Job Discussion Forums

[tokyo376]

[yamanote senbei]

Whether Interac has connections with the Mormon church or BYU isn't the issue. The issue is that Interac and the boards of education they do business with are breaking the law. Outsourcing teachers is and always has been illegal. You would figure that a large company like Interac, which also has a dispatch licence and a reputation to protect, would and could do things right.

If you want to make a connection to BYU you could say that Interac's management, many of which are BYU alumni, are breaking BYU's own honor code, not to mention the laws of Japan.

(direct links to to the BYU honor code are dead right now, so here's what it says at BYU Idaho)

"Be honest...Obey the law and all campus policies...Respect others"

http://www.byui.edu/DeanOfStudents/Honorcode.htm

ALT outsourcing should have never happened. Even if the parties involved claim that that law isn't clear, even though the law is clear, ALT outsourcing should have ended in February 2005 when Monbukagasho issued a directive on the subject.

All ALTs who have worked for or are currently working for Interac should be directly hired by their repective boards of education and should be repaid any profits that Interac made off of their employment. How much that is depends on the contract, but it's probably at least 80,000 yen a month. That's more than enough for ALTs to be properly enrolled in Shakai Hoken, as required by law, and give them all substantial raises.

[Seeker of truth]

Yamanote-sensei,
if "outsourcing teachers is and always has been illegal", what would it take to correct the situation?

Would someone have to file suit somewhere in Japan? Certainly there should be some eager volunteers.

[[email protected]]

Good question Seeker of Truth. The truth just may be that these contract are NOT illegal.

It seems a little strange to me that all these Boards of Education would be doing something "illegal" for years.

I think they are legal- otherwise the authorities would have done something about it.

I agree that the issue of whether Interac is owned by Mormons shouldn't be an issue. But when the head of the Interac union keeps bringing it up in a hateful manner, it becomes an issue. This is despite the fact that numerous people have written in saying religion is not an issue at Interac.

That's the Interac union by the way, that has zero support among Interac teachers.

[Seeker of truth]

Here's a good link related to Interac's activities...

http://nambufwc.org/issues/alt/

Let me know what you think.

[yamanote senbei]

Kanagawa, as of the new school year, will replace all of their direct hired foreign high school teachers with teachers illegally outsourced through Interac. Kanagawa already has enough of a budget problem the way it is now, but wait until they are sued by the 100 or so current teachers that lost their jobs, and Kanagawa will have to pay both them and Interac. The only good thing that will happen out of this is that high school students in Kanagawa will have twice as many native English teachers. The bad news is that after this fiasco the Kanagawa BOE probably won't have the money to pay for heat or A/C for the next school year.

[einsenundnullen]

Gimp,

Based on what I've read about 'gyoumu itaku' dispatching, the kind of work we do is based on system that certainly goes against the spirit of the concerned laws and almost certainly the letter as well. Anyway...