Three foreign Assistant Language Teachers (ALT’s), Mark, Suzanne, and Kelly are employed in a teaching program titled Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET). The Japanese government developed JET in an effort to better the English language education in Japan through the use of international teachers. It was also hoped that the program would promote an understanding at the local level of the importance and value of the differences between various cultures. Any differences that presented themselves between the ALT’s and their employers would be heard by the Conference of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR). An issue however, was that, by agreement, CLAIR would only become involved if the employer would not or would not resolve the problem itself.
Issue
In this case study, Kelly and the other ALT’s had taken two days off for being sick. The ALT’s were directed by their boss Mr. Higashi to get a doctors note before returning to work and were told they could not use sick leave, instead they would have to use accumulated vacation time for their absence. Mr. Higashi explained that the work ethic is different in Japanese workers and they feel guilty missing work generally and especially because they are sick. When time is missed because of illness, the works use vacation time. Sick time is only used when the employee has exhausted all their vacation time. This was not consistent with what Kelly and the other ALT’s were told before going to Japan, nor was it consistent with their practices in their home countries. Kelly considered filing a complaint against Mr. Higashi with CLAIR, while Mark made it clear he was not happy with the Japanese style of management, and Suzanne...