|
Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
lajzar
Joined: 09 Feb 2003
Posts: 647
Location: Saitama-ken, Japan
|
 Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2005 1:54 pm Post subject: ALT Companies |
 |
|
Here's a short list...
Altia Central (Nagoya)
Interac
RCS (Saitama)
Shane Language Services (Tokyo)
W5
Are there any more that send teachers to elem/JH schools? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2005 1:56 pm Post subject: Re: ALT Companies |
|
|
| lajzar wrote: |
Here's a short list...
Altia Central (Nagoya)
Interac
RCS (Saitama)
Shane Language Services (Tokyo)
W5
Are there any more that send teachers to elem/JH schools? |
Westgate
Ziac/Zenken |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
wangtesol
Joined: 24 May 2005
Posts: 280
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2005 8:17 pm Post subject: illegal ALT companies |
|
|
And have any of these reassured migrant education workers that they are no longer using illegal gyomu itaku contracts? See the "Sticky" here at Dave's ESL Cafe on illegal ALT jobs
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=27353 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
yamanote senbei
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 435
|
| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:17 pm Post subject: |
|
|
ABC Plus
Berkeley House
DIC
Global Partners
Heart English School
Korakuen English Centre
TRILS
WYS |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
silent-noise
Joined: 14 Jun 2005
Posts: 37
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:27 am Post subject: |
|
|
| do you have to be in japan to apply for those schools, or do they do overseas recruiting as well? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:42 am Post subject: |
|
|
| silent-noise wrote: |
| do you have to be in japan to apply for those schools, or do they do overseas recruiting as well? |
Interac and Shane, as far as I know recruit teachers who are overseas. The others require Japanese residency and/or a valid visa. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
yamanote senbei
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 435
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 6:02 am Post subject: |
|
|
| silent-noise wrote: |
| do you have to be in japan to apply for those schools, or do they do overseas recruiting as well? |
Most, if not all of them, are breaking the law and shouldn't even exist in the first place. Why would someone want to work for such an employer? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
tokyorabbit
Joined: 15 Feb 2004
Posts: 30
Location: Tokyo, Japan
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 6:51 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| Most, if not all of them, are breaking the law and shouldn't even exist in the first place. Why would someone want to work for such an employer? |
I`m interested in more info about your comment. Can you explain why they are breaking the law and how that would affect the teacher working for them or teachers working in Japan in general?
I keep hearing comments like this and I want to understand what you are talking about. The ALT seems like a good deal (from an eikawa teacher`s perspective): normal working hours, generous vacation time, the chance to use Japanese at work, no need to push overpriced textbooks, etc. It also seems like the average ALT stays at their job longer than the average "Big 4" instructor.
On the other hand, if they are doing something illegal or unethical, I would like to know about it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 7:27 am Post subject: |
|
|
| tokyorabbit wrote: |
| On the other hand, if they are doing something illegal or unethical, I would like to know about it. |
A Thumbnail Sketch of the Private ALT System in Japan
In 1999, Dispatch Law was deregulated to allow dispatch companies to enter into other fields of work aside from the traditional industry of manufacturing. Education was one of these fields. Since then more and more local boards of education have turned to private ALT dispatching firms rather than using the JET program. In 2005, the Ministry of Education reported at shunto meetings that there are approximately 1500 ALTs from private dispatching companies teaching in Japan.
However, many of the contracts that local boards of education have signed with these companies are illegal gyomu itaku (service) contracts. These contracts violate Edcuation Law since the principal must be in charge of the teachers at his/her school, yet with such contracts the company is actually in charge, not the principal.
Some companies do have dispatch licenses, yet they may still sign an illegal gyomu itaku contract with the local board of education. In order to find out if your city is using illegal contracts, you can ask your local city hall to see the contracts. It is the right of any resident (non-Japanese or Japanese) to see these contracts.
In February 2005 a notice went out from the Ministry of Education to prefectural boards of education to advise them to tell local boards of education to hire ALTs directly and not to use illegal gyomu itaku contracts which violate Education Law.
Private Dispatch Companies
Interac is by far the largest company in the private ALT business and the industry leader with hundreds of ALTs throughout Japan. As of April 2005, they still have not been automatically placing their ALTs into the national health insurance and pension program (shakkai hoken) which is required by law. In May 2005, the Union officially declared a branch at Interac.
Often, smaller companies who do not have work rules, a properly selected employee's representative, and who otherwise violate Labor Standards Law continue to do business cheaply and undercut other bidders for ALT contracts, driving down the monthly salary from the Ministry of Justice's standard of 250,000 yen a month. The Union has fostered improvements for ALT companies such as Heart Corporation, TRILS and RCS, among others.
Local Boards of Education
The Union has been involved with several boards of education in the Kanto area including the Tokyo Board of Education, the Koga (in Ibaraki) Board of Education and the Fukaya (in Saitama) Board of Education. In the case versus the Tokyo Board of Education, the Union won a decision stating that the concerned directly hired ALTs were indeed legally classified as "workers" (rodosha) and not simply contractors. Further victories were achieved through the private companies that had contracts with the Koga and Fukaya boards of education.
First, a primer on the matter:
Recently, the National Union of General Workers (NUGW) has been in contact with numerous boards of education (BoE) in the Kansai, Kanto, Kyushu, and Tokai regions concerning their employment practices regarding Assistant English Teachers (AETs). Boards of Education currently hire teachers in three ways: direct employment (DE), along with two types of dispatch, HAKEN and ININ (illegal).
What's the difference?
Direct Employment means that the BoE hires you, pays you, and controls your workday. This is the ideal situation, because teachers know exactly where they stand in regards to their employment.
HAKEN
- Your employer is not the BoE, even though they control your work. You are hired by private company X which sends you to the BoE: X hires you and pays your salary, and the BoE trains you and directs your work.
ININ (GYOMU ITAKU KEIYAKU)
- The BoE is neither your employer, nor do they control your work. In this case X hires you, pays you, trains you, and controls your work: the BoE is simply the work location.
To make things even worse, a growing number of dispatch companies are now treating their employees as private companies - subcontractors. This kind of work is illegal and the dispatch companies are doing this only in order to deprive teachers of their full rights as employees under the labour laws.
So why does the difference matter?
You may be thinking, 'As long as I'm getting paid, why does it matter how I'm employed as long as I have a job and get my salary?' What many people don't see is that the way you're employed can have a dramatic impact on your employment security.
Let's have a look at the categories one by one:
Direct Employment
- There is no misunderstanding of who the employer is, and usually you are made aware of workplace regulations. Also, there is no argument about who the union should negotiate with, as there is only one possible employer. Job losses appear to be fewer and it's easier to negotiate if job losses do occur.
HAKEN
- Under this system, there may be different expectations on you because in a sense you have two bosses. In order to dispatch a teacher under the HAKEN system, the dispatching company must have a special license. The union believes that this is the only legal kind of dispatch allowed to school boards and universities (see below). Also, because this is supposed to be a temporary placement, after one year (three years as of January 1, 2004) the school board is required to stop using a dispatch agency and either make the job a direct hire or abolish the job itself. This is to ensure that schools don't keep people temporary forever. Many boards have disregarded this one year limit or claim that the dispatch is not HAKEN. The Osaka Prefectural Board's plan was to use HAKEN forever by leaving a gap between employment terms so that they could claim the jobs were temporary. This also leads to employment insecurity as the dispatch contracts need to be renewed each year. If your present employer loses the contract with the school board, you are out of a job.
ININ (ILLEGAL GYOMU ITAKU KEIYAKU)
- According to the Osaka Prefectural Board of Education, this system is illegal in any school board as it is a violation of the Education Law which does not allow teachers who are not under the control of the board of education to work in a school. Despite this, many school boards use this method as there is no limit on the length of time a teacher can be dispatched for (see below). This kind of employment is extremely insecure, as the dispatch contracts need to be renewed each year. If your present employer loses the school board contract, again, you are out of a job.
Diet Hearing on Foreign Workers
Hearing at the Diet with union and non-union foreign workers on human rights and labor law abuses focuses on ALT system woes.
(Tokyo, April 15) Union and non-union foreign workers gathered for a hearing at the Diet to voice their stories of human rights and labor law abuses in Japan to officials from the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry and Democratic Party House of Representatives Member Kazuo Inoue.
This was a follow-up to a similar hearing held last Dec. 3, 2004 with representatives from the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the House of Representatives. Deputy Secretary General of the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu, Louis Carlet, called attention to systemic problems that foreign workers face in comparison to their Japanese counterparts, "The union receives far more unfair dismissal cases regarding foreigners than Japanese."
The Ministry of Education heard personal accounts involving assistant language teachers (ALTs). Some have been working on gyomu itaku contracts which the Ministry deemed to be illegal and notified prefectural Boards of Education in February 2005 to instruct local boards of education not to use the gyomu itaku scheme and to hire through appropriate channels.
The gyomu itaku contracts have plagued the ALT system since 1999 when private dispatching companies were allowed to outsource ALTs to local boards of education. However, many local boards of education have not required that the dispatching company to actually hold a dispatching license, thus avoiding signing proper haken kaisha (dispatch companies) contracts with companies.
Currently, there are approximately 1500 private company ALTs, compared with just over 3000 in the JET program. The privatization of the JET program has resulted in the gyomu itaku snafu which has put Ministry of Education officials at odds with Ministry of Labor officials, who dither on whether the system is illegal or not.
More ministerial and government meetings are expected throughout the year on the gyomu itaku issue.
Related thread:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20041204a5.htm
Non-teaching outsourcing dispute: Love FM Radio Station and Gyomu Itaku contracts
http://fukuoka.generalunion.org/lovefm/
Dodgy dispatch
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/print/features/life2004/fl20041214zg.htm
I am an Assistant Language Teacher at a middle school outside of Tokyo. My employer is a large dispatch company, but I'm not sure if it has a dispatch license.
My manager told me the company has a "gyomu-itaku" or "entrusted service contract" with the local school board. One thing confusing me is whether I am under the authority of my employer, the middle school or both.
According to the nation's Education Law, all teachers should be under the authority of the principal and the local board of Education. Under a "gyomu-itaku" or "entrusted service contract," however, you are only under the authority of your employer.
This means the school cannot instruct you, give you orders, or ask for your removal, etc., since the ALT "service" is "entrusted" to your employer.
Imagine contracting with a company to renovate your bathroom. You would not instruct the wielder how to wield or ask the company to take back a particular pipe-fitter. You entrust the entire operation to the company.
The Education and Labor Ministries have declared that these "gyomu-itaku" contracts for ALTs violate Japan's Dispatch Law.
Unfortunately, boards of education and private companies all around the country have yet to get the message. Many schools apparently want to avoid the responsibility of directly hiring foreigners but want the right to fire at whim and will. And they do. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
einsenundnullen
Joined: 07 Jul 2003
Posts: 76
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 12:59 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Paul,
I haven't logged in lately, but it looks like I did at the right time. That post is deeply interesting to me as a dispatch ALT. Thanks! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:15 pm Post subject: |
|
|
There's more posted on the stickies at the top of the page.
I only pasted what I could in one post.
Enjoy.
PS I would take a lot at the Nambu Union website. a lot of interesting stuff on there too. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
tokyorabbit
Joined: 15 Feb 2004
Posts: 30
Location: Tokyo, Japan
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 6:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
Thanks Paul for the informative response.
I can see how this arrangement would hurt working conditions: First, there is no job security since the dispatch company can always lose the contract. Second, it`s harder to deal with problems directly since you are going through a "middleman" and the school is only your work *environment*, not your employeer. I have worked in situations back home where there is confusion about who is the boss (eg: there is an owner AND a boss and it`s not clear who makes the final decisions) and I know how that can be frustrating.
The sad conclusion I reach is that basically all dispatch companies fall into this category and that`s where I`m lost as what I should do next. For me, the hours, working conditions, and environment would still be better than an eikawa situation (as it likely would for most conversation school teachers with weird hours). The main personal risk would be the job instability. I also want to think about how I am affecting working conditions for everyone in Japan.
Is working directly for the school board a realistic third option? I have never seen this type of job advertised and I have no special skills other than two years teaching and an undergraduate degree. I desperately want to move into daytime hours and have a "normal life". |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Willy_In_Japan
Joined: 20 Jul 2004
Posts: 329
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 8:37 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| The sad conclusion I reach is that basically all dispatch companies fall into this category and that`s where I`m lost as what I should do next. For me, the hours, working conditions, and environment would still be better than an eikawa situation (as it likely would for most conversation school teachers with weird hours). The main personal risk would be the job instability. I also want to think about how I am affecting working conditions for everyone in Japan |
Do what is best for you TokyoRabbit. I worked at GEOS and am working as an ALT right now. There is no comparison. Being an ALT gives you better working hours, more holidays, more opportunity to learn Japanese, more opportunities for part time work. Geos contracted on a year to year basis and it was at their pleasure if you were allowed to 'continue' or not, so I wouldnt consider the job any less 'stable'.
I know that Gyomu Itaku contracts are illegal. I would LOVE to be hired by the BOE direct. The Union is right to try and knock them down. However, I dont think that focusing on individual companies such as Interac et al, is going to do a thing to improve the situation. Lobbying the Ministry of Education to change the system sure. But demanding that these companies stop 'illegal' Gyomu Itaku contracts is in essence saying "Please eliminate my job". "I don't like working as an ALT, please send me to businesses to teach english".
I personally think the 'stand' people should be taking is to reject contracts that pay less than 250,000. I would like to see the Union lobby the Ministry of Education to ensure that this minimum 'standard' is maintained. They are the ones allowing these bidding wars. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
einsenundnullen
Joined: 07 Jul 2003
Posts: 76
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 9:20 am Post subject: |
|
|
| So, what's the future of these companies? Will attention be brought to them (that is, will the Ministry of Labor have a look at their operating procedures) that eventually forces them to operate legally or close? Could problems in this area encourage boards of education to hire directly when not using the JET program? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
wangtesol
Joined: 24 May 2005
Posts: 280
|
| Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 5:50 am Post subject: |
|
|
Willy_in_Japan said
| Quote: |
| I know that Gyomu Itaku contracts are illegal. I would LOVE to be hired by the BOE direct. The Union is right to try and knock them down. However, I dont think that focusing on individual companies such as Interac et al, is going to do a thing to improve the situation. Lobbying the Ministry of Education to change the system sure. But demanding that these companies stop 'illegal' Gyomu Itaku contracts is in essence saying "Please eliminate my job". "I don't like working as an ALT, please send me to businesses to teach english". |
The union has already lobbied the government on this issue and got fantastic results: The Ministry of Education agreed with the unions position that gyomu itaku was illegal. However, the Ministry of Labor did not commit itself to saying so. A group can only spend so much time lobbying on an issue. Despite what people might think, the National Union of General Workers is not endowed with a wealth of resources. A significant amount of their work is done by volunteers.
And with the unions demanding the companies to stop gyomu itaku gives the companies the excuse to go to their clients and blame the union for being pressured into signing legal contracts.
The ALT jobs do not have to be filled via illegal gyomu (service) contracts. They could be hired directly. I know of one school board that has a program with the University of Alberta where they send a certified teacher. It is a win-win situtation since the board gets a qualified teacher and the teacher gets a decent and legal job. It is just a matter of not taking the lazy and illegal way. But perhaps some school boards really just do not want to deal with foreigners.
Willy_in_Japan writes
| Quote: |
| I personally think the 'stand' people should be taking is to reject contracts that pay less than 250,000. I would like to see the Union lobby the Ministry of Education to ensure that this minimum 'standard' is maintained. They are the ones allowing these bidding wars. |
I agree, but most migrant education workers do not know their rights. They do not know that there are standards. And so in that vein, the 250,000 yen/month is just a guideline, it is not a minimum standard. It cannot be legally upheld, but it can be striven for by teachers who cooperate together. (you can start to learn about your rights at www.nambufwc.org)
I will never forget the rat I worked with who wondered out loud to us other ALTs one day about how our ALT company and others could drive down the wage to 180,000/month. Well, it was because of rats like him who ratted out union members and teachers who were trying to organize to make working conditions better. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling.
Contact Dave's ESL Cafe
Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
