TozenAdmin “If a foreigner is admitted as a resident and has the right to vote, the consciousness of local assembly members, companies and communities will change and their discrimination against foreigners will decline,” he said.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20060103f3.htm
Many thanks to Nambu members who made it all the way out to Chitosekarasuyama at 7:40am on Christmas Eve to protest the non-renewal of a member at Kosei Gakuen Girls High School. The high school has only one entrance, which made it very easy to hand out leaflets to the students as they arrived. The student population is about 500, and we handed out over 400 leaflets, so the majority of the girls, and their parents, will now be aware of the administration’s arbitrary approach to hiring and firing.
A record high 198,380 foreigners were working in Japan as of June 1, up 10.2 percent from a year earlier, according to a recent survey by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
A total of 144,891 were indirectly-employed workers, including temporary or contract staff, an increase of 9.4 percent, the ministry said.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20051224a8.htm
The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that a public housing corporation should return the deposit it seized from a tenant to cover repairs in an apartment from normal wear and tear.
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20051216p2a00m0na021000c.html
Flash Demo at Berlitz Omiya Branch
Teachers Disciplined For Trivial Reasons
The disrequest system at Berlitz is just one example of threats to job security faced by teachers in the eikaiwa industry. HR representatives claim that a pattern of complaints concerning any particular instructor can lead to discipline, and that six to eight official disrequests over a period of two years is enough to constitute a pattern.
Given that teachers may meet hundreds of students and teach thousands of lessons over the period of a year, added to the fact that complaints can be based on anything from the teacher?s facial expression (?she didn?t smile?) to completely subjective judgements (?we weren?t a good match?), the unfairness of this standard is immediately apparent.
The union cannot allow teachers to face discipline, and potential threats to their livelihood, based on such standards. BEGUNTO will continue to fight for job security both at Berlitz, and throughout the industry.
October 28, 2005
Nambu and the Nambu Interac Branch held its first ever collective bargaining with Interac management on Friday, Oct. 28 at 7:30 pm.
Is a part time teacher at a “senmon gakko” (ten 90-minute classes over three days) entitled to pro rata annual paid leave?
A representative of the National Union of General Workers in Tokyo advises that, roughly speaking, those working less than 30 hours a week are eligible to “hirei-fuyo nenji-yukyu” (pro rata paid holidays).
http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20050920a1.htm
The decision earlier this week by McDonald’s Holdings Co. (Japan) to make up for inadequate overtime wages and nonscheduled cash earnings owed to nearly 130,000 part-time and regular-payroll workers has sent a shock wave through industries heavily dependent on employees paid by the hour.
A Tokyo-based managers’ union that has also received complaints about McDonald’s said the nonexistence of a union is one factor behind the problems with part-time workers’ pay.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20050805a6.htm
Across the Tokyo region, Berlitz language teachers are striking. Members of the Begunto Union, the Berlitz teachers’ union in the Tokyo region of Japan, are striking against management actions regarding a pay freeze and introduction of new work contracts they see as less than satisfactory.
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=243288&rel_no=1
The size of Japan’s workforce is expected to peak ? and start falling ? within the next 2 years. But many it’s not easy being gaijin in Japan.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/08/04/PM200508043.html