Job Discussion Forums

[hopscotch]

Your pay will be riddled with fees from the schools. You will be gouged. ALS does not help with NHI payments-this costs you $1000 a year. You will work for 6 hours without a single break unless there is a cancellation. It takes 2 months for your first full pay and it will be much shorter than expected due to gouging. You will be teaching 3-year olds more than any other group. The parents are almost always in the classroom. You have few resources for that age group. ALS will tell you buy your stuff at 100 Yen shops. Your performance is discussed daily, almost hourly. If you are absent, you have to pay the substitue teacher, which is a lot more than your daily pay. Gouge again. You have no sick days. It is a shady org. Don't sign any contract with ALS as you will regret it. All the teachers regret signing and most leave with no notice, they just disappear.

[bearcat]

Lemme guess: Another victim of the nefarious ALS in Nagoya?

EDIT: I thought about your post again and want to say more.


That said there's a few things that dont make sense:

1. NHI(Natonal Health Insurance does not cost 1000 a year for a foreigner for their first year in country(no taxable income to scale the cost). If you've been around for a few years and your taxable income has you paying a lil under 1man a month due to the previous year's income, then its understandable for it to be at that rate.

Not every eikaiwa pays in part or whole the NHI either. There's some regulations on whether they pay or not and depends on hours counted for work(29.5 or less wont count), and some other factors (such as if your company is an LLC(limited) company with less than 5 employees they are not required to pay anything and the employees are responsible).

2. Two months until your first paycheck is not uncommon for various places. This depends on when payroll is turned in or missed. However, most reasonable places understand this and will give new employees advances on pay so that they can cover basic expenses. You stated that "dont pay full" so it seems like you did get some like I mentioned? It was unclear.

3. Japanese labour standards says that a company is not required to give you a break unless you've worked more than 6 hours. Again though many companies/schools reasonably understand that teachers needs some time for transition from one class of students to another and can have some very small break or time for such. Again though, not all and they're not required to.

4. 3 year olds being taught or predominantly taught: So? Not uncommon. Most schools bread and butter profits come from ages 3-12. Its also not unheard of for their to be classes for kids that are younger. Even big chain schools like ECC have had classes for 2-3 year olds WITH the mothers participating. Again not uncommon.

5. Mothers in the classroom: See #4. Each school/company's rules are different on this. Many teachers of course wouldnt like this but its again not unheard of that a teacher has to deal with it.

6. School telling you to buy your own class resources from an 100 yen store? That's poor of the school and thus of course reflects their lack of committment to teaching resources etc, but again, not unheard of. Not defending them but its not shocking. Its their responsibility to provide materials for classes. Not yours. If however, you buy such AND they reimburse you(I've personally had this happen with 2 companies way back when) then I see no problem at all.

7. Work performance: Some teachers will appreciate good feedback. Some teachers as well need more than that due to serious issues with their performance. However, some schools with neurotic owners are also micro-managing places from hell. Your vague information doesn't really help to discern which is the case.

8. Paying for your own substitute teacher. Illegal as far as I am aware. Pure and simple. Also, requiring you to pay a "fine" in this respect that is higher than your averaged daily wage I do believe is also a no no.

9. Fees: What other fees are you speaking of?

10. There are no "sick days" in Japan. There are personal days but there are some regulations with regards to how they are ecrued and their usage. Without better explaination of the situation, I can't discern whether you were actually wronged on this point or not.

All in all though the reputation of the Nagoya ALS is well known, your vague and semi infactual post doesn't really have much with regards to illegalities and more to do with subjective complaints. You may not even be speaking with regards to the Nag one. You may be speaking of the National Chain which I've been given the impression has distance itself from the Nagoya place(They dont list any branches on their map of the National Chain's website for the Tokai Region). Im not defending the national chain either, just so you know.

So, please understand that Im not saying that you've not been exploited, but I am saying that you've not done a good job of explaining things well enough to convey a better picture of the situation. Thus at this point Im skeptical of the accuracy of your claims.

[bradley]

Is it a franchise school?

I've worked at ALS before in Chiba. All schools are not the same.

[qiranger]

This is pretty standard when teaching abroad. When I was in Korea, I taught from 3pm - 9pm with 5 minutes between classes. On days that we started a bit earlier (noon), I was afforded a 40 minute dinner break.

Waiting 2 months for salary isn't all that uncommon, since it depends on when you start and how the company pays. In Korea, the average wait for a full month's salary is 2 months. I don't see why Japan would be any different.

What fees are they "Gouging"?

Buying stuff at the Y100 store to assist in building your class may not be out of the norm... re: stickers, pens for your use, etc. Unless they're making you purchase books, paper, etc. for your students to use, then that's the cost of doing business as an educator.

[Apsara]

People get so riled up about the wait for the first full pay without realising that that is absolutely standard in Japan and almost all Japanese workers face the same issue. Of course it is harder when you have just moved to a new country, but that is why on all the websites like these ones people always give the advice to bring at least a few thousand dollars with you on arrival.

And to think I bought paper, crayons etc. at the hundred yen shop when I was first in Japan and teaching at a kindergarten without realising I was being hard done by!

Sick days and contributions to NHI- which companies provide these? Certainly not the ones I work for.

[wayne432]

I wish posters would actually come back and explain themselves after the original post... otherwise it sounds like the poster might have just been a bit naive.