Job Discussion Forums

suntin · Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 4

A much thought about warning to people who might be thinking of coming to Japan. The RCS corporation of Saitama is to be avoided at all costs.

It's the usual story from the shady side of ELT from what I hear about other bad firms.

-Arrive expecting visa to find it hasnt even been applied for.
-Overcharging for rental cars, accomodation etc
-They charge customers travel expenses but don't pay them to teachers.
-Whatever else you hear they have no thought for the teachers who work for them, I was fined heavily for becoming ill and missing 5 days in a month despite doctors confirmation I was unfit for work. (part of the cause was recieving less than my 60k rent for 2 months running as "salary")
-After challenging them over deductions from my salary I was fired a month later over made up offences and even with school records on my side and lack of evidence on their part I was fined half a months salary and told not to speak with the school again.

They were caught out defrauding their clients in my area and I believe they have lost many schools as a result of this and ALTs leaving after only a few months, they are currently trying to gain new schools -so if you see that orange envelope on your school's desk be sure to pass this warning along.
Myself I have to go back home after not being able to buy proper food during my illness and making it much worse -its been a hella short stay but I won't be put off by them.

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

yamanote senbei · Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 435

If you read their website's explanation of their teacher dispatch system, you'll find that it's actually described as a kind of outsourcing. Outsourcing teachers is illegal.

http://www.rcs-japan.com/rschool/kannsinn.htm

You might want to ask yourself why in 2002, according the most recent data on their site, 22 cities and towns chose to break the law by doing business with RCS.

http://www.rcs-japan.com/rschool/hakennjiseki.htm

kendoman1 · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 69

I second your opinion of RCS. I would be very concerned with why they
told you not to contact the school again. I worked for this company for 2 years. At first it wasn't so bad. I was assigned to a very good JHS and I didn't hear once from RCS in over a year. Then I started getting calls from a new ALT manager they hired. This guy was a real fruit cake. I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. First of all he started by continually calling all the time about the terms of my contract. I later found out that they had lost it. So they with held my end of contract bonus until I faxed them a copy of it.
I had to leave all of a sudden due to family emergency and told them I wanted to use my paid holidays that I had earned and they agreed well guess what they with held over 100,000 yen of my pay because of this as a fine. Another teachers father died and they said if you leave you are fired just general BS like that. I mean they started with holding peoples pay for the strangest reasons.
Anyway I notified them I wasn't going to renew for a thrid year because of all this crazy stuff. So one week before the end of my contract. I got a call from Kyoto sensei asking me about my arrest for drug charges and I said what are you talking about. Well the ALT manager from your company(RCS ) called and said you had been arrested for drugs and thats' why you had to quit. In other words to save the contract with the BOE they called and told this story.
I called RCS straight away and of course they denied saying it. Anyway I did get by money from them as stated above. When I asked for it they said no. I didn't call the labour board or the union. I just told them if it wasn't posted to my account that day that I would be there personally and it wasn't going to be for talk. It was posted to my account 30 minutes after that. Suntinn if they own you money that is rightfuly yours go and get it from them.
By the way after the BOE heard of the lie they told about me. The BOE cancelled all of their contracts in that city.

wangtesol · Joined: 24 May 2005 Posts: 280

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

Aside from the car issue, it is not really incumbent on the teacher to be able to find his own way to work if there is no train available. My feeling is that if they are going to sign contracts with schools to supply a teacher, that teacher should be able to get to school or have his transport covered. Hiring rental cars is a very slapdash mickey-mouse way of transporting teachers. Either they provide a company car or they fund the teacher into one of these cheap but reliable K-cars (500cc engine, runs on gasoline fumes) that you could pick up for a couple of hundred thousand yen. The employer is making a killing off the teachers contract anyway, Im sure that they could afford to throw in a cheap set of wheels, which comes off company taxes anyway. Not to forget the teacher should have full insurance cover in the event of an accident, too.

kendoman1 · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 69

I think the reasoning about the cars is RCS does not pay or reimburse you for transportation wheather it's train,bus,or etc. So they rope the teachers or push these cars off on the teachers for 18,000 yen a month.
I think maybe a new teacher to Japan thinks it's a good deal. They don't realise their getting cheated per say. I mean even the worst of schools will reimburse you some for transportation.

yamanote senbei · Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 435

One of the really strange things about RCS is that they require you to drive. Most direct BOE and illegal dispatch jobs forbid you to drive to and from work, probably because they don't want to deal with any liabilites in case of an accident during your commute. RCS clearly doesn't seem care about their liabilities, which I suppose in this case you could consider to be a good point assuming that you wanted to drive.

yamanote senbei · Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 435

I noticed that RCS has a wonderful Saitama area position advertised on GP:

230,000/Month
Monthly, Semester and Completion Bonuses

Does the 230,000/Month include the Monthly, Semester and Completion Bonuses? Do teachers actually receive the Monthly, Semester and Completion Bonuses or are they always disqualified because of some technicality?

wangtesol · Joined: 24 May 2005 Posts: 280

They always post it ambiguously.

There are no clear guidelines as to how you might lose your monthly, quarterly or year end bonus. They should have proper work rules (shugyo kisoku) written up describing the bonus system, but instead the work rules they wrote are about how to keep a crease in your pants and junk like this which is written to potentially power harass (pawa hawa) the employees.

I remember one employee was charged a cleaning fee when he left his apartment. 50,000 yen. But the next teacher moved right in and they have never cleaned the place. Of course, that 50,000 yen came out of his year end bonus. He was also falsely charged with damage to the company car which was also taken out of the bonus. He didn't know his rights and so he got screwed out of his money. That's how RCS managers operate.

Quick, quit your JET job and screw fellow foreigners! Become an RCS manager today!

yamanote senbei · Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 435

Has anyone tried to fight RCS, or bring complaints directly to the BOEs that they do business with?

ssjup81 · Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 4:18 pm Post subject:

Sorry for reviving such an old thread, but I'm glad I came across this. I saw an advertisement up on Gaijin Pot today and was thinking about applying. After going through this thread, I've definitely reconsidered.

TokyoLiz · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1548 Location: Tokyo, Japan

Like a previous poster wrote, employees can protect themselves collectively through unions.

It's not like the employees can't find out the law and the contracting company's obligations. See Saitama labour standards info in English.
http://www.saitama-roudou.go.jp/annai/foreign/english.pdf

I posted on my blog the Nippon Television expose on dirty employ
ent practices of companies that hire ALTs.

http://chibaraki.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/違法-illegal-working-conditions-of-alts/