Job Discussion Forums

[undrmynd]

Hi everyone. I leave for Japan in 7 days!! (eekkkkk!!)

I just recieved a job offer from this company (Uscom Co Ltd). I did a search on google and could find anything about them. I also tried to do a search here, but that didn't work too well. (debug mode?)

If anyone has any information about this company please let me know. Thanks everyone.

[King Kong Bundy]

Don't take it. Sugita still owes me two months salary from 2003. He lied to me from the very beginning. He offered me more money in an E-mail but when I showed up in Japan. He paid me less. He would make so many deductions from my check, he would have the nerve to say I owe him money.

The guy Morgan Jones acts more like a thug than a manager or teacher.

I know the Saitama Labour Board has at least 3 complaints against Sugita!

Read my thread, "Working in Japan without a contract!" and you will get the details.

[King Kong Bundy]

I am really concern because, if you come to Japan because of a job offer from USCOM you are going to be in big trouble. Sugita the owner loves to prey on people wanting to come to Japan. I decided to copy the story and paste it here! I don't want Sugita doing to others what he did to me. Read this:

June of 2003, I was teaching in Korea when I received an E-mail from USCOM offering me an English teaching position in the public school system. I printed out the offer to have as evidence. The E-mail also requested my original college diploma and promised to return it upon my arrival in Japan. Sugita the owner of USCOM has yet to return my diploma and till this day he still owes me two months salary from October and November of 2003.

I had lived in Japan for five years before going to Korea to teach English. During those five years every single company I had worked for treated me honestly and fairly so I was naive to think that since USCOM was a legitimate company because they were providing English teacher to the public school system. I accepted Sugita's offer.

USCOM and their affiliate lil'kid is located in Saitama. I was assigned to teach at 3 junior high schools and 4 elementary schools in Chichibu, Saitama but was given an apartment in Hanno near USCOM.
Taking the train from Hanno to Chichibu is a four hour round trip commute. Getting to most of the assigned schools took anywhere from an hour and half to two more hours. All together I was averaging six hours of commuting. I was going to quit after the first time I made the long boring commute, but Sugita told me that I could stay in the apartment for free until he found me a place in Chichibu.
My first pay day, one of Sugita's managers came over and told me I owed them money! He showed me all the deductions which included 73,000 yen in rent. I told him of Sugita's promise and he laughed saying, "USCOM can't afford to pay your rent!" I also noticed the salary was a lot less than what was offered to me. This is how Sugita and his scandals operate! One person tells you one thing, and later on someone says something completely contrary.
I should of quit then but I had used up most of my savings, I made myself believe the manager's promise that I would be paid my full salary next month. Finally I did quit in November, because the following pay day, I was again told that I owed them money. Sugita over charged me on went, school lunches and all other kinds of bills. I never once saw a receipt!
One of his other managers said, I would be paid on full on Saturday if I worked the first two weeks in November, but I made the mistake of not going to Saitama Labour Bureau until after I had already quit! I have a lawyer preparing to file a lawsuit Sugita and USCOM for unpaid rages of October and the first two weeks of November of 2003.
An inspector from the Tokorozawa Labour Standards Inspection office was assigned to handle my case. In all my life, I have never met nor dealt with an agency that made so many excuses not to work.
I had told the translator that Sugita was over charging me the rent for the apartment, because the apartment next to mine was available and the rent was only 60,000 yen. She later told me the rent for my apartment was 73,000. When I asked her how she knew, she said that Sugita had told her. I then asked her to request to see the lease, but Sugita had conveniently lost the lease.
Another time, the translator told me that Sugita's American manager who acts more like a henchman, said, I wanted to live in the apartment. "Oh sure!" I replied, "I wanted to commute six hours a day and have to pay most of my salary in rent!"
When I told the translator that I can't believe in Japan an employer can make all kinds of deductions from an employee's salary without the consent of that employee, she said there was an oral agreement so the law does not apply!
"What oral agreement?" I had asked. She said that since I lived in the apartment I made some kind of agreement! "Yea that I could live there for free until Sugita finds me an apartment in Chichibu!" But since it was my word against his, and I am a gaijin and he is Japanese, they sided with Sugita.
Since quiting, I know Saitama Labour Bureau has had another complaint from a now past employee. She was smarter, she filed a complaint before quieting. If you are employed by USCOM or lil'kid or any other corrupt company make sure you file a complaint before you quit this way if you give at least 3 weeks notice, on your last day of employment you will be paid in full.
I also want to let everyone know that most Japanese are very honest, kind and honorable. I just had the misfortune to get involved with one of the most if not most corrupt company of swindlers in all of Japan.

[Mike L.]

This guy is a known scumbag! Avoid at all costs.

[undrmynd]

WOW!! Thanks a lot everyone!! I really appreciate the info.
I did email the guy back before I posted asking for more information about the school, salary, hours ect... he hasn't replied yet.
Don't worry, I won't be accepting a position from that company.
Thanks again everyone.
I love you guys ( and girls) !

[King Kong Bundy]

Smart move undrmynd! Because what ever they tell you will be a lie! They tell one thing and then when you get here, they tell you something different.
Also even the salary they offer that is a lie is still lower than average.
The average salary for an ALT is 250,000 yen a month.