Job Discussion Forums

[Ai]

Hello. I recently applied to a recruiting agency called Iware. They place teachers at private schools in the Kanto area. I haven't been able to find any information on them, besides their website. So, have you heard of them? Any information?

Thanks

[furiousmilksheikali]

This company?

http://ecp.iware.ne.jp/

I've never heard of them before. But, according to their advertisements on gaijinpot it seems they have very high requirements for fairly low salaries.

[Ai]

Yeah, that's the one. I applied to them as a 'safety school' while I hunt for better jobs. But actually, I wouldn't be willing to work for them unless they offered be their highest advertised salary. But I suspect that a lot of jobs just advertise salary ranges like that (250,000-300,000) to get people to apply. Then they offer you a low salary. (again that's just what i suspect)

[TokyoLiz]

Ai, don't give up on Iware just yet.

Iware offers Y250,000 as a base salary for entry-level teachers, that is
to say, teachers who have only a bachelor's degree, little experience
and no teaching qualification. This salary is comparable to many of the companies that hire ALTs.

Teachers with experience in Japan, in the junior/senior high school setting, with a teaching qualification, and various other qualifications are offered a salary based on each plus.

Something to keep in mind is that almost all Iware's positions are teaching solo, either to a whole class, or with a fellow teacher, to half of a homeroom class.

[yamanote senbei]

You can add Iware to the list of illegal dispatchers. They're site has a lot of information on their teaching system, but nearly nothing on the contractual relationship between the company, the school and the teachers.

http://ecp.iware.ne.jp/about.html

They don't give their dispatch licence number here, probably because they don't have one. Legally dispatching teachers would limit Iware's profits and limit the length of time that the school could receive teachers from them before being obliged to hire them directly.

Dispatching isn't even listed. Number 3, English education support business is the closest of the four business fields that they claim to be in, and it's just code for "we will illegally dispatch teachers to you via a disguised outsourcing scheme".

There's more. Read over Merit 2:

http://ecp.iware.ne.jp/index.html

Basically they're saying that the costs for the school are lower if they receive teachers from the company because the school doesn't have to worry about retirement costs, advertising, health and pension, etc. Well, all of those costs are actually passed on to the company who charges the school for them. There are no savings to the school. What Iware is probably doing is not enrolling their teachers in proper health insurance as required by the Health Insurance Law and Dispatch Law. Since Iware themselves claim on their recruiting page that most of their teachers are full-time, they most of them must by law be enrolled in Shakai Hoken (health and pension).

"Most of our teachers have full time regular positions at our company but we also need teachers interested in part time positions."

So if Iware teachers are legally required to be enrolled in health and pension, how does the school save by going through Iware, as Iware claims? Easy: Iware doesn't enroll them and the school feels safe using Iware as a buffer from the law.

If you work for Iware, contact a lawyer or your local union as soon as possible. The company is illegally eating probably 1/3 of your salary each month.