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Cash-strapped NOVA fails to honor contracts to public schools after teacher exodus

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OSAKA — Scandal-hit major English school operator NOVA failed to dispatch English teachers to local public schools after many teachers quit or took leave because they didn’t get paid, officials said.

By Monday, NOVA had cancelled its planned dispatch of English teachers to five municipal elementary schools and five municipal junior high schools at least once.

The education board is now considering canceling its contract with NOVA.

In the 2007 academic year, the municipal education board commissioned three English conversation school operators, including NOVA, to dispatch teachers to junior high schools and elementary schools under its jurisdiction, officials said.

NOVA is supposed to dispatch teachers to 79 junior high schools once or twice a week and to 286 elementary schools on several occasions a year.

However, NOVA, which has been in financial difficulty since some of its business activities were suspended in June by the government regulator over its illegal business practices, has failed to promptly pay wages to many of its teachers.

In response, a large number of NOVA teachers have quit their jobs or taken days off without prior notice. A shortage of teachers has forced NOVA to cancel the dispatch of some teachers to Osaka public schools, education board officials said.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071024p2a00m0na022000c.html

Human rights survey stinks

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Government effort riddled with bias, bad science

On Aug. 25, the Japanese government released findings from a Cabinet poll conducted every four years.

First, why is the government even asking whether non-Japanese deserve equal rights? Are human rights optional, a matter of opinion polls? And if a majority says foreigners deserve fewer rights, does that justify the current policy of resisting introducing laws against racial discrimination?

When a human rights survey from even the highest levels of government allows for the possibility of human rights being optional (or worse yet, justifiably deniable based on nationality), we have a deep and profound problem.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20071023zg.html

www.debito.org/index.php/?p=556

Labor standards office questions Nova staff to prepare for charges

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OSAKA — Osaka Labor Standards Office could as early as Tuesday hear from Nova Co. teachers and staff to decide whether to press charges against the English conversation school giant that continues to be beset by problems, office officials said.

The office asked members of [Tokyo Nambu’s sister union] the General Union, which includes many Nova instructors, for help with the case on Monday.

Last week, the union urged the labor standards office to file a criminal complaint against Nova for breaking the Labor Standards Law.

As of Tuesday, Nova has not paid Japanese staff members due to receive remuneration on Sept. 27 or instructors who were supposed to get their wages on Oct. 15. General Union representatives said Nova President Nozomu Sahashi faxed a letter to employees saying that they would be paid on Thursday.

Also Monday, the General Union gave a briefing to Nova teachers, staff and students in Osaka about the troubles facing Nova, including its late payments, a spate of school closures and bitter contractual spats surrounding students who want to cancel contracts with the company.

About 90 people attended two briefing sessions for staff and teachers. Some 200 students turned up for a briefing in the afternoon. At the meeting, there was a proposal that students create an organization to deal with Nova on a collective basis.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071023p2a00m0na003000c.html

Three scenarios for Nova Corp. amid snowballing fiscal troubles

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Nova used to pay teachers their salaries on the 15th of each month. As of last Friday, however, many teachers had not been paid. Some teachers say they are still owed for September, too.

That led some teachers at Nova schools in Osaka and Tokyo to go on strike. Several of those schools decided to close their doors temporarily last week.

At the end of March, Nova had more than 3 billion yen in cash and deposits.

However, it has continued to bleed cash since then, doling out millions of yen in salaries, refunds and office rental payments.

“Nova is in a precarious day-to-day financial situation,” said one source at a banking institution. If its circumstances don’t improve quickly, Nova may end up suspending all operations completely.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200710220056.html

Benesse Corp. bigwig bashes underling in meeting

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An executive from correspondence education giant [and parent company of Berlitz and Simul] Benesse Corp. faces punishment after he punched a middle manager during a meeting last month, the company said.

The executive, a 53-year-old man whose name has not been released, has apologized to the lower-ranking manager who he hit.

But Benesse Corp. officials said that the executive will be punished strictly, including a possible demotion, within the end of the month because his behavior was not appropriate for a company that deals so much in education.

The executive at the center of the incident was in charge of overseeing Benesse’s businesses related to high school and university education.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071022p2a00m0na013000c.html

School row traps Aussies

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AROUND 2500 Australians working in Japan as English teachers could be left stranded if school operator Nova Corp goes under.

Union spokesman Katsuji Yamahara warned yesterday that in a worst-case scenario, the Australians would have to try for scarce new jobs or go home in despair. Already they are working without pay.

Mr Yamahara ? who is chairman of the General Union which represents Nova workers ? says the company has delayed paying salaries for 5000 Japanese workers and foreign teachers.

“The school has failed to pay Japanese workers’ salaries since July this year and foreign teachers working in Tokyo and Osaka regions since September,” he said.

The union has asked officials in Osaka to urge public prosecutors to build a criminal case against Nova Corp and its president Nozomu Sahashi in connection with the Labour Standard Law.

Nova is Japan’s largest language educator with 900 schools.

Its financial situation has greatly been damaged after the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry ordered the company in June to suspend part of its operations for six months for violating industry laws.

The ministry blamed Nova for using fraudulent advertisements when soliciting students.

Officials also accused the company of lying about refunds of paid tuition in cases where such refunds had not been properly carried out.

The ministry told Nova not to sign long-term contracts.

Since then, the schools group has suffered a major decline in the number of new students.

The Australia Asia Centre for Education Exchange has already announced that it would stop placing teachers with Nova as of October 1.

According to a Nova spokesman, the operator was running 925 schools nationwide as of March this year.

The number of foreign teachers stood at 5054 then. But industry sources say the number of foreign instructors has fallen to 4500 including 2500 Australians.

By comparison, the number of Australians teaching in Japan under the government-run JET Programme stood at 316 in fiscal 2007.

Tristan Sime, a 37-year-old Australian who taught at Nova schools for seven years, said: “Brand-new Australians who recently came to Japan and have no Japanese language skills or other resources to find a new job had better go home if they are fired or the school goes bankrupt.”

He said it would be difficult for other language schools to hire new foreign teachers because the Nova problem had damaged the image of English language education.

Mr Sime criticised some of Nova’s rules as restrictive.

“No social contact with students has been allowed for Nova foreign teachers, even for coffee,” he said.

He said some of his friends teaching at Nova were fired after they attended parties for students and teachers held outside school hours.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22602956-953,00.html

Unions want Nova, president indicted over payroll delays

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A labor union representing teachers at scandal-hit Nova Corp. submitted a petition Tuesday to the Osaka labor standards authority asking it to seek an indictment against the language school chain and President Nozomu Sahashi for breaching labor laws.

The General Union asked the Osaka Central Labor Standards Supervision Office ? an arm of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry ? to have prosecutors indict both Nova and Sahashi for delaying the payment of salaries to foreign teachers.

[Tokyo Nambu], a separate labor union formed by Nova teachers in the Tokyo metropolitan area filed a similar petition with the Shinjuku Labor Standards Supervision Office.

According to the General Union, wages for the school’s 4,000 or so foreign instructors are usually paid in the middle of the month. But the September payments were delayed, and the company has told instructors that the payments for October will be delayed until Friday.

According to the General Union, wages for the school’s 4,000 or so foreign instructors are usually paid in the middle of the month. But the September payments were delayed, and the company has told instructors that the payments for October will be delayed until Friday.

Nova has also failed to pay wages on time to about 2,000 Japanese employees over the past three months.

In late September, the union filed a request with labor authorities asking that Osaka-based Nova be ordered to pay the wages. The authorities have since recommended on a number of occasions that the company improve its labor standards practices.

Article 24 of the Labor Standards Law stipulates that companies must pay wages to employees at least once a month, on a fixed date.

Nova has been suffering from falling student enrollment and increasing contract cancellations after being ordered in June to partially suspend business for deceiving consumers in advertisements about its services.

The order, which crippled its ability to sign up long-term students, is making it increasingly difficult for Nova to pay wages and has prompted reports that it is closing several schools.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071017a2.html

NOVA over? Teachers strike over unpaid wages, demand president face charges

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A labor union representing teachers from scandal-plagued NOVA Corp. went on strike Tuesday demanding the English conversation school chain pay unpaid wages and agree to collective negotiations.

The Nova teachers’ branch of the National Union of General Workers Nambu also joined with other unions from western Japan to ask Labor Standards Supervision Offices in Tokyo and Osaka to pursue a criminal case against NOVA and its president, Nozomu Sahashi.

The unions accuse Sahashi and NOVA of breaking the Labor Standards Law.

NOVA union officials pointed out that the chain has failed to pay some of its English conversation teachers since July and that payment of September’s monthly wages for all its teachers were late. Teachers were supposed to be paid on Monday, but the company did not forward entitled wages, instead sending a letter to instructors saying that it would pay them by Oct. 19.

Some NOVA teachers are living in accommodation the chain arranged for them and normally deducts rent from their wages and pays it on their behalf. However, while the deductions have continued, there have been many instances where NOVA did not pay rent as it was supposed to and landlords are trying to evict teachers, union officials said.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071016p2a00m0na051000c.html

Labor unions seek indictment of Nova over delayed wage payment

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A labor union representing teachers at scandal-hit English-language school operator Nova Corp. submitted a petition Tuesday to the Osaka labor standards authority, asking it to seek an indictment of the company and its president Nozomu Sahashi on charges of a breach of labor standards laws.

The General Union [Tokyo Nambu’s sister union] asked the Osaka Central Labor Standards Supervision Office, an arm of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, to have public prosecutors build a criminal case against the company and Sahashi over a delay in payment of wages to its foreign instructors.

According to the union, wage payments for Nova’s some 4,000 foreign instructors are usually made in the middle of the month. But they were delayed in September, and the company has notified the instructors that payments for October will also be delayed until Friday.

In late September, the union filed a request with labor authorities asking that Osaka-based Nova be ordered to pay the wages. The authorities have since recommended on a number of occasions that the company improve its practices related to labor standards.

Article 24 of the Labor Standards Law stipulates that companies must pay wages to employees at least once a month, on a fixed date.

Nova, an industry leader, has been hit with decreasing student enrollment and numerous canceled contracts since the government ordered the school in June to suspend part of its operations for lying to consumers in advertisements about its services.

The resulting financial plight apparently is making it increasingly difficult for the company to meet its workers’ wage claims.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/10/16/3017057.htm

Oh NOVA! More English students sue chain

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Three more former students of the beleaguered English conversation school NOVA have sued it over repayment of funds for cancelled contracts.

The group of three filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court demanding that the Osaka-based conversation school chain repay a total of 1.46 million yen because of unfair accounting practices when returning money when contracts are cancelled.

The lawsuit is the second wave of legal action against NOVA backed by a group of Tokyo lawyers working pro bono to help students of the conversation school who feel they have been mistreated.

The three plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Monday are all company employees who live in Tokyo.

In June, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry slapped a six-month ban on NOVA making long-term contracts because of the chain’s mishandling of the cancellation of contracts.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071016p2a00m0na025000c.html