Paul Kennedy as President
Paul Baca and Walter Fahnestock as Vice Presidents
Roxanne Modafferi as Secretary General
Yancey Co as Treasurer

Begunto members had collective bargaining with Management on April 1st to give Shunto (spring) demands for this year (2013) for Negotiations.  They are as follows:

1. The company reinstate Walter Fahnestock and pay all back pay.

2. The company implement a 2% base up pay hike for all employees. (including staff, managers, HQ, teachers, everyone in the company)

3. The company pay a month’s bonus for all employees. (many companies give 5.5 month’s bonus, so the union feels one month is a reasonable request)

4. The company retract the warning letters regarding industrial action issued to those who struck after November 10, 2008.

5. The company maintain the former pension enrollment criteria irrespective of Shakai Hoken enrollment.

6. The company negotiate with and obtain the consent of Begunto before implementing any policy change or initiating any new policy.

7. Company immediately re-enroll all teachers kicked off Shakai Hoken or private pension scheme.

8.  The company enroll all employees who wish to be on Shakai Hoken.

9. The company pay five minute intervals before and after each scheduled unit of work at the instructor’s unit rate.

10.   The company provide safety training for all employees.

11. Return contracts to the automatically renewed type offered before May 2010 – withdraw the current yearly renewable condition applied to new contracts since 2010.

The first person students will see in an earthquake or a fire will most likely be their instructor sitting across the table during a lesson.  What inspires confidence more than knowing how to handle an emergency because training was received?

New teachers need to be instructed on evacuation routes, meeting sites, communication methods and the basic vocabulary needed to function in an emergency: exit, stairway, fire, emergency, ambulance, etc.

All teachers need to be trained when their schools move to new locations.  Contact information needs to be kept centralized if there is a need to contact people back in an instructor’s home country.

The union feels all employees have the right to be trained and it is the company’s responsibility to do so. Training should be for all staff- even those who travel to other schools or clients’ offices should have a basic understanding of exits and meeting points (perhaps on laminate cards in their files?) and which person to contact if they are away from a school.

It has been almost 2 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake. We were lucky then, pushing our luck for the next “big one” is not in the picture.

Many current instructors question the need of “certification” and ask what happened with the initial hiring process- where eligible candidates should be sorted out for hire?  In short has Berlitz lowered the bar to hire instructors and then demanded far more of them after making them train almost 2 weeks unpaid? Is Berlitz making employees pay for their own training and then telling them that isn’t enough?

Certification and the new Instructor Performance Evaluation are tools Berlitz can use to advertise teaching staff to clients.  In an industry where a competitor’s TV English conversation commercial incorporates a person trusting a pet dog and then adding a comment about trusting their English teacher – maybe professionalism has been sacrificed for profits and market share? What if Berlitz took the attitude of saying “We stand by our teachers” rather than see how many hoops they have to jump through? Which would look more professional to a prospective client?

Berlitz union wins raise, bonus in suit settlement
¥110 million claim against teachers, union execs dropped, ending four-year fight

By JAMES McCROSTIE

The four-year legal battle between management and teachers at Berlitz Japan was declared over Thursday as both sides signed an agreement to end the company’s lawsuit against union officials.

Claiming an 11-month strike by unionized teachers to be illegal, Berlitz Japan had sued five teachers, two union executives and Begunto, the teachers’ union, for ¥110 million.

In addition to dropping its suit, the company agreed to pay current union members a base-up raise and a lump-sum bonus to the union. Current Begunto President Paul Kennedy said the “lump sum can be designated for use by the union membership,” and that the union has yet to come to a decision on what to do with the money.

“The union is very happy with the amounts,” said Louis Carlet, former National Union of General Workers (NUGW) case officer for Begunto, who was named in the suit.

The agreement prohibits the disclosure of financial details to anyone outside the union. However, during 2012 labor negotiations the union had demanded a 3 percent base-up raise and a lump-sum bonus equivalent to one month’s pay for its members.

Despite the deal, it appears unlikely union members will end up receiving more pay than nonunionized teachers, said Tadashi Hanami, professor emeritus at Sophia University and a former chair of the Central Labor Relations Commission. “In theory the pay raise could be given only to union members, but the employer may eventually raise outside workers’ pay. Otherwise the union influence will increase sooner or later.”

Berlitz Japan did not reply to emails offering the company an opportunity to comment on the settlement in the days before going to press.

In return for the raise and bonus, Begunto signed up to new rules governing future industrial action. The union must give the company three weeks’ notice of its intent to strike, during which time negotiations would continue. Once industrial action begins, the union agreed it would give 45 minutes notice before striking a particular lesson.

“I think that’s a big concession on the union’s part, and that’s something management was desperate for,” said Carlet, who now serves as executive president of Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union (Tozen). “We all think it will make it more difficult to do effective strikes because it gives the company time to organize scabs.” But the union hopes management “will negotiate seriously, in good faith, so we won’t have to strike.”

The agreement also sets out new rules for collective bargaining. Negotiations will be held in English and the company will translate for any non-English speakers on the management side. Berlitz Japan also promised to provide more financial information to the union during negotiations.

In addition, the company agreed not to use warning letters sent to striking teachers during the dispute in future disciplinary actions, or in any way that could negatively affect the individuals concerned. However, the letters, also placed in the teachers’ personnel files, won’t be retracted.

……..to finish reading the article, click here: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20130101zg.html

The Union has been very busy in recent months. We’re currently in mediation with management regarding the court appeals, and we’ve attended multiple collective bargaining sessions.

In the the Union Assembly held on Nov. 18th, members discussed strike options, mediation options, figures, Union executive elections, and other issues. Thanks to all those who attended and gave feedback in person or by e-mail! Your opinions are all very important and valuable to us when making decisions.

There’s a Civil Court session Nov. 20th on the 16th floor at 1:00PM in Kasumigaseki. Feel free to attend.

Begunto: “Independently Audited Lessons” is mentioned on a memo. Who or what is the “Independent body?”
Management replied that Independent means “internally independent.” It is independent of the local IS & local mentors. Independent in “independently audited lesson” refers to the Non LC related team. It is NOT independent of the company. All members of the team are still dependent on the company for a salary.

Begunto: Also on the memo is “requirements in: Experience (volume of lessons taught).” What’s the exact number or percentage?”
Management replied that they’ve set the number at 500 total lessons, or 5 months per 2 years, whichever comes first. (20 lessons / month) Three hundred would be the absolute minimum number of lessons in that latter case. Then they think that the new instructors would have enough experience to be fairly evaluated.

Begunto: How will lack of certification affect instructors financially?
Management replied that Instructors with certification will have priority over non-certified instructors with regards to extra lessons(outside of contract).

Begunto: “What if a teacher teaches a low volume of lessons, due to being part-time, or a slow period at the LC, and can’t teach enough to be certified? Will something be done to help them get certified?”
Management replied by saying that if they don’t teach the minimum number of lessons, then they just wouldn’t be certified yet and the process would take longer. Our expectation is that everyone passes.
Management added that “if someone has been certified but in those two years has not reached the required number (of lessons taught and is up for certification again), there is nothing negative because they are still certified. They are not going to be negatively affected at all.” They would not lose certification.

Begunto: “Who exactly are evaluating our lessons? What’s the criteria for choosing them? Are they certified teachers who’ve been teaching lessons regularly, and have been evaluated by their peers?”
Management replied that the evaluators will all be official mentors. They will be certified themselves, be currently working in the field, will be chosen based on HQ’s quality audit, and their IS’s recommendation. They’ll also be put through HQ’s training program.

Begunto: “Who chooses which lessons to be assessed?”
Management replied that the instructor’s IS will record between 4 and 6 of your lessons, and you will be able to choose one. You will then send that lesson out electronically to be evaluated. If one of the evaluators personally knows the instructor who’s lesson they are assigned to evaluate, they have to be recused.”

Begunto: “Will we be evaluated on teaching third party material?”
Management said no, only material put out by Berlitz. (BE 1-8, BIZ3-4, BBB/BBS, BIZ plus series, etc)

Begunto: What is the relation between the TPE & Certification?
TPE looks at an instructor’s performance as a whole over the course of a year. Certification is a snapshot of lesson quality and support they are getting. For Berlitz in Japan, it acts as a check against the TPE. In some other countries, Berlitz schools don’t have the TPE/IPE. Therefore this would act as their primary quality assurance mechanism.

Begunto: You mentioned that certification ‘rewards’ well-performing instructors. So what’s the reward?”
Certified teachers get first dibs if there are extra lessons.

(end)

It seems management is satisfied with the amount of development and training we get (4 follow-ups per year) for teachers who may teach a minimum of 1680 lessons or 1920 lessons (35/40 & 40/40 teachers respectively) per year.

Do you feel that HQ gives us instructors very little Presentation and Practice, but expect high Performance for our customers?

Following this, BEGUNTO members unfurled another banner. It explains about a BEGUNTO member Catherine who was a teacher for 13 years, but was let go by the company after requesting extra time off to recover from breast cancer.

Link to an article