BELOW ARE DEMANDS THAT HAVE BEEN SENT TO BERLITZ MANAGEMENT IN THE LAST FEW YEARS.
2022 SHUNTO DEMANDS
The Company consider a Disrequest, Dissatisfied or Somewhat Dissatisfied eCFF score invalid if students give no reason or if the reason given is unrelated to the teacher's delivery of the lesson.
The Company raise the number of paid sick days for teachers to 10 days (equal to HQ staff).
. The Company include weekly guaranteed non-teaching units (e.g. preps, training, or offices) in teachers’ schedules.
The Company reinstate the system that allows Berlitz employees to evaluate their direct supervisors. (This was a yearly opportunity 2017/2018. As it stands, we have no way to evaluate the performance of our MIs, AMIs, etc. Feedback is a two-way street.)
The Company grant CTLs regardless of the lesson times, to FTIs and all other contracts.
The Company raise all employess’ pay by 3%.
The Company allocate one unit per week for checking Teams (which teachers are now expected to do in their free time, often using their personal devices).
The Company eliminate mandatory split shifts for teachers who request so.
2021 SHUNTO DEMANDS
1. Company extend the CTL policy to all lesson times for all types of contracts.
2. Company make the eCCF system more transparent, have it audited by a third party, and include questions regarding materials, the LC, and the staff.
3. Company ensure that no performance evaluation is done on 3rd party materials.
4. Company increase the number of paid sick days for teachers from 5 to 10, consistent with the number of sick days that Berlitz HQ staff receive.
5. Company implement a clear and consistent LC safety/ cleaning policy to deal with COVID-19, including the requirement that each LC stock standard cleaning materials in enough quantity to clean classrooms and the LC each day. Rationale: Company needs a clear policy for the sales staff to observe in how to deal with customers (including kids) who do not follow safety measures.
6. Company reimburse all expenses incurred due to delivering online lessons at home and negotiate with the union regarding calculating cost and establishing a monthly stipend for working from home. Company also work with the Payroll Department to explain to teachers how to deduct costs incurred due to delivering online lessons at home from their taxable income. Such costs include rent and other deductibles, as per Japan Tax Code.
7. Company comply strictly with Labor, Safety, and Health Law（労働安全衛生法）and related regulations（労働安全衛生法に基づく法規則）and set up a health and safety team（安全衛生管理体制）.
8. Company provide the option to teachers to work only from home, at their base LC, or a select list of certain LCs and to let teachers limit their number of travels during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2019 Shunto demands
To have the pay freeze of 2018 removed and back paid, and re-start pay increases especially with the increase in cost of living with the new taxes put into effect.
eCFF transparency and how the system is used. The company will provide transparency regarding the eCFF system. Begunto demands a clear explanation of company policy on how the system is being used to evaluate teachers, including specific details on numbers of satisfied or somewhat dissatisfied responses; and the consequences of such results for the instructor; in terms of dis-requests, warnings, threatening letters re instructor performance, the offering of 6mth contracts, and any other action which is detrimental to instructors. The union demands a printout be provided to instructors upon request (by the instructor) detailing customers who utilized the system to rate instructors in order to ensure accurate and fair use of the system.
The stoppage of eCFF use for instructor assessment. eCFF will not be used for determining bonuses. eCFF will not be used for generating or soliciting dis-requests of teachers. eCFF will not be used for determining whether an instructor has their contract renewed or is able to transfer to another LC.
The use of IPE as a means for contract renewal. They are 2 separate issues and should not be used as one.
The 10-day Golden Week should be applied according to the published Japanese holiday schedule. Bridge holidays were previously observed, such as Silver Week of 2015. Furthermore, most Japanese companies are honoring these days - just as the government has asked them to do. Begunto demands the company follow past precedent in recognizing bridge holidays. April 30 and May 2, 2019 are recognized as public holidays in order to provide all employees the so called '10-day Golden Week holiday'. “In addition, all school children will be off school over this period. For all employees, instructors, councilors, as well as those at HQ with children, being required to work on these two days will impact upon their families significantly.”
The company to honor the conversion into an unlimited (permanent) contract, instead of the yearly limited contract, after completing 5 consecutive contract renewals. Renewal is AUTOMATIC and is not dependent on eCFF or other metrics. The company provide immediate recognition of permanent employment status in writing when employees submit a request for permanent employment status.
Additional Demands
Benesse and Berlitz to inform the Union its actual financial situation, all expenditures, assets and liabilities and to provide an explanation of spending.
Provide all employees a base up pay rise of 5%. Consisting of a 2% increase for inflation, 2% increase for the upcoming tax raise, and 1% for company performance improvements as noted in the February 25th memo.
Increase the number of pay scales for all contracts available.
Berlitz give 3 personal leave days to all employees. Employees have the right to attend to family and personal needs that are not necessarily sick days.
Berlitz give instructors 10 paid sick days. The same as employees in Headquarters.
All employees should be given a bi-yearly bonus based on performance. This is commonplace in companies in Japan.
The CTL policy be extended to all employees, including employees on the 50/60 FTI contract.
Re-implement bi-yearly optional employee growth parties for instructors and optional, their families.
COVID-19 demands
If you have any questions about the demands, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
To ensure that science-based best practices are introduced into Berlitz LC’s to minimize the risk of the infection and spread of COVID-19 amongst employees, students, visitors, and potential customers and protect their health and lives BEGUNTO has made the following demands.
1. The company ensure classrooms are thoroughly disinfected, every day and in line with common standards. The company will set up indicators to ensure disinfection happens before students, staff or teachers enter rooms (see addendum). Management will enforce these measures.
2. The company ensure that employees report to staff if any student takes a lesson with respiratory symptoms, e.g.: coughing, sneezing, runny nose etc., regardless of whether they are wearing a mask, insist it is hay fever etc. and the room be taken out of use until it can be disinfected in line with demand #1.
3. The company ensure that staff place wipes or some other means of disinfection in all classrooms before use. Rooms will be closed when such items are unavailable. The company ensure that no lessons are assigned in a room until such items are placed inside and that it be disinfected before being re-opened for use.
4. In the event any staff member (teacher, counselors management or sales team member)has presented symptoms such as fever, cold, or other flu-like symptoms, the company ensure that all travels to or from that LC be suspended until such time as the nature of said staff member's illness has been ascertained. This is precautionary to prevent transmission to multiple LCs.
5. The company promptly inform teachers of CTLs when required to travel. The company ensure that teachers do not travel on crowded trains or through crowded stations unnecessarily, only to discover upon arrival that their lessons have been cancelled.
6. The company endeavor to reduce travels between LCs as much as possible, that includes suspending its reorganization of sales staff by basing them in an LC until the crises passes. Having staff traveling between LCs raises the risk of spreading any outbreak to other LCs. Concerning teacher travels, to fill contracts, company could give teachers offices for cleaning and disinfection of rooms in lieu of traveling.
7. The company confirm that disinfection of rooms is the responsibility of all employees, not just teachers. Teachers often have to deal with reports that don’t appear until after lessons are saved etc., requiring work during breaks. This makes it difficult to disinfect the rooms.
8. The company clearly define responsibility for execution by designating a management member at each LC/Workplace to ensure that the procedures agreed upon are followed. Company must also designate whom to contact when procedures are not followed, either through lack of enforcement or resources, and commit fully to resolving promptly any performance failures or to reducing operations. Company pay affected members, on site, until it can be resolved.
Addendum The procedures for room disinfection will depend on the product used. Local managers must explain the product's disinfection instructions to those carrying out the task. As a general rule, kitchen bleach and hand-safe bleach can be used instead of alcohol wipes or spray alcohol. Most bleaches should be sprayed and left on the surfaces for 10 minutes before wiping them off to ensure disinfection. Bleaches are suitable for tables and doors but only alcohol wipes should be used for CD players and remote controls. All table tops, chair backs where the chair is grasped, door knobs, devices used in the in the classroom (such as remote controls and audio players on table tops) must be disinfected. One way to signal a room has been disinfected would be to place a green magnet on the whiteboard. Staff could place a red magnet on the whiteboard each time someone enters the room, letting teachers and staff know that the room will need full disinfection at some point during the day.