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Union claims Aichi alts working illegally
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TokyoLiz

Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 7:22 am Post subject:

Cornishmuppet said

Quote:

I'd say its far more likely what someone else said about Interac trying to make sure they keep their employees within 29.5 hours to exploit all the part time goodness that entails (for them).

Ditto. This could be used as evidence to reduce the pay of ALTs. The rationale is, "Well, they are working fewer hours, so we can reduce their pay."

How did anyone get the impression that union reps would be involved in such a thing? Reducing hours and duties is a ploy on the part of the company.

seklarwia

Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 10:01 am Post subject:

cornishmuppet wrote:

I'd be interested to hear feedback from Interac ALTs to know what Interac says about lunchtime.

Free lunchtimes does certainly contribute to the lack of shakai hoken. As to what Interac says about lunch time: Depends what the school wants to scehdule you for.

Interac doesn't schedule me for anything lunchtime. So you'll find me either enjoying kyuushoku in the main office with kyoto-sensei, koucho-sensei and the few other staff members that don't have homeroom classes to eat with or in one of the smoking areas.

Lunchtime is an hour, but it's hardly enough time to go out for lunch. So although we snack to our hearts content at school, lunch time we have to eat school lunch since the BOE says that all JHS students have to have it... lead by example.

I've spoken to more than a few ALTs that are scheduled to have lunch with the students. They actually had scheduled free periods to compensate (read: keeping them within the 29.5)

Unfortunately, some schools just expect/tell the ALT to have lunch with the students even though they didn't schedule it through Interac. And if it wasn't scheduled it doesn't count towards the 29.5. This seems to happen a bit in elementary schools.

There is a policy that if the school is asking you to do things outside what is scheduled then you should "call Interac", but I'd imagine that if Interac tells the school that lunchtime is free time, then the school would just see the ALT as uncooperative and come resign time, either the ALT will be forced to move schools or find that their contract isn't renewed at all.

fluffyhamster

Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 11:29 am Post subject:

Re-sign (aka renewal time), not resign? (But they're ultimately the same thing, in that sort of situation! ).

Glenski

Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:11 pm Post subject:

cornishmuppet wrote:

If the union had anything to do with it at all they might as well start walking around in clown suits for all the use they are.

seklarwia wrote:

There is a policy that if the school is asking you to do things outside what is scheduled then you should "call Interac"

It's not a "policy" per se. If Interac (or any other agency, not the BOE or school) is your employer, then they are the ones who set the rules of what you do and don't do. Of course, they might collaborate with the BOE or school to agree on a few things (and I suspect that they do, which is why there is variation).

If your employer is Interac, say, not the BOE, and pays you, trains you, and controls your work, then that is an inin type of dispatch situation, and the Osaka Prefectural BOE itself has declared that to be illegal!
http://www.generalunion.org/law/dispatch
Now, does the government step in and police this? Nope, hence the perpetuation of problems and illegalities, and hence the existence and actions of the union.

seklarwia

Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 2:07 pm Post subject:

Where's my mallet to smack that hamster!

Glenski wrote:

It's not a "policy" per se. If Interac (or any other agency, not the BOE or school) is your employer, then they are the ones who set the rules of what you do and don't do.

Why not? Policy has many definitions. This is one from good old Cambridge:

"a set of ideas or a plan of what to do in particular situations that has been agreed officially by a group of people, a business organization, a government or a political party"

It is just one of the many Interac policies we are supposed to follow.

And it's not even because they are the ones who set the rules. They simply don't want an ALT jeopardising any future contracts between the school/BOE and the company by speaking up about anything (even if the ALT is in the right).

Glenski

Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 9:55 pm Post subject:

seklarwia wrote:

They simply don't want an ALT jeopardising any future contracts between the school/BOE and the company by speaking up about anything (even if the ALT is in the right).

Do you mean they avoid an ALT speaking up/ complaining at staff meetings by not letting ALTs attend them? That's the drift I get from what you wrote.

Not very likely IMO. Most ALTs probably can't speak the language well enough, and most newbie ALTs are probably not that brave. Plus, those morning and afternoon meetings are too short, and the headmaster and gakunen chief usually cram so much in that there is little time for further discussion.

Moreover, if any complaints are aired, that ALT could likely be out, replaced by the next 10-200 in line.

seklarwia

Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 10:25 pm Post subject:

Glenski wrote:

How did you get that? As I said before not all Interac ALTs have been told not to attend staff meetings, myself included.

But Interac does tell us never to voice our own opinions directly to the school ourselves and to always call them, even in sensitive cases where nobody but the school staff and parents should be involved. An incident was brought up at our meeting last Saturday, where an ALT spoke about some very indecent behaviour coming from one particular student. And guess what Interac said: "Don't approach the school yourself; tell your manager the details and they will approach the school with your concerns".

And from what many of the Japanese staff I have spoken to have said, they don't want to keep changing ALTs mid year. It makes their life diffiult and it's no good for the students. Unless the complaint is really serious, they'd rather just wait until the contract is up then not have the ALT return the following year.

cornishmuppet

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

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 11:05 pm Post subject:

[quote="Glenski"]

cornishmuppet wrote:

If the union had anything to do with it at all they might as well start walking around in clown suits for all the use they are.

What did you mean by the above statement? The union is only as effective as its members -- fellow teachers. I think they have a fairly impressive list of accomplishments. Why don't you? (if that is what the above means)
http://www.generalunion.org/alt/news/595
[quote]

I mean what I said. If, as was suggested by another poster, the union is responsible for some Interac teachers being spared sitting though a 10 - 20min morning meeting, then I think they should be putting their time to better use, as your link suggests. I just hope they achieve some of it.

Quote:

I think they have a fairly impressive list of accomplishments. Why don't you? (if that is what the above means)

I do. Not so many related to teaching, though. Or are you suggesting I wear a clown suit? Well, Halloween is just around the corner.... Wink

Inflames

Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 486

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 5:49 am Post subject:

seklarwia wrote:

But Interac does tell us never to voice our own opinions directly to the school ourselves and to always call them, even in sensitive cases where nobody but the school staff and parents should be involved. An incident was brought up at our meeting last Saturday, where an ALT spoke about some very indecent behaviour coming from one particular student. And guess what Interac said: "Don't approach the school yourself; tell your manager the details and they will approach the school with your concerns".

I'd bet that (at least) half of the complaints Interac gets from ALTs about schools are ignored, even in serious situations.

I'd also say that there are a few reasons for why Interac doesn't want ALTs to talk directly to the school (something I never got told). The first is legal. The next is that there probably are a lot of petty complaints (from the school as well). The last one is that, if the ALT actually can communicate and seem reasonable, the school will probably start to wonder why they need Interac.

As for telling ALTs not to go to morning meetings, I'd say it's almost certainly because of time. One of the senmon gakkos I work at doesn't even have them. The other one has them, and it's one of the full-timers talking for about 2 minutes basically giving a run-down of important things for the week.

crankyjiji

Joined: 11 Nov 2007
Posts: 21

Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 12:11 am Post subject:

"I mean what I said. If, as was suggested by another poster, the union is responsible for some Interac teachers being spared sitting though a 10 - 20min morning meeting, then I think they should be putting their time to better use, as your link suggests. I just hope they achieve some of it." I'm not a union member and I don't know exactly what's going on. But there is some dispute between Interac, the union, and the Board of Education in the Tokai area of Aichi. The end result for my friend is 20 extra minutes at home in bed or talking with her family (A novel concept in Japan!) for her. You can sit behind your computer and pontificate about how insignificant the union "victory" is, but do you like working for free? Then by all means, put in an extra 20 minutes a day for your master/employer.

Glenski

Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 12:38 am Post subject:

seklarwia wrote:

It would be interesting to know just how well this flies with ALTs and with reality. I mean, there may be some situations where an ALT feels they have to say something to the school staff. Do they follow the Interac policy or not, most of the time?

Quote:

And from what many of the Japanese staff I have spoken to have said, they don't want to keep changing ALTs mid year. It makes their life diffiult and it's no good for the students. Unless the complaint is really serious, they'd rather just wait until the contract is up then not have the ALT return the following year.

The staff may not want to change ALTs, but their admin might do it anyway. There was a recent video report on that, where more than one school had 5-10 (maybe more) ALTs in just one year! Parents and students were up in arms about it, and they were on the vid, too. I don't know any more details. Does this happen a lot? I dunno.

Last edited by Glenski on Sun Nov 01, 2009 12:37 pm; edited 1 time in total

seklarwia

Joined: 20 Jan 2009
Posts: 1546
Location: Monkey onsen, Nagano

Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:30 am Post subject:

Glenski wrote:

Of course they don't. I never run anything through Interac first. But I've never had anything to really complain about to my school, so I don't have any problems. I make arrangements with the school directly all the time and then let Interac know about any changes they need to know about later.

The procedure ALTs and the school are supposed to follow is in many cases totally impractical and a load of crap.

But as long as the school doesn't make any complaints about you speaking to them directly, then Interac won't get on your back about it.

But if you do go to the school directly and the poop hits the fan, then Interac will say, "why didn't you follow the correct procedure?"

So in the case with the indecent child behaviour, should Interac be involved: No, it's something that should be kept as confidential as possible.
But was the ALT in question about to go in and make a serious accusation with no evidence and to the wrong person who may or may not speak enough English to understand properly: Yes, they were. They were about to set themselves up to receive possibly a whole lot worse than a letter of termination. So although the policy sucks and people ignore it with normally no problem, there are times when the procedure should be followed.

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