan. |
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easyasabc
Joined: 13 Jul 2003
Posts: 179
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 1:28 pm Post subject: Re: I just couldn't do it, babe. |
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| TokyoLiz wrote: |
At first glance, the survey seemed relevant and useful. But I won't fill it out because including the details they ask would compromise the privacy of my coworkers. And unless I choose to be a member, I would rather not give my personal details. For these reasons, I wouldn't fill out the survey.
Why doesn't the General Union produce a survey that would protect the anonymity of the teachers and schools and gather a wider spectrum of survey-filler-outers. |
I agree with you - I didn't want to give any of my information or my company information so I did it without filling out all the personal info and it seemed like it was accepted. |
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 1:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Ok, maybe I'll break down and fill out the info. |
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General Union
Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 1:47 pm Post subject: |
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Apologies to those of you who think we didn't give enough information as to who we are or why we were posting the survey. But as someone else pointed out, you could have just checked out our site. And apolgies for the typo but perhaps we need a volunteer such as yourself to edit our site for errant apostrophes. And no we do not purport to be professionals - we are an NGO made up of teachers such as yourself, whose intent is to try and protect working conditions throughout the industry.
As to the survey- Unfortunately, the site we used to build the survey on is very unclear as to which fields are compulsory and which fields are voluntary. The only compulsory fields are those marked with a red asterix but unfortunately there is no way to make that clearer. And for this you actually have my sincere apologies. |
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tokyoworkingman
Joined: 21 Feb 2004
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Not exactly a fan of the Hoffa man myself but what a buch of wankers you all are. Shmooj? Why the need to reply to every damn forum in existence? Especially when you have nothing of relevance to contribute. Your alter ego wouldn't be Glenski? And easyasabc, you seem to like to criticize apostrophy usuage but you have yet to grasp the fundamentals of commas. |
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