Job Discussion Forums

[randerso]

Hey guys,

I'm seroiusly considering offers from both the Montessori International School just outside Nagoya and the Lingo school in Takamatsu. Any advice to pass on? Seem like good offers, need to choose between them!!! Thanx.

[Gordon]

It's a no brainer. DO NOT GO TO LINGO!!!!! Cannot state it more plainly. Do a search here. PM me if you have specific Q's. They withold their teacher's pay and provide you with a shoddy place to live, which you of course pay them a handsome sum for.

[PAULH]

More info on Lingo school

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=9165&highlight=lingo+takamatsu

Claim to fame is threatening to sue leaving teachers 1 million yen for quitting contracts early. Totally illegal tactics and totally dodgy company. Owners seem to be xenophobic control freaks that dont trust their own staff.

[PAULH]

Could you say exactly why the teachers who left did so, and why/how you felt bullied? I am considering a position with Lingo School and am quite concerned. Since I'm older and currently living in the US, offers have been hard to come by, but I certainly don't want to put myself in a bad spot. Please e-mail me privately if you don't want to post details.

Here's the sample contract I was sent by e-mail. I e-mailed the owner back requesting clarification of several clauses, e.g. the reasons for dismissal under #10: Why should the teacher be blamed if students quit the class? What if it's for a reason that's beyond the teacher's control, such as moving out of town? I'll post any interesting replies that I receive. Note that it doesn't contain the 1 million yen replacement clause, though.

Employment Agreement (a sample contract)

EMPLOYEE'S DETAILS:

Name:
Date of birth:
Home address:
Nationality:
Passport number:
Alien registration number:
Visa status:


EMPLOYER'S DETAILS:

Employer's name: Lingo School
Owner and president: Kyoko Tominaga
Business's registered address: 11-6 Kamei-cho, Takamatsu city,
Kagawa prefecture 760-0050 Japan

Lingo School (hereinafter referred to as the "Employer" located at 11-6 Kamei-cho, Takamatsu city, Kagawa prefecture 760-0050 Japan) agrees to employ (hereinafter referred to as the "Employee" ) domiciled at as an EFL teacher on the following terms and conditions.

Interpretation: In this Agreement, words in the singular shall be considered as words in the plural and vice versa where the context requires.

1.Duties

The Employee is expected to use his/her professional skills, expertise and knowledge in rendering his/her services to the Employer and to perform his/her duties efficiently and diligently. (For example, preparing for the classes, several kinds of proofreading and editing) The Employee shall accept the job which is relevant to the promotion for Lingo School. (For example, holding a Christmas party, Halloween party, an examiner for an oral test sponsored by United Nations Association, attending meeting to promote new students' attendance.) And also the Employee shall cooperate the jobs are; recording by using tape recorder, VCR and digital camera.

The job descriptions given to the Employee from time to time are not to be taken as restrictive and the Employee will be expected to make full use of his/her capabilities as a professional EFL teacher of Lingo School when the occasion demands even though this might exceed the bounds of the job description in force at the time. The Employee agrees not to seek improvement to the terms and conditions herein described.

2.Period of Employment

The Agreement is from, 2004 to, 2005 and this agreement will expire automatically unless the Employer notified the Employee of this intention to renew this Agreement in 3 months prior to the expiration date.
However, the starting date may be late because of some trouble caused by the immigration office in Japan. In that case the date (the beginning work) shall be rewritten on the contract. The period of employment shall be valid from the first day of working visa at our school.

(Addition)

If the Employee should break the terms of contract, the Employee must report the date of resign of Lingo school to the Japanese government immediately, because the visa has been issued by Japanese Government as Lingo School promised Japanese Government to take responsibility of the Employee. The employee should inform the employer the reason for breaking the terms of contract and exact date of leaving our school one and half months prior to the employee's leaving date. The date of departure should be decided after taking the classes and the students at Lingo School into consideration. You should not work in Kagawa Pref. within one year.
For the company and public school which we send the Employee as a part time teacher, the Employee has to write the letter of explanation for leaving before the fulfillment of the contract.

3.Place of the Services

The initial place of the services shall be at Takamatsu, Kagawa prefecture, Japan, but all cases be subject to the order of the Employer. The Employee will teach classes mainly at the main school addressed at 11-6 Kamei-cho, Takamatsu city and at the branch school at classroom elsewhere in Kagawa pref.

4.Working Terms

4.1 The Employee shall teach up to 100 hours per 4 weeks. Average teaching hour per day is not fixed; we will calculate the employee's teaching hours through 4 weeks. In the event of a class being canceled teacher may be asked to make up the class in a later time.

4.2 The Employee shall be given paid holidays (two days a week) and 10 National holidays, summer holidays from 8th of August to 15th of August of 2004(8 days). As the winter vacation, December 23rd 2004 through January 3rd 2005(12 days). However, if the Employee should break terms of our contract, the Employee will lose the right to have paid holidays (summer vacations, winter vacations and successive holidays).

4.3 The employee shall stay at the office up to 116 hours each month. This working hour includes teaching hour, interview with a new student, general meeting, regular meeting with co-teachers ?etc.

4.4 In case the employee cancels lessons for his/her own sake except sickness, the employee's salary will be deducted and also he/she has to make up for his/her lessons for himself/herself.

5.Salary

The Employer will pay the Employee the monthly salary of \260,000 Japanese yen for the first full month. From the second full month, the Employer will pay the Employee the monthly salary of \270,000 Japanese yen. The payment will be made on the 3rd of the following month. If the pay day falls on to a holiday, we will pay on the earliest working day.

From the second year the employee's monthly salary will increase according to the evaluation of the first year.

In case the Employee will not begin to work from the first day of the month, we will calculate the Employee's salary by Japanese calculating system. However the Employee's first working day falls on to holidays, the Employee's first working day will be on the following day of the end of the holidays. The Employee shall be paid \8,666 Japanese yen per one actual working day until the end of the first full month. From the second full month the Employee shall be paid \9,000 Japanese yen per one actual working day.
This amount is calculated by the following formula according to the Japanese Labor Standards Law:

Monthly Salary x Number of
30 working days

Same formula will be applied when the Employee terminates to work in the middle of the month.

5.1
If the Employee manage to maintain the number of the students for long term, the Employee will be rewarded by the Employer and bonus will be paid.

6.Tax and Legal Insurance Fee

Any taxes and legal insurance fees, such as personal income tax, local taxes, premiums of health insurance, pension plan and unemployment insurance), etc, shall be born by the Employee in order to be levied by the competent authorities. (Japanese tax ratio is about 10% to the amount of monthly salary. This rate is deducted by national tax agency.)

7. Sick Leave

7.1 The Employee must submit medical certificate to the Employer for any kind of sick leave for more than 2 days.

7.2 In case of more than 3 days' sick leave through one year, the Employee's salary shall be deducted by \2,600 Japanese yen per one 50 minute lesson, \ 8,666 Japanese yen per one day. From the second full month, \2,700 Japanese yen per one 50 minute lesson, \9,000 Japanese yen per one day. Shall be deducted.

7.3 The employee shall make up the canceled classes caused by sick leave as much as possible when the employee is recovered.

8.Transportation

8.1 If a transportation allowance is necessary for the Employee to his/her job from Lingo School, the Employee will be paid by the Employer. Commuting fee from his/her house to Lingo School will not be paid by the Employer. The Employee's residence is located in a place very near Lingo School. Traveling time to the working places will not be included in 29 hours of working hours.

9. Observance of the School Regulations

9.1 Tardiness to any assigned classes without justifiable reasons, and without notifying Lingo School at least 24 hours prior to such tardiness may result in the deduction of the Employee's salary.

9.2 If the employee is unable to teach any assigned classes they are required to inform the employer one month prior to the date of absence. The maximum period of such an absence is one day. In addition, such a leave is limited to emergency cases as well as those circumstances in which a justifiable reason to permit such a leave exists.

9.3 The Employee shall conduct his/her classes strictly in accordance with the objectives and teaching methods of each subject area as has been established by the joint effort of both Lingo School and the Employee.

9.4 The Employee shall not be allowed to work for except Lingo School either as a private teacher outside of Lingo School.

9.5 The Employee shall submit his/her weekly lesson plan on the first working day of every two weeks.

10. Termination of Agreement

10.1 This agreement may be terminated upon 30 days prior notice in writing by the Employer for any of the following reasons:
a) repeated tardiness in reporting to work,
b) excessive absence without justifiable reasons,
c) failure to comply with directives by the Employer,
d) failure to abide by the terms and conditions of this Agreement,
e) failure to maintain professional standard,
f) other circumstances which create malfunctioning relationship
with the school, staff and students. For example: Trust is
broken. Communication is broken.
g) failure to get along with the business colleague at school,
h) failure to maintain the number of students in a class
i) three times of warning letters from the manager,
j) if the Employee should break terms of our contract,
k) the personal and close relationship between the Employee and students, their
families and staff of the company and school prohibited. For example to
exchange e-mail address, phone number, meet privately outside school ?etc.

10.2 In the event of breach of this Agreement by the Employee for any reason including but not limited to misconduct, illegal act or non-observance of the obligations hereafter, the Employer reserves the right to terminate this Agreement forthwith and rights to terminate this Agreement will cease.

11.Observance of Secrecy

The Employee shall be responsible for observing secrecy in relation to any information which becomes known to his/her in the course of carrying our his/her duties and shall not disclose such information to a third party. This obligation will continue in force after the termination of the Agreement unless or until the information passes into the public domain.

12. Governing Law

This Agreement is to be interpreted in accordance with the Japanese Law, and the legal relationship between both parties is also to be determined in conformity with the Japanese Laws.

13. Period of Validity

This Agreement is effective from the date indicated in paragraph2 of this Agreement until the date of termination of the Agreement.

14. Repatriation

14.1 The employee will compile a report about the students (the page of the textbooks at the final class, what the issues are, the framework of each class and the flow of the each class and so on.) Employees will refrain from informing their students that they are leaving the school until the date set by the school is in effect. In case you can not bridge to a new teacher about the class, you may be asked to take a video tape of your class. You should follow our suggestions about the procedure.

14.2 It will be the Employee's responsibility to pay the premium of the insurance thus covered.

14.3 In case the Employee wishes to resign, he/she must notify the Employer in this regard at least one and half months in advance.
However if the leaving day will be before the expiration of our terms of contract, this means the breakage of our contract.


14.4 The prefectural and municipal tax will be deducted from the final payment when the employee leaves the school if the employee have remaining tax payment.

14.5 The remaining national insurance fee will be deducted from the final payment when the employee leaves the school in case he/she is insured himself/herself with the national insurance fee.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the parties hereto have hereunder set their hands.

THE EMPLOYER THE EMPLOYEE

Kyoko Tominaga
Lingo School

Date: Date:


WITNESS WITNESS

[Gordon]

The 1 million yen penalty that they impose for leaving a contract prematurely is not on their current contracts. It was in their 2003 contracts though as I saw it with my own eyes.

[randerso]

Thanx guys. I'm gonna leave Lingo alone. But does anyone know anything about the Montessori school outside Nagoya? It seems odd that Japanese parents would embrace the Montessori philosophy istead of a juku environment.