Please use this poster to promote Begunto amongst your fellow teachers. You can download a high quality PDF version for printing at Kinko’s here [begunto-poster.pdf]. The actual size of the poster is A1, but it should also print just fine at A3 or even A4.
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Recent Posts
- Officer Election Results
- Safety Drills for All Employees
- Berlitz Teacher Certification- Why?
- Berlitz union wins raise, bonus in suit settlement (Japan Times)
- recent action, Union Assembly 11/18
- Q&A with Management Re: Instructor Certification
- Unfurling a banner on Monday the 3rd
- Collection of references to BEGUNTO in newspapers
- upcoming events (August-September)
- upcoming events (July and August 2012)
if you go to youtube and look up Berlitz Ad Japanese, you should find a few of our Union videos
My favorite is http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1OeCoAObKgo
cellphonetrickery is the account these are all archived at on youtube.
My voice was echoing off three buildings and I was getting feedback from it. This was taken with a Sharp cellphone.
Just for the record, I did not use a megaphone.
I finally printed the above poster. Went to Fedex-Kinko’s and printed it on semi-gloss A3. Cost a total of 344yen. Looks beautiful on the noticeboard (if I do say so myself).
Is 500,000￥ achievable?
I’d love that for myself, then again I don’t live in Tokyo.
Probably not, but it adds some perspective!
Is that a fair comparison with work conditions at Berlitz. Yes, that is the average a salaried worker earns in Tokyo but remember, that the worker’s pay is, like ours, is based on performance and employees here are known to do a lot of overtime and not use their alloted vacation time, thus looking good in the eyes of the performance evaluator.
So, they are averaging that salary because they are putting in a lot of hours. I think being put in a position of doing tons of overtime and not taking your vacation time, de facto against one’s will, is bollocks.
If they actually had the guts to go home on time and use their vacation time( I’m sure some employees do), I think the average wouldn’t be that high.
What is your take on the comparison?
Sure Zinn, in a sense you’ve got a good point. I’m not sure the Union actually is aiming at getting an average salary of that much though. I also think that overtime has been drastically reduced in Japanese companies over the last few years due to the government crack downs on non paid work. The fact that the workers you refer to are also seishine employees who’s employers offer Shakai-hoken and other benefits, while Berlitz and it’s parent company Benesse twist and turn to avoid giving us any such benifits. In the end the poster is a little simplistic and can have all kinds of holes shot through it, but the fact remains that our parent company is seeing lots of profits and we’re being totally cut out of sharing any of the benefits. I wonder if employees in other parts of Benesse are being put at a similar disadvantage, it would be interesting to make some comparisons there. Facts and figures anyone?
Da Poster
Wasn’t designed to be hugely informational. Just catch the attention of not-yet union members with something a bit different to the newsletter type posters that are usually plastered on the notice board – and to direct people to this website!
The poster does not make any contentious claims and it doesn’t say we should all get paid 500,000/month. We’re asking for a fraction of that. I think the salaried/waged worker distinction is a red herring also. The nature of language instruction at private providers such as Berlitz does not lend itself to a ‘full time’ style of working. Therefore comparing the two is not unrealistic.
Hello there,
I feel as a person that came from a non-union family that I provide another perspective on the matter. Of course we have to change ourselves for the place we live in. That’s what I have found about being in Japan. More often than not people are cut for a percentage for the shareholders and such. I have been a resident here for quite a while and in that time I have seen a lot of people come and go. A lot of people came with bright hopes, just to be wrongfully treated by the company they came to work at. I support BEGUNTO for the following reasons as well as many others…
They always put our best interests at heart and that is shown by the rejections that would have seen a base-up for teachers on 35/40 and older contracts but not newer ones, as well as not accepting non financial concessions that may have been beneficial to only a select few.
There have been examples of wrongful dismissals or just flat out non renewals on contracts which BEGUNTO helped to fight back. Without BEGUNTO those people would have had nowhere to turn.
Our Berlitz Union gives us access to basic rights to labor laws that we are just expected not to know because we are foreigners and could be taken advantage that way. Remember, that BEGUNTO is a non-profit organization, where people put in a lot of free time to help members as well as to help and answer questions for those that seek or need advice. Some of these members put in absolutely crazy hours. They do it voluntarily because they believe in it, not because they are paid.
I would like to say that I like working here but I didn’t like to see the managers and head teachers get all of the money when bonus time came. It isn’t fair and it should not be the way the company continues to do business especially while being in a very strong financial situation. Remember, only three years before, our salary was frozen when they didn’t hit targets.
As a final thought, I have seen people comparing Berlitz contracts to full time contracts. I would take a full time contract if they offered it to instructors but they don’t anymore. There are more benefits and you are more recognized by the law. Also, I think it’s a bit unfair to take one lesson as 40 mins of work. What I mean is if a person came in for 6 lessons and teaches 6 x 40mins per class, plus the 5 mins in between is another 25mins and the 30 mins of prep time before, that works out to about 5 hours but Berlitz calls it 4. I’m not saying it’s wrong but it isn’t right either. I would say your average teacher puts in a good hour a day of extra running around any way you look at it.
Anyways, these are just some of my thoughts and I think the Union is doing the right thing.
Despite my grandiose user name I’m just a regular member who manages this website – so please don’t take my opinions as being the official union line or anything!
It seems like a good number to print on a poster is 0.56%
That is the percentage from profit that it would take to give Berlitz staff & instructors a bonus. Assuming 250,000 yen for about 800 employees.
Profits were ¥34.9 billion.
Can anybody verify those numbers?
MFD is on the money. here, here.
we have complained about other things, but the union propaganda is also annoying on this one. We do not work a fulltime job, so why should we get a fulltime wage? It seems Berlitz employees have to be reasonable about this.
another perspective: I earn it if I work outside contract around 65 to 70 lessons a week total, I can get it with the overtime etc., before deductions of course, but I am on an older contract. An old contract that was offered when student tuition was less than it is today! The fact is tuition is up base wages are down for new hires and they have been going down for some time. There is a statistic Berlitz uses called TSR: (Teachers’ Salary Ratio). that is the entire cost of teacher’s wages and benefits as a portion of ARPL: (Average Revenue Per Lesson). In the mid-90′s Japan had the highest ARPL in the world for Berlitz and probably still does. According to management they also had the highest TSR at around 41% of ARPL. In those days the goal was to get the TSR below 30%, through the ‘temporary crisis’s’ leading to permanent erosion of conditions they appear to be on their way to attaining that goal. As a result now the average Berlitz teacher only remains with the company for about 3 years, so you can see over time through attrition the workforce is being replaced by more transient employees from whom they extract a greater portion of the fruits of their labor and distribute it upward to high level management and shareholders namely Mr. Komatsu and Mr. Fukutake respectively.
It is quite natural that they would ‘reward’ Mr. Komatsu and other managers with large stock options and bonuses for the success that has come from extracting that extra 12% from Instructor Contract Teachers who by now most likely make up the majority of the employees, not to mention the extra 11% from MG 20 teachers.
The message sent to Berlitz managers is clear, reduce labor cost by paying teachers and staff less and you will be handsomely rewarded. As long as foreign teachers come here and continue to accept inferior contracts there is no reason why they will not continue to do so until you stop them. Don’t have any illusions that ‘market forces’ in Japan will save you either. In the past Berlitz management has admitted that they met with HR representatives from their competitors to compare conditions etc. As Adam Smith said in The Wealth of Nations in the Chapter on Wages and Labour: “We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters, though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and every where in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise wages of labour. . .” He goes on to say, “We seldom, indeed, here of the combination, because it is the usual, and one may say, the natural state of things which nobody ever hears of. Masters too sometimes even enter into particular combinations to sink the wages of labour even below this rate.” So ask yourselves, in what is often characterized by management as “this fiercely competitive market which we find ourselves in” could those HR people have been doing in meetings with the HR of the Enemy? Who were they combining against?
BEGUNTO is making a supreme effort this year to reverse the downward trend in working conditions and wages particularly for the newer teachers and staff; our success depends on increasing our numbers and increasing participation in actions. Together we can do this, it is attainable, but we need the support of as many teachers and staff as possible. Now is the crucial moment in our 13-year history to take a stand and put a stop to the decline being wrought upon us by this avarice.
I got some comments from a Japanese staff working at a Berlitz Language School which annoyed me. First, she said that she didn’t think that striking is the solution to getting a bonus or a base up (among other things that the Union is demanding for). So, I asked her if she had a brilliant suggestion because, of course, we would all like to resolve the issues in the shortest time and as painlessly as possible. She couldn’t come up with anything. I believe that if someone dares to criticize, then he/she should back it up with some solutions/suggestions/recommendations. So, I told her that if she could come up with a brilliant alternative to industrial actions then do tell us, because actually our salaries are getting a cut here everytime we walk-out. WE ARE NOT GETTING PAID TO STRIKE. Just to clarify, I join strikes, leafletting, and other union-related activities out of my own free will and I don’t have any regrets whatsoever.
Moving on to the staff’s next comment…According to her, the people that are most adversely-affected by the industrial actions are the teachers. I told her…CHIGAIMASU! If there’s anybody that is being dealt the biggest blow, it’s the company. The amount of money they are losing is far, far greater than what we, the strikers, are losing. And, of course, the negative impact of the industrial actions on the company’s public perception affects the company’s sales and overall image.
Now, her last comment made my blood pressure rise. She said that if employees are not happy with the company, then they should just leave and find another job. I told her that I don’t think that that’s the solution. As long as people are scared to take a stand, this same problem between management and employees would happen again and again in any setting or situation. Of course, I could go find another job, (Just a side note: Since Berlitz claims to employ only the 4.6% of the total applicants who made the cut, thus ensuring teaching quality, I would surely get any job I want with no problem at all.) but I can still run into the same problems with management. So, the question is…Should i just keep on running away everytime I don’t get my just rewards and recognition from the company? I don’t think so. Running away is a sign of a lack of courage, and there would come a time when there’s nowhere else to run. It’s time to take a stand and that’s what we are doing. Kudos to all the brave souls who are fighting for all the employees of the company! I am proud to be one of you!
I heard the same statement from one of our staff, “I don’t think it is the right way”. I patiently explained that the union has been trying to do some of these things for 13 years. Talking has gotten us nowhere. The only message that management responds to is the threat of legal action in the case of labor law violations, or industrial action in other cases.
‘Negotiations’ at Berlitz are what management does to tie down union resources as long as possible, wasting the officers’ time, remember they are volunteering and are not paid for their time while management is, and hopefully demoralizing the negotiators so that they will be beaten before actions even begin. The union got on to this some time ago, negotiations backed by a credible threat of action or action itself is the only way to achieve anything significant for the workers at Berlitz.
Thank you for your continuing support.
http://www.abetomoko.jp/kokkai/159/159_kousei-05.html
After seeing some daycare workers marching in the May Day demonstration last year, I did some googling to see how conditions were in the Benesse daycares. I came across this record of a Ministry of Labour committee discussion where Diet member Tomoko Abe raised concerns about the working conditions at privately run daycares such as those operated by Benesse and other large corporations. Many of the daycare workers are on part-time, limited-term contracts with no job security and few benefits, and Ms. Abe pointed out that the resulting high turnover means lack of continuity in the care given to the children in the centres. Does Benesse care? The committee record is from 2004 – I don’t know if there has been a great reform in the conditions at Benesse daycares, but if anyone finds out, please let me know.
High Turnovers
Could that be the Benesse/Fukutake way? Reduce conditions, accelerate turnover in their operations to keep cost labor costs down and increase profits through casualization of the workforce.
I’ve put out a survey in the LC I work in to union & non-union instructors and almost unanimously, people wanted a either a bonus or base pay raise among other things. Mostly a bonus though.
On the survey, I got responses similar to Isis’.
One instructor who has taken his name of the board so as not to show what time he has “shadow offices” (he gets a lot of them)commented that he felt there was a better way and not hurt the students while just hurting Benesse. I approached him and asked him if he knew Berlitz’s policy on struck lessons? (If the second lesson is struck, students are not charged for the first lesson taken. If both lessons are struck,
students get their next two lessons at no charge. That is
written in a memo in Japanese posted on our reception desk
from HQ to all mgrs. They don’t say what happens if the
first lesson is struck and the student leaves for the
second…) He didn’t know this. He said”Oh”.
I told him that these shadow offices are a way to hurt Benesse financially. I asked him for his idea and he said to picket in front of Benesse HQ and don’t let them in. I told him that would be considered obstruction of business and we would get hauled off.
He said “Oh.”
Another instructor who has also had his schedule taken of the board said that he didn’t want to get children involved. I asked if him if he knew the policies above, he didn’t, I admitted to him that we were inconveniencing the students, but mostly Benesse was responsible because our demands are not unreasonable(he agreed with that) and they could easily end it if they cared about the students. I asked him if we were a a daycare center and our business was taking care of children and if management was treating us unfairly, other than striking, how could we improve the situation. He said that it was an interesting question and he still hasn’t given me a solution yet. It’s funny but he says that his biggest influence is Noam Chomsky but he won’t join a union, even though he knows corporations are tyrannies.
I guess what I’m saying here is, instructors who don’t strike may actually have concerns towards the students, they think. Whether, they are using it as an excuse because of other reasons or not, we can’t know, but I’ve found that informing and reassuring those instructors should be something we need to do and after we have informed them and let them think about it and they still don’t join then we know they don’ have the courage & that’s as far as we can go with them. You can lead a horse to water….
Hopefully this is not true of your associates but there is a type out there, I call them ‘college coffee shop activist’. They will talk on and on about ‘the cause’ and the ‘evils of big corporations’ but when it comes to doing what is necessary (eg: putting it on the line) to try to bring some justice to the situation they will always have an excuse not to. Having said that, don’t give up on them yet, but keep in mind that some people just don’t have the strength of character to do what is required to raise themselves and their fellows. If they did the world wouldn’t have as many problems in it today as it does.
not only are they coffee shop activists, but they’re drinking de-caf.