After the biggest union meeting of Berlitz union members at the end of August, the union has submitted demands to raise wages, protect part time teachers from arbitrary cuts in lessons taught, and to make sure that Berlitz teachers are paid for all the work they do.

Did you know that all Berlitz teachers are paid only for the lessons they teach? How is it possible to teach without doing ANY work outside of the 40 minute lesson time? I guess Berlitz believes that textbooks just fly into the teachers’ hands. How about when the staff ask teachers questions about students and their progress? The staff aren’t invited into the lesson to discuss it within the lesson time, are they? It’s done between the lessons.

Just like companies are concerned about money, there is a new wave of Berlitz teachers who have the same concerns about what they are paid and what they are paid to do.

Collective bargaining set for sometime in October.

Demands

• Increase the wages of all union members.
• Change the bonus rate to reflect it as 125% of a Per Lesson instructor’s base rate. Also, pay Instructor contract and MG Contract holders at the same rate as Per Lesson instructors regarding Bonus Rate and Rest Day Rate, including lessons before 08:30 and after 21:15.
• Pay teachers for school lock ups. Specifically, in the Umeda LC, pay for lock up as follows:
  a. Locking up one floor=one travel unit.
  b. Locking up two floors=on unit.
  Furthermore, guarantee that lock up respon- sibilities are voluntary, and that teachers are allowed to leave, with pay, if other staff are still present after twenty minutes.
• Maintain per lesson teachers’ lesson count in the current year based on the lesson count of the past year as long as lesson availability and members’ work time availability remains unchanged.
• Guarantee that teaching materials are available for all language instructors.
• Allow union members to have a union representative present in meetings where discipline will be applied or discussed.
• Pay for all time worked before, between, and after lessons.