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Dispatch strikes again!
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taikibansei



Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Posts: 811
Location: Japan

PostPosted: Fri Jul 06, 2018 12:00 am    Post subject: Dispatch strikes again! Reply with quote

A sad situation in Fukuoka, where direct hire (albeit on one-year contracts) ALTs working in a successful program are to be replaced by dispatch workers.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2018/07/04/issues/fukuokas-guest-teachers-english-outstay-welcome/#.Wz11v9X7SUk

The article has all the gory details. That said, in this article, they make points I have also made here...repeatedly.

Quote:

When directly hired, “guest teachers” received ¥3,800 per class. Contracts obtained by the Fukuoka General Union show the city is paying ¥6,575 per class to the OWLS dispatch company, which won the contract to provide teachers for 13,930 classes in 72 schools in Fukuoka’s East Block. Interac will receive ¥6,542 per class to provide teachers for 14,000 classes in 72 schools in Fukuoka’s West Block.


Quote:

The General Union has calculated that a dispatched instructor earning a monthly salary of ¥230,000 will get about ¥1,950 out of the ¥6,500 that the city pays per class, with the rest going to the company.


Quote:
The General Union has calculated that the city is paying close to ¥3,000 more in taxpayer money per lesson than it was under the GT system (see sidebar).


It has never been about providing better education or even saving money. It was and is about BOE laziness/racism and dispatcher greed.
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rxk22



Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629

PostPosted: Fri Jul 06, 2018 2:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Too slow, was coming to post this.
This also is a way to get the fresh faces that many schools seem to want. Instead of someone who has some experience, there seems to be a desire to hire people who are new to Japan and eager to teach, despite a total lack of experience.

So basically this is going to raise costs, probably lower quality, why? Because BOEs don't like dealing with foreigners. Lower wages will result from this, as it basically says so in the article. This is a net loss for basically anyone that isn't Interac or OWL(never heard of OWL)
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The Transformer



Joined: 03 Mar 2017
Posts: 69

PostPosted: Fri Jul 06, 2018 7:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No surprises there. Being a "guest teacher", as the BoE guy points out, means what it says on the tin, i.e. you're a guest and nothing more, no matter how many years of quality service you've put in. These people don't regard their "teachers" as anything more than dispensable items.

And the idea that "NTs" are going to be "specially trained" by Interac is beyond hilarious. What a fake excuse for using a dispatch company!
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TokyoLiz



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

PostPosted: Fri Jul 06, 2018 7:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Instead of someone who has some experience, there seems to be a desire to hire people who are new to Japan and eager to teach, despite a total lack of experience...


... and lack of knowledge of the history of hiring in that area, or labor laws or workers rights.

It’s so vile that they would pay extra to vulture hakken companies that provide little to no support to the ALTs apparently just to avoid face time with the foreign employees.
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rxk22



Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629

PostPosted: Fri Jul 06, 2018 8:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What the Transformer and Liz said. It's just an excuse to not have to deal with alts. I think it's funny that basically the JTE can't even talk to the ALT in any legal sense.
I worked for interac years ago. Three days if training plus three days of training spread out over the year. Was basically nothing. An NT and a guest teacher are essentially the same outside of experience
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TokyoLiz



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

PostPosted: Sat Jul 07, 2018 12:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

While I was reading up on this situation, I thought something looked familiar. It’s the ALT Scam page from the Fukuoka General Union. The link circulated on this forum a few times.

So, OWLS has been doing this for nearly 10 years in Fukuoka... It looks like there is some sketchy relationship between OWLS and the BoE.

FYI to prospective ALTs -read ALT Scam and Do’s and Dont’s.

http://fukuoka.generalunion.org
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Black_Beer_Man



Joined: 26 Mar 2013
Posts: 453
Location: Yokohama

PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 9:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This story just shows how much contempt Japan has for foreigners. As much as I hate it, I can understand the dispatch companies' greed, but the board of educations' cutting the wages of direct hire foreign teachers from 6500 yen per lesson to 3800 yen is downright disgusting and disappointing. The Japanese take care of their own people (the dispatch companies), but not guests to their country.
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taikibansei



Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Posts: 811
Location: Japan

PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 9:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Black_Beer_Man wrote:
This story just shows how much contempt Japan has for foreigners. As much as I hate it, I can understand the dispatch companies' greed, but the board of educations' cutting the wages of direct hire foreign teachers from 6500 yen per lesson to 3800 yen is downright disgusting and disappointing. The Japanese take care of their own people (the dispatch companies), but not guests to their country.


While I agree with the sentiment, your numbers are a bit off. As direct hires, the "guest teachers" got ¥3,800 per class--i.e., the full amount from the BOE.

The dispatch companies will now be receiving ¥6500 per class--i.e., the BOE will be paying over 40% more for each class--but the actual teachers will be getting just ¥1,950 of that.

Those are the correct figures...not that they help make any better sense of this.
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Black_Beer_Man



Joined: 26 Mar 2013
Posts: 453
Location: Yokohama

PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

taikibansei wrote:
Black_Beer_Man wrote:
This story just shows how much contempt Japan has for foreigners. As much as I hate it, I can understand the dispatch companies' greed, but the board of educations' cutting the wages of direct hire foreign teachers from 6500 yen per lesson to 3800 yen is downright disgusting and disappointing. The Japanese take care of their own people (the dispatch companies), but not guests to their country.


While I agree with the sentiment, your numbers are a bit off. As direct hires, the "guest teachers" got ¥3,800 per class--i.e., the full amount from the BOE.

The dispatch companies will now be receiving ¥6500 per class--i.e., the BOE will be paying over 40% more for each class--but the actual teachers will be getting just ¥1,950 of that.

Those are the correct figures...not that they help make any better sense of this.


The BOE, probably at some point in the recent past, dropped the wages of direct hire foreign teachers from 6500 yen, because I was making 6500 yen / lesson back in 1999 when I was employed by the Tokyo Metropolitan School Board.
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Black_Beer_Man



Joined: 26 Mar 2013
Posts: 453
Location: Yokohama

PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I can see Japanese BOE members and dispatch company bosses laughing at us over beers the izakayas. What's the word in Japanese for "suckers"?
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taikibansei



Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Posts: 811
Location: Japan

PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 9:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Black_Beer_Man wrote:


The BOE, probably at some point in the recent past, dropped the wages of direct hire foreign teachers from 6500 yen, because I was making 6500 yen / lesson back in 1999 when I was employed by the Tokyo Metropolitan School Board.


The article suggests that they'd been receiving that rate (¥3,800 per class) for at least ten years.
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taikibansei



Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Posts: 811
Location: Japan

PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 9:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Black_Beer_Man wrote:
I can see Japanese BOE members and dispatch company bosses laughing at us over beers the izakayas. What's the word in Japanese for "suckers"?


だまされやすい人 or おめでたい人 are the standard dictionary definitions, but as a slang term, かも comes to mind.
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TokyoLiz



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

PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Do Fukuoka taxpayers know that the dispatch ALTs are now much more expensive than directly employed ones?

http://www.generalunion.org/alts-dispatch/1900-fukuoka-s-cost-of-doing-business-with-dispatch-companies

Labor rules say ALT and JTE are prohibited from collaborating on lesson planning and teaching. So, Fukuoka gets inferior service and schools get a teacher they cannot supervise.

Interac and OWLS staff are not teacher-trainers.
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taikibansei



Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Posts: 811
Location: Japan

PostPosted: Sun Jul 08, 2018 11:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

TokyoLiz wrote:
Do Fukuoka taxpayers know that the dispatch ALTs are now much more expensive than directly employed ones?

[...]

Labor rules say ALT and JTE are prohibited from collaborating on lesson planning and teaching. So, Fukuoka gets inferior service and schools get a teacher they cannot supervise.


That's a really good question. I know the union guy interviewed for the article, and I have done work for the national union as well. He/they/we have been trying to get this information out to Japanese taxpayers for years.

I think the answer is that the taxpayers do not know...but the even sadder truth is that they also don't want to know.... (Not knowing allows them to say they feel "shocked" each time they are confronted with the information.)
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marley'sghost



Joined: 04 Oct 2010
Posts: 255

PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2018 12:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I bet the BOE only now figured out they would have to start making those "guest teachers" into 正社員 and they panicked. Which I mean really, for the money they spend on a dispatch co. they could certainly afford to do that. But it's all about taking responsibility. The BOE would now be responsible and lose face if/when there is an incident or problem.

The "no team teaching" thing is a joke. I work for Interac on a gyomu-itaku contract and I team teach all the time. I'm the main teacher, and give the directions in class, but sometimes the JTE comes up with the lesson plan. Or we switch a bit back and forth giving directions or explaining things or the JTE needs 10 minutes for a vocab test or something. We work together during class monitoring and helping students while they write or practice speaking or whatever. I mean probably the most important common determiner in educational quality is the teacher to student ration. (One of you academic types back me up here). It would be criminal to not use the JTE.

That "no directions" thing includes schedule changes. Any and all. So when there is a schedule change, the teacher is supposed to get a hold of the office and the overworked girls at the office office then get a hold of me to inform me. I mean really. You can't work like that.

What will eventually happen after everything settles down is that the schools and the newly converted NTs will slide back to doing things pretty much how they did them before. Just with another layer of paperwork to pay lip-service to the law and lower salaries for the foreigners.
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