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Interac: Now activating the next wave of teacher rip-offs

cheersmate

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21 Oct 2014
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Setting the final rip off phase in motion.

The writing was on the wall at the beginning of this year, as vacation days off were almost all changed to "work days". The majority of the guaranteed time off was removed, positioning for the future, which is now.

Interac teachers have now been reporting their work days are being *assigned* (see below). Summer and winter vacation time ("work days") are being taken from you and these days are being assigned.

To recap, here is the progression of the salary gouging:

In past years, the pay for August/December has dwindled down to ever lower %'s of pay. Same for March and April in terms of prorated days. Went from full pay, to less and less pay.

No pay raises (ever)

March/April prorating began.

Then, this year, days that were previously off on yearly schedules mysteriously changed to "work days" with the exception of maybe 2 - 5 days guaranteed off.

Now those work days are being filled with assignments! Your vacation is shrinking and your pay is also shrinking!

The future direction is clear: 1) eliminate all pay for August and winter holidays and until then 2) assign as many of the work days as possible to maximize profit, while decreasing salary for those days by lowering the % paid for August/December.

What can you do? Well, nothing and many things.

Nothing = The contract was agreed upon. No getting out of it besides quitting. Speak up and get replaced by fresh meat after being told, we don't give pay raises.

Many things = Do not, ever, EVER stay longer than your schedule. No club activities, no extra assignments, no extra planning time. Zed. Nada. Interac top brass doesn't know you, they don't know your job abilities or performance, and they clearly don't care about you or your feedback. Doing extra things will get you nothing at the time of contract renewal. Why? the person doing contracting doesn't know you either! They just send you a form letter and a form letter contract with a different name. no salary or performance review. It's bodies with pulses for positions (any crazy non-native accent from any country will do), filled, done, then top brass implements salary gouging methods. Planning lessons... this is up to you. Again, nothing matters about planning time/effort when it comes to renewal. Do what you want. It has no bearing. Given the worsening work conditions, I recommend not doing much at all.

Up until now, Interac teachers have averaged an hourly wage of 7pounds (12 CAD/USD) per hour for the entire year (averaging total pay by 12 months). That is not even minimum wage in our home countries!! Now, with work days being assigned, this average goes down to below poverty levels, offering no way to get ahead while living in Japan. Your ability to make extra income during your vacation days are disappearing along with your pay.

These are the last of the gravy days lads, milk it now for all its worth. As long as you are employed with Interac, do as little as possible (aka only what the pay and treatment merits). However, job searching at work is highly recommended.

Gaijin staff working at the Interac offices, thinking you are getting somewhere in a culture bent on nicking all of us gaijins.... Can't imagine how bad you feel, playing the game for the japanese. You must be in a real bind of morality, observing all this, not being able to change anything while being complicit in the ratcheting of salary gouging. We know you make a pittance also and are merely minions observing the japanese profiteering. Many of you are stand up blokes and very personable... Not sure of the extent to which you are disconnected to the siphoning of our morale and salary?? Our worst emails come from japanese staff, the ones saying we are stealing more from you now. But know this, we get these more frequently from the very people you are forced to small talk with. Don't question teachers' morale when you see them. There is no morale. The treatment we receive is a farce.

You do however, come to where the rubber meets the road to see us occasionally at our schools or at meetings, so treat us like royalty. After all, we are being royally shafted far more than you. We teach, you supervise, and they gouge both of us. So err on the side of kick-assery while working with us because we are struggling very much, suffering worsening working conditions, whether you know it or not, things are getting very bad.

*Note: although you may be contacted about availability during holidays or given assignments during work days, you may not actually be needed those days. It's an old tactic to "fish" your holidays for more money. Interac says we need you on so and so day(s), teacher is like, whuhh… what? And is suppose to tell interact they are traveling or cannot work those days. Then they are docked pay for those days. Or the "we may need you, are you available on..." phone call. Same thing. So if you do get asked or assigned on work days, don't say a thing about your travel plans or other obligations. Only say, yes, I am available. Call their bluff. Chances are you won't even work on those days. No need to give your money away.
 
So quit trying to make a career out of flipping language burgers. Learn the language, get literate, and get the hell out of that scam industry and into something legit.
 
Up until now, Interac teachers have averaged an hourly wage of 7pounds (12 CAD/USD) per hour for the entire year (averaging total pay by 12 months). That is not even minimum wage in our home countries!!

Stop the lying! You're worse than Interac by making such a ludicrous statement.



vacation days off were almost all changed to "work days"...
this year, days that were previously off on yearly schedules mysteriously changed to "work days" with the exception of maybe 2 - 5 days guaranteed off.
For what period of time? By law you get 10 days off after working 80% of FT hours for the first 6 months of your contract. After those 6 months, this applies for 12 months. Then, by law they are supposed to add days incrementally. See the labor laws for a better definition.

Interac teachers have now been reporting their work days are being *assigned*
<<Mock astonishment>> Heavens! Do you mean an employer is actually telling its employees the days they have to show up for work? Bastards! <<serious tone>> As long as they don't go over 40 hours per week and pay you accordingly, what's the real beef here?

The writing was on the wall at the beginning of this year
It's been on the wall for a decade, but nobody reads the wall. They just write more graffiti on it.
 
Stop the lying! You're worse than Interac by making such a ludicrous statement.

For what period of time? By law you get 10 days off after working 80% of FT hours for the first 6 months of your contract. After those 6 months, this applies for 12 months. Then, by law they are supposed to add days incrementally. See the labor laws for a better definition.

<<Mock astonishment>> Heavens! Do you mean an employer is actually telling its employees the days they have to show up for work? Bastards! <<serious tone>> As long as they don't go over 40 hours per week and pay you accordingly, what's the real beef here?

It's been on the wall for a decade, but nobody reads the wall. They just write more graffiti on it.

Correct, they are supposed to. They are supposed to do many things. For your answers: get hired, get some paychecks, suss things out (get a clue), then come back with your head out of your _____ . This is your next step.
 
As far as I know, Interac does not hire full-time. You have up to 29.5 hours a week, enough to make you legally a part-timer.
 
Correct, they are supposed to. They are supposed to do many things. For your answers: get hired, get some paychecks, suss things out (get a clue), then come back with your head out of your _____ . This is your next step.
Been here almost 2 decades, mate, listening to the same complaints about Interac. They are terribly easy to find, too, so caveat emptor to whomever chooses to throw caution to the wind and try to work there. So don't be rude and tell me I don't know stuff.

If they are doing something that blatantly illegal, go to the Labour Standards Office or general union.org and go through channels to fight. Or do what others have done (like at Berlitz) and go on strike. Stand up for your rights instead of moaning to anonymous forum posters who by and large aren't even teachers who could sympathize with you. Take your story to Teacher Discussion Forums - Index page where the population is practically all teachers/ALTs or wannabes, too. I doubt you'll get any more different advice there.
 
And it would be really nice if you would at least try to answer the questions I posed. Can't really help you more without knowing the answers.
 
What happened with all this?

Nothing will ever change with these companies, so it is pointless to expect anything to happen. When I started at an eikaiwa 20 years ago I realized in about 10 days what a dead-end job it was. I already had a job as an ALT after 3 months of being in Japan, it took me a bit longer to realize this was also a dead-end job and this was before all the information was available on forums. There weren't any, you had to figure it out for yourself and buy a copy of the Japan times every Monday, have a fax machine and a printer. I still can't believe 20 years later with all the information out there people still join Interact and ***** and moan about how crap it is. It's like people going to Mac Donald's and buying a hamburger and expecting it to taste like something from the top floor of Maru Biru, it ain't going to happen. But Mac Donald's still survives because there are still enough people in the world who are stupid enough to eat that kind of unhealthy crap. Same as Interact, there are still enough people who are stupid enough to work for them even though it takes 10 seconds on google to realize how the operate. Now using Interact as a stepping stone or to get a visa is a smart move. Same for the people who are at Interact because they are lazy or do not want to do any real work, they are the smart ones. In my opinion and it is just an opinion the fools are the people who join Interact and believe that they deserve to be paid and get the same respect and work conditions as a Japanese teacher. A Japanese teacher does triple the work an ALT does per day plus much more responsibility. They have spent time getting certified and have decided on that career path from the age of 18. Being an ALT is not a career, but some gaijin think they should be paid 500.000 yen per month with bonuses and 4 months off to read words off a blackboard and download some worksheets off the net once a month. (that's a uni teacher's job)
 
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