Well, in April, May, June, September, October, November, and February they aren’t. They work full schedules, about forty hours, five days per week.

So it’s not like they’re regular part timers who can get work on the other days they’re not working (oh, unless we believe that people do need to have jobs in the evening and weekends on top of their forty hour per week jobs). What should these folks do in the lean months? Are there one or two month part time jobs available for so many ALTs who work under this wage system?

No, there aren’t and people should be able to live on what companies advertise as full time jobs, regardless of the month.

This is why our NOVA members working at the Neyagawa Board of Education are demanding full pay for every month at the princely sum 230,000 per month. They’re not even demanding that they get to stay home during school holidays, they’re willing to work. In fact NOVA even told them that they could get other NOVA work during the lean months, but when members called to ask, they got nothing!

Let’s face it; one of the biggest reasons why the ALT system, funded by your taxes (and mostly enjoyed by the profits of Interac, NOVA, and company) doesn’t work. Low pay and poor working conditions leads to a massive turn over. By the time a teacher learns where to turn on the lights and find the toilet, they’re forced to leave because they can’t afford to live. A licensed teacher who attended a GU seminar stated, “Japanese team teachers are fed up with the constant change of ALTs. Just when we get used to working together the teacher leaves. After attending the GU seminar we understand why. Poor working conditions and poverty wages.”

We’ve now put Nova on notice, pay up or face a dispute. We’ll be calling all members to help in what will be an important face off.