柏市立の小中学校全６１校で英語を教えていた外国人指導助手（ＡＬＴ）について厚生労働省千葉労働局が違法な「偽装請負」と認定した問題で、是正を指導された柏市教委は２８日、英語の授業を７月初旬に再開すると発表した。従来通りの業務委託契約だが、授業で外国人講師と日本人教師の受け持ち時間を区切り、教師からの指示命令をなくすことで違法状態とならないようにするという。
ALT
７月上旬に授業再開 柏ＡＬＴ是正指導 業務委託、厳密に運用
外国語指導助手（ＡＬＴ）の業務請負契約をめぐり、柏市が千葉労働局から「偽装請負」に当たるとして是正指導を受けた問題で、市は二十八日、業務委託方式によって暫定的に七月上旬から授業を再開すると発表した。
授業時間を外国人と分離 柏市の指導助手事業再開へ
柏市立小中学校の外国語指導助手（ＡＬＴ）事業が千葉労働局から是正指導を受け、中断している問題で、市教育委員会は２８日、日本人の教員と外国人で担当の授業時間を分ける方法を導入し、７月から業務委託方式で事業を再開すると明らかにした。
Still waiting for that last paycheck
Reader TS writes: “I return to the U.S. next week and I was supposed to receive my final pay check from a really bad ALT company . . . last week, but did not receive payment. I’ve called them but the secretaries say that the people in charge are not in the office. I called my direct contact and he has yet to call me back.
“I’ve read on the Internet that with your last pay check this company will try and avoid paying you since the pay date is so close to when you have to return to your home country, and that when you return they will try and avoid all contact with you. I’m going to keep calling them, but somehow I worry that it is futile.”
It is not unusual for a last paycheck to be withheld. Often there are expenses that an employee has incurred, such as rent from a company-provided apartment, health insurance, pension premiums and so on. Often these are deducted from a final paycheck. At the same time — especially in these economically tight times — some companies will try to avoid paying for that final month.
This can also happen when leaving an apartment. Landlords will sometimes add on a number of dubious expenses to avoid having to return key money and deposits.
Louis Carlet, executive president of the Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union (Tozen), suspects that in TS’ case the company is simply trying to dodge making that last payment.
“I have bad news for you,” he writes in an e-mail. “As a union rep for six years, I can honestly say I have received more complaints about your company than about any other in any industry. Unpaid wages is the most common grievance, while the No. 2 is that they are difficult to contact. Investigators from the Labor Standards Office and other government agencies have told me personally that they cannot get hold of management even to investigate the many unpaid wage claims.
“Currently, seven of our union members have sued the company [JALSS] for unpaid wages. We have other members and potential members waiting in line to join the suit.
“If you are leaving the country, it will be hard to get your money back since the ordinary process involves first going to the LSO and then perhaps taking the employer to court. The reality is discouraging, but if an employer knows you are leaving Japan, he or she can usually get away with taking your last pay. The LSO and courts move at a glacial pace and nearly any victory requires patience, dedication and concentrated determination.
“You could join our or another labor union and ask to have the case worked out after you are away. But there are difficulties for us to fight a case for someone not here and there is no guarantee you will ever win. This is why building a strong labor union is essential to prevent such abuses before they happen.”
Education ministry planning to improve quality of teachers
The education ministry plans to improve the quality of teachers by drastically overhauling the current licensing system and lengthening the time required for teacher training, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will seek advice on the matter as early as June from the Central Council for Education, an advisory body to the ministry.
Many newly employed teachers start working at schools without sufficient practical teaching skills and some cannot cope with different school problems, which have grown more and more complex.
The Democratic Party of Japan blames the current licensing system for these problems. It also criticizes the training system for not providing sufficient teaching practice at schools and for the increase in the number of candidates who decide not to become teachers after undergoing the training at schools, which usually lasts two to four weeks.
The DPJ proposed a drastic review of the licensing system and extension of the overall training system to six years as one of its campaign pledges in the August House of Representatives election.
The council will discuss the matter based on such proposals.
The ministry plans to ask the council to discuss appropriate systems to improve the quality of teachers, namely how to train candidate teachers, hire teachers and train incumbent teachers.
Although the ministry does not plan to ask the panel to discuss specific points, the licensing and training systems are likely to be the topics for discussion.
The education minister, vice minister and parliamentary secretary have been reviewing the license renewal system introduced in 2009 and considering the creation of a specialist certification system, which certifies teachers who have worked in such specific fields as life counseling and school management.
The ministry also aims to set up a master’s course to provide significant on-the-job training and other programs, in addition to the current four-year undergraduate course.
英語指導助手：千葉県柏市で「偽装請負」認定 授業できず
千葉県柏市の市立小中学校全６１校で３月末まで英語を教えていた外国人の指導助手（ＡＬＴ）２３人について、厚生労働省千葉労働局が、業務請負契約なのに学校の指揮下で働いていたとして１３日付で違法な「偽装請負」と認定した。是正指導を受けた市教委が１６日発表した。これにより、学校はＡＬＴの授業が新年度始められない事態に直面。同様の実態は全国的に多数あるとみられ、影響が広がる可能性がある。
Chiba city’s native speaker English classes canceled after ALT contracts found illegal
Public schools here have been unable to start their native speaker-taught English classes this school year after the city’s board of education was accused of violating labor laws with foreign language teachers.
According to the Kashiwa Municipal Board of Education, it has been instructed by the local labor office to change its labor relationship with foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs) in the city’s elementary and junior high schools after it engaged in illegal employment practices.
The local education board entrusted part of its English curriculum for primary and secondary school students to a Tokyo-based staffing agency between 2007 and 2009, and a total of 23 foreign teachers belonging to the agency worked as ALTs at 61 local public elementary and junior high schools during this period. Their contracts expired at the end of last month.
A local labor union supporting foreign language teachers complained to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s Chiba labor office that the teachers were forced to work as temporary workers under the guise of subcontractors, while demanding the municipality extend their contract periods.
In response to the complaint, the labor office launched an investigation and confirmed that each school placed the foreign teachers under its direct supervision even though they worked under consigning contracts. The labor office then concluded that the education board forced the teachers to work as temporary workers under the guise of subcontractors, a practice that constitutes a violation of the Worker Dispatching Act.
Under the current law, companies and other business operators must offer a direct contract to their temporary workers after they have completed the first three years of work. Moreover, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare’s labor guidelines require a minimum three-month interval before the two parties enter into another temporary contract.
The city’s board of education had planned to terminate its English class teacher outsourcing contract and employ temporary English teachers directly starting this April. However, as the labor office judged that the education board had already forced its contracted foreign teachers to work as normal temporary staff, it became impossible for the city to renew the contracts right away, in accordance with the ministry guidelines prohibiting consecutive temporary contracts of over three years.
The local education board has announced that it will comply with the labor office’s order and will resume relevant English classes after the three-month waiting period expirees in July.
In August last year, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology instructed local boards of education nationwide to switch consigning contracts for ALTs to either direct or temporary employment. A subsequent survey by the ministry has revealed that 670 municipalities still maintained their outsourcing arrangements for native English class teachers, of which 439 responded they were not planning to change their current practices.
The ministry’s International Education Division has requested each education board consult with their local labor office and make corrections as needed.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100417p2a00m0na019000c.html
40% of school boards test English of new recruits
Focusing on efforts to employ [Japanese] teachers with a high degree of English proficiency, the Saitama prefectural government set up a special application category on its academic 2009 recruitment exam for prospective [Japanese] teachers with English qualifications– such as a Grade Pre-1 on the Eiken English proficiency test. Applicants in the category are exempted from a portion of the recruitment exam.
Last year, 17 applicants passed in the category–with this figure accounting for only 2 percent of more than 700 successful examinees.
Commenting on the current situation, a prefectural education official in charge of the exams said it was a problem that “many [Japanese] primary school teachers aren’t familiar with English.” The official added, “It’s an urgent task for us to hire [Japanese] teachers who could play a leading role [in English teaching at each school].”
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20100128TDY12002.htm
Attention ALTs!
If Interac tries to pressure you into signing up for Kokumin Kenko Hoken, don’t do it! Kokumin Kenko Hoken is for people that are self-employed or unemployed. If you sign up for Kokumin Kenko Hoken, you may be forced to back enroll into the system up to the time that you started working in Japan (meaning you will have to pay your monthly dues up to the maximum limit of two years).
Instead, you should enroll into Shakai Hoken, because Interac will be forced to pay their half. If there is any back enrollment it will be covered by the company, not by you. You are all eligible for this. The only reason Interac tells you otherwise is because they don’t want to pay their portion of the money.
You can do this on your own, or you can join the “Interac union” (aka members of the Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union Tozen ALTs) and we can force them to pay up together in solidarity. The Tokyo General Union has a lot of experience in forcing companies to enroll their employees into Shakai Hoken so we can get you enrolled with much less effort on you part.
Solidarity
An open letter to Interac concerning health insurance
An open letter to the management of Interac (as well as Maxceed and Selnate)
November 5th, 2009
To whom it may concern (including Kevin Salthouse and Denis Cusack),
I am an executive of the ALT branch of Tokyo Nambu’s Foreign Workers Caucus. I worked for Interac from September of 2005 until February 2008, under the Osaka branch.
I am writing to clear up some misconceptions about health insurance in Japan that were evident in a couple of PDFs that were circulated from management at the beginning of October 2009.
The two PDFs in question are the “FAQ – Insurance System in Japan” and the one titled “Social Insurance Letter” dated October 1st, 2009. In these PDFs, you tell your ALTs that they are not eligible for Shakai Hoken if they work less than 29.5 hours.
This is not true.
You also tell them that the only alternative is to sign up for Kokumin Kenko Hoken and that they may have to pay up to two years of back enrollment.
The problem is that, since they are eligible for Shakai Hoken, it is the company that will have to pay the back enrollment (up to two years) into Shakai Hoken, after which the employee can be billed for their half of enrollment fees.
Let me give you some background information on how I know this.