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.
News
Oh NOVA! More English students sue chain
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
Aussie Nova teachers to be helped by consulates
Australia is offering consular assistance to its nationals who are working in Japan for struggling, scandal-hit language school chain Nova Corp., Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Friday.
“We’ll provide them with consular assistance if they need it,” he said. “If they get into real personal difficulties, we’ll obviously help them out.”
Some 1,300 Australians work for Nova and face the real possibility of losing their jobs while living in a very expensive country, he said.
While Nova has not gone completely bust yet, Downer said he fears the company would “fall over.”
Nova has been operating on shaky ground since June, when the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ordered it to suspend part of its operations for lying to customers in advertisements about its services.
Since then, Nova has been hit with decreasing student enrollments and canceled contracts.
Some 4,000 foreign teachers are currently registered with Nova in Japan, with many coming from Australia and New Zealand.
Several foreign Nova workers have complained to media in Australia and New Zealand that they have not been paid recently.
Downer said he believes Nova’s operating difficulties were due to poor management and would not have broader implications for Japan’s English-language teaching market.
“I think there is growing demand for English-language teaching in Japan. So I think we needn’t be pessimistic about it in a broader sense. We just need to think about the 1,300 Australians who are suddenly finding themselves out on the street there in Japan,” he said.
Australia Asia Centre for Education Exchange, an Australian company coordinating international education exchange programs, has stopped dispatching teachers to Nova.
The body said on its Web site that following the abrupt closure of some Nova schools and Nova’s delayed payments to instructors, it ended its recruitment relationship with the Japanese company Oct. 1.
Aussies lose teaching jobs in Japan
Consular assistance is being offered to 1,300 Australians whose English-teaching company in Japan is going bust, Foreign Affairs minister Alexander Downer says.
Mr Downer said some of the teachers would return to Australia, while others would simply get another job.
Last month, the Osaka-based Nova Corporation reassured their 7,000 staff, 5,000 of whom are foreigners, that the company was not going out of business.
However, Mr Downer said on Friday that although the company had not “completely fallen over yet”, it would “fall over”, leaving 1,300 Australians financially stranded in a “very expensive” country.
“We’ll provide them with consular assistance if they need it,” he told ABC radio. “If they get into real personal difficulties, then we’ll obviously help them out.
“Otherwise, if they cannot find another job in Japan, then they’ll return to Australia.”
Mr Downer said there were no broader implications to the company’s collapse, it was simply going out of business through poor management.
“It is not as though people in Japan no longer want to learn English, or there has been a complete shift in the whole market, that’s not right,” he said.
Nova struggling to pay refunds, wages
Major English-conversation school operator Nova Corp. is struggling to pay refunds for prepaid lessons to students who canceled their contracts with the company midterm and has had difficulty paying employees’ salaries, according to sources.
The Osaka Chuo Labor Standards Inspection Office in Osaka has instructed the Osaka-based company four times to pay wages to its workers that it has owed since July.
Nova has completely changed its “expansionary course” business strategy. It had closed about 50 schools in Tokyo and surrounding areas and Osaka as of Sept. 30 and drastically cut its TV commercials and other advertising.
Nova has to refund large amounts of money in many cases because students have to prepay lesson fees, often for hundreds of classes, when they sign contracts with the company.
According to Nova, the number of contracts canceled increased sharply after the Supreme Court ruled in April that the company’s unfair cancellation policy was illegal. Nova had 418,000 students as of March 31, but there were 7,880 cancellations between April and June, which cost the company 1.62 billion yen in total.
Cancellations continued after the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry ordered the company to partially suspend its operations in June, judging that its sales pitch to students violated the Specified Commercial Transactions Law. The ministry said that Nova falsely explained to students that lessons can be reserved any time they want, and made exaggerated claims in advertisements during a special campaign offering free sign up.
Since June, consumer centers in Tokyo have received several dozen complaints and requests for consultations. In one case, a caller said, “I haven’t received a refund from Nova even though I canceled lessons more than three months ago.” Consumer centers around the nation are receiving similar complaints, according to the sources.
If students sign a contract with Nova to pay tuition with a credit card in installments and Nova did not refund fees for cancelled classes, they can refuse to pay the charges to their credit card company. However, if students paid cash in advance for lessons and then canceled their contract, there is little they can do but wait for Nova to refund the money.
There is no legal deadline for refunding lesson fees upon cancellation, but the Tokyo metropolitan government has instructed Nova to pay such refunds as soon as possible. Representatives of the National Union of General Workers Tokyo South in Minato Ward, Tokyo, and General Union in Osaka, of which some of Nova’s foreign teachers are members, requested METI on Tuesday to instruct Nova to refund the fees promptly.
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari said at a press conference Tuesday that Nova needs to make sincere efforts to solve the problems. “We’d like to respond to the problem in areas where the ministry can intervene,” he said.
Nova has not paid salaries to 2,000 Japanese employees since July. About 5,000 foreign employees have not yet received their salaries for September.
A senior foreign teacher working in a Nova’s school in the Kinki region said, “An instructor I know has been asked to leave his apartment rented by Nova because the company has failed to pay the rent.”
A Japanese employee working at one of schools in Tokyo said when he asked Nova’s headquarters the reason for the delay in salary payments, the person he spoke to simply said, ‘I don’t know.’ “Because there isn’t enough information about why the schools were closed and why the refund has been delayed, it’s difficult for me to explain about the matter to students,” he said.
English-language school Nova Corp. has raised ¥70 million in cash by issuing warrants for 200 million shares in total to two investment companies registered in the Virgin Islands, according to a paper submitted to the Kanto Local Financial Bureau and released to the public Tuesday.
According to the paper, the scandal-hit language school will use the cash to cover such expenses as teachers’ salaries and property rent.
If the two firms fully exercise their right to obtain new shares, for a cost of ¥7 billion in total, it would increase the number of Nova’s outstanding shares fourfold, diluting the share value and thereby damaging the assets held by current stockholders.
In such a case, Nova would receive ¥6.4 billion, excluding the costs of issuing new shares.
The paper identified the two investment firms as Rich Peninsula Trading Ltd. and Tower Sky Profits Ltd. For a period of about one year starting Oct. 24, they can exercise the right to purchase shares for ¥35 apiece, the paper said.
Nova has about 67.6 million outstanding shares. The stock’s price closed at ¥40 Tuesday.
METI to step in
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to order Nova Corp. to promptly pay back tuition to customers who cancel lessons in accordance with their contracts, officials said Tuesday.
The labor union assisting teachers at the scandal-hit chain of English-language schools meanwhile requested that METI take action to secure the teachers’ jobs and prevent further harm to students.
Nova, an industry leader, has been hit with decreasing enrollment and numerous canceled contracts since it was ordered by METI in June to suspend part of its operations for lying to consumers in advertisements about its services.
Concerned that Nova’s actions could damage the image of the entire English-language school industry, METI has decided to set up measures in cooperation with industry organizations such as the Japan Association for the Promotion of Foreign Language Education, the officials said.
Nova is scheduled to submit to METI by next Monday a report on its plan to improve operations.
On behalf of Nova teachers, representatives of the General Union, whose members include foreign instructors working for language schools, visited the ministry to file a written demand directed to METI chief Akira Amari.
“Nova is now facing a serious crisis,” Katsuji Yamahara, head of the multinational General Union, said at a news conference after meeting with ministry officials. “We asked METI for immediate action to save customers and teachers.”
Many former students have not had their tuition fees refunded even after leaving the school, Yamahara said.
“Only Nova knows how many such cases exist and how much money has not been returned,” he said. “It could be huge.”
Union officials also said Osaka-based Nova had temporarily failed to pay wages to some of its teachers, mainly those of foreign nationality. Wages for some of its Japanese staff have been put on hold as of Tuesday.
Some 4,000 foreign teachers are currently registered with Nova nationwide. The number has been declining from a high of 6,000 due to the company’s numerous problems with employees, the union officials said.
Nova is reportedly looking to close some 200 of its 900 branches nationwide in an effort to revamp operations that have been battered by the scandal.
“It’s not pleasant working for Nova right now,” Bob Tench, a British teacher who has worked at Nova for 13 years, said.
“Every month we don’t know if we are going to get paid or not. A company like Nova, a big employer, can be more professional in the way it does business,” said Tench, a member of the labor union.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071010a2.html
Debito says “Unionize!”
I encourage everyone in Japan who is [non-Japanese] to join a union. I have. Lose the allergy and the visions of George Meany and Jimmy Hoffa, and realize it?s the only recourse you have in Japan to get your labor rights enforced. All other measures, as I have written in the past (http://www.debito.org/acadapartupdateoct05.html), be they the courts, the ministries, even the laws as written themselves, will not help you in a labor dispute.
Especially if you are a [non-Japanese]. Labor rights have been severely weakened over the past two decades, and the sooner you understand that and take appropriate measures, the more secure life you?re going to have in Japan.
Jasdaq rejects NOVA report on improvement measures
The Jasdaq Securities Exchange has rejected a report on improvement measures submitted by trouble-hit English language company NOVA as insufficient, and instructed it to submit a new report by Oct. 19, it has been learned.
The securities exchange said NOVA had failed to sort out problem issues and points requiring improvement in a report submitted on Friday.
Jasdaq officials said that when problems were reported at NOVA, such as the delayed distribution of wages, the company should have immediately provided information to investors, but it didn’t do so until after 1 a.m. on one occasion, highlighting problems with its internal management and information disclosure systems.
Because of this, Jasdaq asked NOVA on Sept. 21 to submit a report on improvement measures by Oct. 5.
In June, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry issued a partial business suspension order against NOVA in connection with its tuition-fee practices when dealing with students who cancelled their contracts.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071006p2a00m0na034000c.html
New immigration law to go into effect Nov. 20
The government decided at a Cabinet meeting Friday to implement the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law from Nov. 20, requiring all foreign visitors aged 16 or older to be fingerprinted and photographed when they enter the country.
Under the law, if foreigners refuse to have their fingerprints taken or supply other information, the government may deport them.
Nova collapse feared
Hundreds of Australian teachers of English in Japan should “start making contingency plans”, the Government has warned, as erratic behaviour by language school colossus NOVA this week fuelled more predictions of an impending collapse.
Dozens of foreign staff at NOVA, which employs more than 1000 Australians, have reportedly been given eviction notices because the corporate giant has failed to pay the rent on their apartments, despite in some cases deducting it from their wages.
Japanese students were in tears outside the biggest NOVA school in Fujisawa, south of Tokyo, yesterday, after arriving to find the school had been evicted from its building for defaulting on rent.
Roughly 2000 Japanese staff had yesterday not been paid by NOVA for more than a week, and some young foreign employees have gone three weeks without wages, the foreign workers union said. Several teachers told the Herald they had been forced to borrow money to eat.
One 27-year-old from Melbourne, working in Chiba, said he had been forced to eat only rice and instant miso soup for a week while waiting for his pay, which arrived two weeks late: “Many of those were one-meal-a-day affairs. We’re not loaded – a lot of us live week to week.”
NOVA controls half of Japan’s billion-dollar private English-teaching industry. It has saturated the country with 925 schools – but has recently admitted it will have to close more than 200 of them – and employs 5000 foreigners, more than any other Japanese company.
But a combination of overexpansion and corporate fraud has brought the giant chain to the brink of collapse. If it goes under, it will become the country’s biggest corporate casualty, leaving thousands of foreigners jobless and without visas.
CEO Nozomu Sahashi was due to make an announcement yesterday, prompting rumours that NOVA could be partially bought out, but he has postponed the statement until next week. Company spokesman Yoshiyuki Kurabe denied that schools were being kicked out of their offices, and said that NOVA was “implementing measures to provide a stable environment for its students”.
Even as the Australian Embassy in Tokyo was telling anxious callers to “start making contingency plans”, NOVA was bringing out new teachers last week.
However, the Australian Asia Centre for Education Exchange released a terse statement on its website last Monday to say: “AACE no longer conducts recruitment on behalf of Nova Group in Japan.”
Natasha Steele, a 25-year-old from Sydney who has been teaching for NOVA at Fujisawa for nine months, was kicked out of her apartment after the company failed to pay the rent.
Another teacher, 24-year-old Jerry Johnston from the US working in Takamatsu, said he had been given an eviction notice despite the fact NOVA had deducted the rental money from his wages. “Why hasn’t the Japanese government intervened yet? It’s been going on for weeks.”
A spokesman for the National Union of General Workers said that “there are 400,000 students who might not get thousands of yen in tuition fees back. It would be like a bank going down, with no guarantees or security for the investors”.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/nova-collapse-feared/2007/10/05/1191091359494.html