Managers suddenly tell teachers they must leave work on-time

In what must be a first for AEON, managers are telling teachers they must leave at their contracted finishing time. Why is this? A sudden show of concern for teachers? Of course not. Aeon is worried that if teachers unionize they will ask for the overtime pay they deserve. But there is a bigger worry. AEON is worried that the Labour Standards Office will investigate the company, its failure to pay proper overtime and some managers’ practice of altering time cards.

Will finishing work on-time solve the overtime issue?

No, teachers will still be coming into schools long before their official start time and working through their breaks. AEON’s system does not allow enough time for you to do the required lesson preparation, student conferencing or all the paper work. The only way to solve this problem is for AEON to pay overtime as the law stipulates or to decrease the amount of teaching time and increase paid office work time.

Who is to blame?

One important thing to remember is not to blame school managers for the overtime problem. They are only implementing the policies they are ordered to. And in fact, the managers are in the same boat as you. They are expected to do an incredible amount of overtime without payment from the company and many of them are unhappy about it, but feel helpless to speak-up.

What can be done?

Within the language teaching industry in Japan, there are teachers and managers, who with the union’s support, have gone-on to win payment for years of unpaid overtime.

It is time to take a stand and demand reform!

Contact the union now for more information about overtime.