Striking Unpaid Teachers Blamed For Nova Branch Closures
Now we are starting to get an indication of the fallout from this ’strike event.’
Translation of a Sankei Shimbun article from Let’s Japan:
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NOVA continues to close schools due to instructor shortages.
October 18, 12:51 Sankei Shimbun delivery
METI’s order to suspend part of Nova’s business has forced the Nakamozu school in Osaka and schools elsewhere to take it upon themselves to close the schools and stop accepting reservations for lessons. It is believed that the schools acted on their own in an attempt to cope with students being unable to make reservations for lessons at the times they want due to the lack of teachers.
The schools that closed include Nakamozu, in Osaka, and the Ichigaya (closed on the 17th) and Suidobashi (closed on the 18th) schools in Tokyo.
A Nova spokesperson said that the schools were not told to close. The repeated delay of teachers’ pay and the Japanese staff ready to revolt underscores the steady decline in Nova’s ability to remain in control.
The Nakamozu school reportedly closed on October 16. A notice on the entrance to the school read: Notice of school closure and that the school would be closed from October 16 until the 31st. The notice also contained messages scribbled in English from teachers saying they would miss the students.
The Nakamozu school was scheduled to close its doors at the end of October and merge with the Tennoji school (also in Osaka). Nova is reported to have sent a notice on the 19th to the approximately 400 students at the school informing them of the merger.[Comment: This was pointed out in the forums as not making any sense. The 19th is likely a typo.]
After Nova informed its foreign teachers on October 12 that they would be paid on the 19th instead of the usual 15th, around 200 teachers a day continue to be absent from work. To cope with the sudden shortage of teachers, schools have reportedly been switching to ocha no ma ryuugaku lessons taught over a videophone, but some schools have been unable to fill the gap.
According to a representative for Nova schools in Osaka, “Reservations can’t be made for lessons this week. We apologize to the students for the schools closing on their own and are refusing reservations.”
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So the very visible and easily blameable foreign teachers are the cause of the trouble this branch is and others will soon be experiencing? The lack of teachers or even the decision to stop accepting reservations at any branch is the decision of the teachers?
Another interesting fact: the number of ‘topatsued’ teachers on the day of the union called demonstration was pretty much the same for that day (10/16) as for every other day so far this month, about 10% of the total workforce of Nova teachers.
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They don’t mention that in the weeks prior to the strike a number of schools have been closed because they were evicted for not paying the rent! (Branches in Fujisawa, Ofuna and Shin-Yokohama for starters.)
I don’t like the way this article has been written. The writer appears to think it’s okay that teachers are paid late, because they got advanced warning. They also don’t say how many teachers out of that 200 had the day off anyway–and even if this did not include teachers who normally have the day off, if 4,000 teachers are employed with Nova, that’s only 5%. They are blaming the inability to schedule lessons due to lack of teachers, but this has been a problem ever since Nova had that system. Schools are closing down because of Nova’s financial situation, not because teachers and staff are “ready to revolt.”
This is extremely low, but not suprising. Sure, blame the unpaid teachers for Nova’s problems. I guess this is their last line of defense. The strike had nothing to do with the present situation–it was a reaction to it.
I also believe management DID have an idea these schools were shutting down. The schools can’t just arbitrarily shut down on their own without some sort of direction from upper management. Great–Nova lies, the Japanese papers eat it up.
I didn’t have the feeling from reading his article that he blames the teachers for striking, demonstrating, or revolting. Rather it seems like he’s trying to point out Nova’s knee jerk reaction to closing more doors and using a poor excuse of justifying it to the lack of teachers (support from within). It doesn’t take much to clearly see that the real victims in this situation are their teachers and students. Can or more importantly would any outside company step up and buy out this company to save the few teachers and students who still care. I notice a trend that arises out of situations like this (perhaps at a much smaller scale) in other companies; like a ripple effect (in terms of school closures) especially during economic down turns. It’s not uncommon to see companies go in and out of business, however it’s just shocking to see a company that has been established for such a long time (and at one point in time the biggest name in the Eikawa School industry) go up in smoke.
Way to go Kara, you injected a bit of balance to the subject. Now somone needs to do the same with your article posted on this site. I certainly hope they do as I suspect your side of the story might just be a little…err…biased
Ummm…yeah, of course it would seem biased…because it was my experience…
So you’re saying that the writer of this article is wrong, because you didn’t revolt against NOVA’s lies and corrupt practices?
Let’s look at the facts here:
NOVA teachers work from the 16th of the month, until the 15th of the following month. This means that basically, they’ve worked for almost 6 weeks, without pay, and are being told by AM’s and ATM’s that they should continue to go to work, despite not knowing whether they will be paid or not.
In all seriousness, this would not be acceptable in the west, and Japanese staff should not expect westerners or foreigners in general, to accept it here in Japan.
Teachers and staff DO have the right to strike, and the article writer makes absolutely ZERO infractions stating that NOVA’s collapse is due to these strikes!
NOVA’s collapse is due to NOVA’s constant lies, illegal practices, poor materials which students pay through the nose for, and total disregard for the judgements made in courts which protected the students and teachers.
No one is to blame here except NOVA! And the only ‘bias’ here is from yourself!
What are you talking about? Morris is talking about another article and this was my response to his statement.
Hi
I just got off the phone with my Daughter who worked for Nova her last week was August 2007 worked, she was told her last pay would be Sept 15th, she waited then called was told it would be October 15th, now she was emailed and told more or less they dont know when her last paycheque will paid, please note as well another co-worker is experiencing the same treatment, I will be calling Nova Group in Canada on her behalf this Monday to see if they can intervene somehow, nothing like working for free, and I also heard of a student being evicted for non payment of Rent in which Nova was responsible for paying as part of the contract wage agreement. Something sure seems not right here, does Japan have a labour board?? any information would be appreciated. Thanks.
I doubt Nova Group in Canada can be of much assistance because they are only a recruiting office and are often some of the last people to know what’s happening in Japan (that is, of course, besides the teachers).
There is a labor board and the union has been making efforts to get teachers the pay they are due, but it seems like it’s to no avail–all teachers have been waiting for their money. The labor board has no power to enforce laws–they can only make suggestions for those in a grievance. The company is going bankrupt, so it’s very difficult to force a company to pay if they don’t have the funds to do that.
Teachers are being evicted from their apartments across the country, but if they know the laws, they can take steps to prevent this. All a teacher has to do is refuse to move and don’t sign anything. If they continue to pay their rent, then they are allowed to remain in the apartment. If they stop paying, the teacher has six months from the first instance of non-payment of rent to move. If they refuse, they could be taken to court. Teachers need to be aware that they cannot be evicted from their apartments without an official court order signed by a judge.
Bottom line: Nova has been notorious for breaking the law even before they got into serious bankruptcy trouble. Being more educated about the laws of a foreign country is a smart thing to do, but I guess hindsight is 20/20.
Interestingly enough, part of NOVA’s malpractice, was to charge teachers FULL rent for an apartment – EACH!
This means that say an apartment that costs $600 a month to rent, regardless of how many people are in it, is just that – $600.
So if there were 3 people sharing the apartment, they should, by rights, be paying just $200 a month each. But NOVA charges EACH TEACHER, $600! So not only are they paying 3x more than they should be, but NOVA was scamming their own teachers at the same time!
When I was a NOVA mug, I realised very quickly what was going on and moved out within a month!
I am sorry that so many people are getting hurt by NOVA, but I am ecstatic that this company is collapsing!
Below is a pasted content of letter received back from my daughters response to Nova regarding her last Pay in August 2007
I find this unacceptable:
copy of response to a letter asking about payment of last paycheque
On 10/9/07, tokyo_personnel@nova.ne.jp wrote:
We are writing to confirm that we have received your email regarding the payment of your salary.
Your enquiry has been forwarded to our payroll section. There has been a delay in the processing of overseas salary payments and unfortunately at this stage we are unable to give you an exact date that your salary will be
deposited. Please be assured that we are taking this matter very seriously.
We will be in contact with you again once we have more information.
Sincerely,
>
> East Japan Personnel Quality Control Group
> Nova Corporation
> tokyo_personnel@nova.ne.jp
> Ph: +813-6688-4441
> FX: +813-6688-4442
>
>
>
>
>
> >
> 10/06/2007 11:59 AM
>
> To tokyo_personnel@nova.ne.jp
You could file a Shougaku Soushou which I outlined the proceedure for in the first ‘Law doesn’t matter.’ If your daughter is in the country she can do it herself. It takes one month. If she is out she will have to get a lawyer to help her with the appearance in court. If you can get three or four people together and the total amount comes to less than 1 million yen, they could combine it and have the lawyer represent all of them even if they are out of country.
The unions could be providing services like this but they don’t seem to be interested.
I wanted to add that if Nova goes bancrupt by the time you recieve a claim for unpaid wages it won’t make much difference anyway. Maybe goes without saying. Sorry
Here is an intersting fax message supposedly from Nova management appealing to teachers to come back to work.
Thanks to letsjapan.org
========================================
To instructors who have come to work today,
I really appreciate your cooperation and carrying out your responsibility.
NOVA can not be exist without you. I cannot express how much the staff and students were saved by your hard work and effort. We, Japanese staff, are also going to form a union and going to fight with the company legally. i have a favor to ask of you, please report “I am working ata Japanese company but cannot live due to the non-payment of my salary” to your home country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. If your Foreign Affairs Ministries approach the Japanese government, it will be a social phenomenon and our situation will be known in society and we can put pressure on the company.
Lets keep carry out our responsibility to protect our rights. I will send you our union’s information in English soon. We will feel reassured if we can get your assistance.
To instructors who didn’t work at the branches today,
We totally understand your situation, but your decision not to work is making our company’s recovery worse. If we cannot provide lessons to students then we have to close branches. In this case, the company, that has not paid us, and those that don’t carry out their duty to work bear responsibility.
We can prosecute the company for the salary delay. If you chose to walk out on the job and not work it does more damage than good for the students and for your case against the company. Striking is a legal way to do this, rather than walking out. please try to stay calm, stand together and protest to get the public’s understanding and sympathy.
If you report to your home country’s Foreign Affairs Aministration, you can and solve this problem in a diplomatic way. The more of you that do this, the better because ther’s power in numbers.
If we continue to loose students that are still coming to branches, we will be at the very end. We really need your cooperation.
We formed a union and plan to take legal. We cannot get people to support and protect our rights without your help and hard work in the branches.
Please come back to branches.
signature and hanko of J-staff ITM
Just had coffee with a NOVA teacher friend of mine. He didn’t go to work today, based on much of what this fax says.
NOVA is going under quicker than the Titanic and the only ones fooling themselves into thinking it can be kept afloat are the Japanese managers.
How much more rubbish do they think they can feed foreign staff and expect them to eat it?