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drandreasbrown
Joined: 06 Nov 2008
Posts: 34
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 Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:26 am Post subject: Westgate and Shane School |
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Hi,
I'm a teacher in Indonesia, have been here for nearly 4 years, looking at jobs in Japan. Most of the wages and terms/condition of employment don't look too good though. What can people tell me about working in Japan generally, and specifically about Westgate and the Shane School? |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:20 pm Post subject: |
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I'm supporting a friend who is preparing to extract herself from Shane right now, and when we met over coffee one evening, I was shocked at how awful the conditions are.
Shane contracted an apartment for her, but it was not clean or refurbished before she moved in, and the rent and bills consume nearly half her month's pay. She's paying more than the market value - I checked the realestate in her area, and rent of a space that size is about Y20,000 less on average. As I have read about other Shane employees, employees are required to pay a deposit for the apartment.
She tells me that she must work 13 unpaid days a year, and frequently works 6 days in a row. She almost never gets consecutive days off.
If she is absent due to illness, she goes unpaid for that day. Some days, she finishes lessons early in the day, but is required to stay on site until the next scheduled lesson. The employees appear to be paid by the lesson, not by the day. The short version is, she may go unpaid for hours of the day, and is essentially captive until the student either attends the lesson, phones in to cancel, or fails to attend. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 12:00 am Post subject: |
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| TokyoLiz wrote: |
| Shane contracted an apartment for her, but it was not clean or refurbished before she moved in, and the rent and bills consume nearly half her month's pay. |
Heckuva place! Terribly expensive place or terribly low wages.
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| She tells me that she must work 13 unpaid days a year, |
What? How does that happen? Is this actually in the contract?
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| If she is absent due to illness, she goes unpaid for that day. |
Sounds illegal.
The employees appear to be paid by the lesson, not by the day. [/quote]"Appears"? Again, isn't this in the contract? Legally, it must be. |
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Nabby Adams
Joined: 08 Feb 2008
Posts: 215
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| Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 12:50 am Post subject: |
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| Most places don't pay when you are sick in Japan in my experience. But yes stear clear. There are some shocking deals around. The small chains are terrible. Modernenglish in the Osaka area. They pay about 1400 an hour! One hour's teaching for 2 beers in a bar. Christ even my factory days in England paid better than that. |
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Khyron
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
Posts: 291
Location: Tokyo Metro City
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| Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 3:52 am Post subject: |
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| TokyoLiz wrote: |
| I'm supporting a friend who is preparing to extract herself from Shane right now, and when we met over coffee one evening, I was shocked at how awful the conditions are. |
Not that I'm a fan of Shane, but I'll chime in.
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Shane contracted an apartment for her, but it was not clean or refurbished before she moved in, and the rent and bills consume nearly half her month's pay. |
Shane usually charges 70,000-78,000yen/month for apartments. Some are places in Tokyo that are worth more than 78,000, but most are Leopalace 1Ks out in Saitama that they don't pay key money for and are worth less than 45,000yen/month and include some utilities(if you pay one year in advance... can your friend afford to do that?).
How about half her month's pay? She gets at least 250,000yen/month. Her rent is probably 78,000yen/month and includes utilities and internet. She probably pays 6,000yen, give or take, a month on her mobile phone. Perhaps her bills are around 90,000yen/month. How is that half of her pay? Even if half of her pay is going to bills... WELCOME TO LIFE. She's preaching to the choir.
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| She's paying more than the market value - I checked the realestate in her area, and rent of a space that size is about Y20,000 less on average. |
Did she have to pay key money or a full deposit of a few months rent? No, she didn't. As well, many of her utilities are included in her rent. One strange thing that Shane does is charge a "futon" fee of 40,000yen, for a 4,000yen futon. Apparently it covers the furnishings... but Leopalaces are pre-furnished. It's not the big horrible deal that she thinks it is, but it's not the best deal either.
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As I have read about other Shane employees, employees are required to pay a deposit for the apartment. |
So is everyone else in Japan. Shane employees are charged 40,000yen. Others are charged 2-3 months rent.
I didn't have an apartment provided by Shane when I worked there, because I thought I could find a better deal on my own (and I loathe the idea of living in a company apartment), but your friend didn't have to pay key money, her deposit was minimal, her apartment was furnished, and many of her bills are included in her probably 78,000yen/month rent. Is that so bad? I think that's reasonable.
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She tells me that she must work 13 unpaid days a year, and frequently works 6 days in a row. She almost never gets consecutive days off. |
This is definitely a reason to work somewhere else instead of Shane, but in all fairness the holiday time is decent and those 13 days are included in her contract. Technically, they are paid days.
Not having consecutive days off is not unusual in many large eikaiwa chains. It sucks, but she's not alone. If she switches to another eikaiwa, she could easily be in the same situation regarding consecutive days off.
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| If she is absent due to illness, she goes unpaid for that day. |
That's her choice. Shane does provide the legal amount of sick days. If she can prove that she was really sick, perhaps with a doctor's note, she can be paid for it via her allowed days off per year.
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| Some days, she finishes lessons early in the day, but is required to stay on site until the next scheduled lesson. |
If she has a "next schedules lesson", then her lessons aren't finished for the day. So, which is it? Also, she is not required to stay on site. Between classes, she can do as she pleases. If she has an hour between classes, she can play pachinko if she chooses. It's her time.
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| The employees appear to be paid by the lesson, not by the day. |
Sort of. Her credited work hours are her lesson time, plus 30 minutes of preparation time. If she has 5:15 of teaching, then she is credited with 5:45. The reason for this is so that Shane can keep employees working full-time hours, but only give them part-time benefits.
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| The short version is, she may go unpaid for hours of the day, and is essentially captive until the student either attends the lesson, phones in to cancel, or fails to attend. |
She's not unpaid. If her second-to-last lesson finishes at 6:00pm, but she has a final lesson from 8:00-8:30, then she is contractually obligated to teach it!!! Why is that so surprising? She's not "captive", she's working. Good grief. Furthermore, she isn't even required to be at the school between 6:00 and 8:00 (or for anytime between classes). She can bring a man into a love hotel for that time if that's what she wants to do.
It sounds like a lot of your friend's complaints are groundless. Perhaps she just doesn't like working for a living?
The main bad points of Shane are being contractually obligated to work up to 13 extra days a year in place of sick/absent/on holiday teachers for no extra pay (not "unpaid" but no "extra" pay), being obligated to teach spring and summer special session classes in the mornings during two periods in the year (they do pay overtime wages for that, although their way of calculating overtime does not favour the employees!), essentially working full-time but only being legally considered part-time (they don't pay shakai hoken, as they only count "teaching hours" as working hours), and finally the contract demands two full months notice of resignation. If you live in a company apartment, some people complain about those conditions as well. Yet, to be honest, if you've ever went through the trouble of finding your own apartment in Japan, the apartments offered through Shane are somewhat reasonable. These are the basic reasons why I found a much better job.
Westgate, I don't know much about. To be honest, I've only really heard bad things! |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:30 am Post subject: |
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If your employer is providing an apartment that has been recycled from a previous teacher(s), there is no need whatsoever to pay key money. That has been done long ago. Ripoff!
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| As well, many of her utilities are included in her rent. |
Like what? Nobody I know pays a combined rent and utilities. (NOVA renters did, but that was a flat fee up to a certain amount, I hear.) |
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