Job Discussion Forums

[john152]

Most jobs in Japanese public schools are with dispatch companies. With a dispatch company they recruit you then you are their employee. The board of education will pay them and then they pay you. Boards of education just use dispatch companies out of convenience so they don't have to manage you, unlike other countries for example Korea where a school assigns you a manager (ie one of the teachers).

Some interesting things about dispatch companies.

1. When the school is closed, dispatch companies will often dispatch you to other jobs. You get much less vacation then a direct hire ALT(assistant language teacher) or a JET.
2. Your pay is much lower than a direct hire, sometimes dispatch companies will get $4,000 dollars a month from a school and only pay you $2000, even though you are doing all of the work.
3. Dispatch companies will often not pay into the national health insurance and say they are not required to because you are working 29.5 hours not 30. This is not true, and the union has successfully filed complaints over this. So few people complain which is why they get away with it.
4. In a dispatch company you have much less job security then a direct hire. Just being a man when they wanted a woman, or having one bad day could be enough.
5. Dispatch companies will sometimes get you to sign a contract saying you will have to pay $1,000 dollars if you quit, because of many people do quit due to poor working conditions. This is not legal under Japanese law, and the union can get your money back.

It is also important to know public schools can not tell you what to do in any way if you are a dispatch company employee, even saying put the eraser over there. If people contact the union http://www.generalunion.org to file a complaint over health insurance or some other labor law violation schools will change to direct hire. Sometimes one complaint is all it takes to get a school to do direct hire.

Having boards of Education use the direct hire system benefits teachers with higher wages, and more job security, but it also benefits students.

1. Lower turnover with ALTS means more experienced teachers.
2. Schools will have happier more motivated teachers.
3. Students can build a connection with their students, dispatch companies will often go through four teachers in a year.
4. ALT's can actually be a part of the school and make contributions and improvements to English education at the school.

http://www.generalunion.org/

[Glenski]

[fluffyhamster]

I wonder if there will come a point when BOEs start dispatching with AETs altogether? I mean, are they legally obliged to provide native English speakers in public schools?

[Ikki]

No, I don't think public schools are LEGALLY obligated to provide barbarian teachers.

This topic is old news now but I'm glad it's been brought up again, in the faint hope that those who are even faintly considering taking a dispatch contract will come to their senses and say "no *beeping* way."

I used to think eikaiwa were evil incarnate until dispatch outfits came around. Hell, I'd rather work for the old NOVA than Interac, etc.

But things won't change until NSTs simply refuse, en masse, to sign up for that kind of abuse. For the Japanese powers that be, the plight of foreign teachers was mighty low on the priority list pre-March 11...can you imagine where it is now?

[Glenski]

They most certainly are not obligated to have native English speakers at all. The terribly low crappy level kids that I get in university are evidence that many schools don't have any.

(Not that they help much if they are only ALTs...but better than nothing.)

[rich45]

Just for balance, there are some legit dispatch agencies...I know because I work for one. Admittedly they are a small family business with only 5 ALTs, but I am fully paid during vacations and earn slightly above the average, and they have been great to me during the last 8 months or so.

I realise this is the exception to the rule though.

[Nagoyaguy]

If you want to learn how much the local dispatch company is making, it is easy. Just go to your local city hall and file a Freedom of Information request, and you can request a copy of the contract between the city and the dispatch company. It is a public document. You may have to pay for photocopying, but that is all.

Where I live, the dispatchers were getting 25 million yen per year to provide 5 ALTs- 3 at JHS and 2 at ES. 5 million yen per ALT per year.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Glenski]

Guidelines are guidelines, not laws. Targets are targets, not laws. There are probably far more than 11,500 schools, and even with one ALT bouncing between multiple schools, I don't think that covers everyone.

As for "Boards of education have to have them", can you give a more solid legal requirement? I ask only because it sounds like from many students I get in uni that they've often never seen an ALT in their HS before!

And, I'm sure you'll agree with me, Gambatte, that even if teacher training doesn't require anything about working with ALTs, it darned well should! But, that's good old Japan 30 years behind the times.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Glenski]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Glenski]

Thanks for the clarification, Gambate. We have different POVs. As long as we both understand where we are coming from, we'll survive.

[CarolinaBen]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]