Preliminary ALT Survey Results from the GU
We asked and you responded! First up big thanks to anyone who gave their time to answer. We wanted to share with you some of the early findings. We are calling these early findings as we are still collecting responses for a bigger sample size, answer the questionnaire and share it with your friends and colleagues. Let’s do something to change this broken system.
More than half of direct hire ALTs work beyond their contracted hours Almost â…“ of JETs do not get the daily breaks that all workers in Japan are granted by law ¾ of JETs view contract limits, which run don’t make sense according to labor law, as unfair 60% of JETs have problems with co-teaching despite over 40 years of the program, this may be related to the 50% dissatisfaction with training Despite increases in working hours, Dispatch ALT wages have not risen. In fact, the largest dispatch company is now starting teachers at 21.5 man a month!
The system is broken and isn’t working for Direct hire, JET, or dispatch ALTs. We’ve been working hard connecting with sympathetic people from local politicians to MEXT bureaucrats and they need to know what’s going on on the ground. That’s where you come in. We are still looking for responses. Give us yours and learn more about the campaign.
http://alt.generalunion.org/
https://alt.generalunion.org/survey
The union is still doing good work across different industries. We are helping save peoples jobs, including ALTs, from unfair practices. We are making sure that companies are providing their employees with Shakai Hoken as mandated by the law. We are helping workers across a variety of industries organize and fight for better working conditions. Read more about what we’ve been doing!
https://generalunion.org/
Thanks again,
The General Union
8 comments
Time for ALT dispatch companies to stop trying to get away with being a BoE bureaucracy check-off solution and to actually focus on providing quality service and quality conditions.
This isn’t something that is going to get changed working with the dozens of dispatch companies or the thousands of BoEs, put pressure on the top!
Solidarity!
Help them out
What training, specifically, are you thinking they should give ALTs?
Recognizing a bunch of problems is one thing, but the solutions are a bit more straight forwards and painful.
I apologize, as I have limited experience with JET, but
> ¾ of JETs view illegal contract limits as unfair
What illegal contract limits is JET imposing?
>The system is broken and isn’t working for Direct hire, JET, or dispatch ALTs.
This is, unfortunately, far too true. But also probably indicative of the broader problems in education as a whole.
I don’t know if the survey covered it, but I would be curious to know:
1. What percentage of ALTs took the job just because it was the easiest way to get a visa / the easiest job to get with their spousal visa.
2. What percentage of ALTs spend 2 or fewer years as an ALT. This is not the average length of time, but the percentage of new hires who will be out of the industry in 2 years or less.
In addition, from the union, I would be curious curious to know:
1. What are the working conditions that you believe every ALT is entitled too?
2. What are the costs and practicalities of every school in Japan providing those conditions? I know people often say that eliminating the dispatch companies would save money. Wouldn’t eliminating the dispatch companies and the masses of people they bring into the country, lead to BOE’s being required to recruit from abroad? That doesn’t seem possible or cost effective on a nationwide scale.
3. The current system of teaching English in Japanese schools doesn’t work and some might even say is a horrible waste of money. How would the union feel about a radically different system in which there were 80% fewer ALTs and the remaining 20% were well treated (by Japan standards), highly trained professionals.
Disclaimer: I have never been an ALT nor had any affiliation with a dispatch company. I did however spend many years as the wonderful / evil (depending on who you ask) owner of a wildly successful eikaiwa which brought me into close contact with the ALT world.
It is frankly incomprehensible that, ten years on from when i first came here as an ALT, most dispatch companies are offering a lower starting salary than what I first received.