W5 staffing services
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[edit] Calculating Wages
Meetings at the schools of the school's teachers, meetings of the w5 teachers(both are monthly I believe). All schools events: graduation, first day ceremonies, club related(if so required to participate in a club by mandate of the school), and the list goes on. When you couple this with the deficits in pay for the Summer and March it comes out to be rather interesting.
Here's an example:
- Let's assume you will be at the school(s) for a work deal of 40 hours a week(not talking about teaching hours but the actual hours required to be there as a teacher and representative of the company and not truly your own time). And employed for 12 months. If the pay is 250,000 yen a month thats an average of 1562 yen an hour and 3 million yen a year.
Now let's complicate this:
- Let's say on average, you are required to work 15 hours a month over you regularly scheduled hours. Your pay then drops to 1428 an hour. Now in a regular 12 month period that's 2100 hours at 3 million yen. And I think the number of hours guesstimated is a bit low. work two saturdays and a few days of meetings in a month and you're easily over that 15 a month deal but Im simplifying.
Now let's take this down a different path:
- It's known that in March and in July / August, that you get less pay because of the breaks. Remember, the "paid vacation" doesn't equate wholly to the school "breaks".Let's again assume modestly that you work only half a month in March, thus half pay for that month, but due to the ceremonies and meetings etc etc you are working instead of 40 per week those two weeks you are putting in still a total of 15 hours over. So you work 95 hours for 125,000 yen at an hourly rate of 1315 an hour. For July and August you work 2 weeks each of those months as well. But to be nice(though its not ) you work at 10 hours over per month. So for those months you work 90 hours each month at the 125,000 rate for 1388 an hour. Thus you get 9 months of 250,000 for 160 hours each month at a rate of 1428 an hour.
- Plus the 3 months half wages above. Grand total, you work 1715 hours for 2,625,000 yen at a rate of 1530 an hour. That's a rough calculation not figuring in a few more holidays(though there might be school functions on them thus canceling it out or extra meetings) or other things.
[edit] Personal accounts
account 1
- They also bait you into an interview with one set of information and then switch you with another when you get in the interview and then again with the contract. As for example saying 10 weeks paid vacation but actually not being so. Or pay at a huge reduction on months without a "full schedule". So on and So on. I realized it was an accident looking for a place to happen and didn't entertain signing up with them. I noticed you mentioned your friend is not a native speaker of English. The coordinator for the alt positions I encountered was not a native speaker of English either, but from an eastern European country. Take that into consideration as well.
- If there is no clause in the contract for cancellation after a trial period etc that one is just a regular contracted worker from the get go, then you might have cause to raise a stink with them. Otherwise most likely there isn't much you can do beyond spreading the word on their bad practices. I might speculate that they lost the contract with the school board they were planning to hire your friend for. With the huge numbers of turn over throughout the year, it wouldn't suprise me that schools are beggining to get fed up with it. But this is speculation only. It could have been any number of reasons... but the fact that they showed little to no professionalism or courtesy to your friend, knowing as they should your friend's situation/position, it really shows how poorly they treat people.
account 2
- I signed a one year contract to work for W-5 from　April, 2005 to March, 2006. I was told not to come back to work because one teacher at my elementary school objected to the fact that I was teaching the children to write the alphabet. He became so incensed about this that he took a document I wrote to the Board of Education and got them to threaten W-5 with cancelling their contract for next year. The class before his played a Bingo game in which every student wrote lower case letters into their Bingo grids. They enjoyed the game and the Home Room Teacher came up to me after the lesson and told me so.
- However, the aforementioned "teacher" was determined not to let me do my job. He held the cards in front of the class and asked me to read them for the students as if I were a human tape recorder. I accused him of hi-jacking my lesson from me and I was furious he would not allow me to teach the lesson I had planned. It was an ugly confrontation with a bully and an ignorant person. I was fired from my job for teaching the children too much. The Board of Education actually supported this guy. W-5 bent over backwards to appease the school board. They did not want to make any waves and they were scared they would lose the contract. In my book a person should not be fired for trying to do his job right. He should not be fired for planning interesting lessons and trying to make English learning fun for the kids. He should not be fired for encouraging them to write when the curriculum calls for teaching the alphabet. But this is Japan. The customer is always right.
- After I was terminated by W-5 I requested a Certificate of Dismissal from them on four occasions. They are required by Japanese law to provide this upon request. The supervisor blatatanly stated that he would not write a Certificate of Dismissal for me. He told me I would be paid for the two weeks in May that I worked but that I should expect nothing else from the company. Under Japanese labor law W-5 is obligated to provide 30 days notice prior to a dismissal. Failing to do so they must compensate the worker with an average of 30 days' pay. The supervisor refused to issue a certificate of dismissal and refused to provide me with 30 days' severance allowance. This matter is now in the hands of the Nagoya city Labour Bureau. As for me, I am going to a country where the people want to learn English. As for Japan, if an entertainer is what they want then an entertainer is what they will get. I am going to play out under nana-chan for now.
- My advice for anyone who want to be an elementary school ALT: it is the best job in Japan. The students will love you and you will bring a smile to their faces. Enjoy it. Get the most out of it. Do your best. If the teachers ask you to stay past your normal working hours refuse politely. DO NOT STAY LONGER THAN WHAT IS WRITTEN IN YOUR CONTRACT. The Japanese teachers are not your friends. No matter how much you think so, despite their smiles and assurances if they ask you to stay past your normal working hours they are setting you up for a fall. I lost the best job in Japan because I stayed for their meetings. I tried to help them. They smiled in my face and stabbed me right in the back. W-5 did nothing to support me. This is despite the fact that I was using the David English House, child-centered methodologies they taught me. W-5 has no principles. They will bend over backwards to the BOE's when the BOE's stated intent is to deprive the children of the opportunity to learn English.
account 3
- I worked briefly for W5 this fall in Kansai. Although the Osaka office staff who were also newly hired were nice people the company organization is a mess in my opinion but to be fair a lot of the problems stem from the way the BOEs organize themselves. The contract we were shown and that I did not sign was in English only and was almost illegible, I'm not sure who wrote it but it sure wasn't a literate English speaking person. It was riddled with mistakes, the most interesting was that if we did this or that wrong we would be "executed". You would think a company that had contracts in many school districts would be able to manage a legible contract.
- There were no benefits and you were not paid when school was not in session at this particular job but other positions might be different. They did not pay for transportation. When I asked about taxes they were very evasive and gave me a Nagoya city tax brochure that was in Japanese except for the contact information for an English consultation, I live in Kobe. Training was for about 3 hours with the above mentioned Hungarian man but training is not a good word for it. It was more of a chew the fat session with a few hints and tips, I would not call it training. What he said in that short amount of time was not that bad, I just wouldn't call it training.
- The part that I found the most appalling however was that the curriculum was shamefully bad in my opinion. I've taught elementary school kids for over 5 years in Japan and I have never seen so much drivel, they also gave us photocopies of all of Richard Graham's website Genki English which is great but it is not a substitute for a professionally organized curriculum by the company that is accepting the money for educating young children. To top it all off they had absolutely no materials except a clearfile of some pretty bad A4 flashcards that matched their poor "curriculum". I could write more but it is depressing. I really regret getting caught up in such a crap situation. I feel like I really let the kids down by not staying, but then again by staying and doing a good job I would be supporting W5 and the BOE to continue providing their half assed crap version of an English program. W5 said they have contracts with 50 school boards, scary.
account 4
- I just want to add my experience with W5. First, my disclaimer. While W5 has an affect on your experience, I truly believe the BOE that you work with has a bigger affect on your experience. Therefore, my experience is probably different from other W5 teachers who work with different BOEs. Anyway, I agree that W5 is not well organized. I think they are suffering through growing pains as they have recently started winning contracts in both Kansai and Kanto, but don't have experienced staff members to service those areas. To be honest, I have absolutely no clue who is in charge of me. My previous W5 supervisor/laison changed, another quit, and I don't know who it is now. But to be honest, I don't care! I guess if you want your hand to be held the whole time, this is not the company for you. In my area, there are no meetings, and I was given no training when I was hired. But I had previous experience working in high schools, so W5 didn't feel it was necessary to give training. And I'm glad they didn't waste my time doing so. Personally, I LOVE the freedom I have. I almost completely independent of W5. If only I could convince the BOE to hire me directly......
- I think most BOEs prefer dispatch companies because if provides them with a percieved safety net. Anyway, in my very small town, there were still 6 or 7 companies that entered bids. ALTIA was the most expensive. W5 was 2nd. I was told that the difference between ALTIA and the lowest bidder was 1,000,000 yen. But believe or not, W5 and ALTIA were both able to win contracts with the BOE. So the BOE didn't just choose the lowest bidder, they choose the companies that they felt were the best. So I don't think W5 is undercutting other companies to win bids. Interact, yes, W5 and ALTIA, no. And although the BOE loves me, and really wants me to continue working with them, hiring me directly was out of the question.....have to love the Japanese logic....huh. So if you plan on holding off signing your contract in hopes of directly dealing with the BOE (who has no previous experience with you), good luck, but don't hold your breath. The BOE will just move to the next dispatch company if they have a bad experience with W5. I can't imagine what the competition is like in a larger city if 7 companies entered bids for my small town.
- As for working on weekends, I've had to work on 4 Saturdays. It was always paid as the following Mondays were holidays. I was even lucky as it once created a 3 day weekend (Sun, Mon, Tue) for me as Tuesday was a national holiday. One school asked me to work on a national holiday for a school festival which wasn't in the contract. I contacted W5 about this who then contacted my school and defending me by saying I didn't have to work on that day. W5 cleared everything up. W5 even told me if the school still gave me pressure, to contact them and they would talk to my school again. Anyway, working on Saturdays isn't an issue for me since I am compensated with another day off and W5 will defend you when necessary.
- About materials, I work at a junior high school, so I am a bit more bound to a textbook and curriculum. But I could see how lack of materials could be a problem for elementary ALTs as there is no set curriculum. But again, if you need you hand held throughout the entire process, need to be spoon fed everything, this company, and in fact, most ALT positions and working in small private schools are not for you. Go work in a cookie cutter eikaiwa where you don't need to think and plan any lessons, just follow good old Interchange.
account 4
- I have worked for W5 for several years and NEVER had any problems with them. My pay has never been late (in fact, once or twice it came early!), or had any deductions taken from it. As for working overtime, I have always been told by W5 that I am NOT required to stay beyond the time stated in my contract, and if the school wants me to work on a Sat/Sun/Holiday then they MUST give me a weekday off in exchange--rules that have always been followed to the letter by my schools. My transportation expenses have always been covered in full. I can't guarantee that the conditions are the same in other areas, but I can say that my experience with them has been quite positive.
[edit] See also
W5.
