Union representatives of the scandal-plagued NOVA Corp.’ foreign employees met the foreign press in Tokyo on Thursday, to unveil their relief plans for their fellow instructors who struggle to survive while their wages remain unpaid.
The announcement at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo’s Chiyoda-ku came a week after NOVA, Japan’s largest English conversation school chain and the nation’s largest employer of foreigners, applied for court protection from its creditors under the Corporate Rehabilitation Law.
Dubbed “Lesson for Food,” NOVA’s foreign instructors will give English lessons to students or former students in their homes, public areas or parks. It is yet to be decided specifically when and where they will give such “delivery” lessons, according to the union representatives.
They have also decided to establish a fund for accepting donations from around the world via the Internet and other media, representatives of the NOVA teachers’ branch of the National Union of General Workers (NUGW) Tokyo Nambu said during the press conference.
Furthermore, they will petition the embassies here of the United States, Canada, Australia and other countries to provide relief for their citizens at the government level.
When asked by foreign reporters why they wanted to stay in Japan, the representatives said, “We can’t even afford an airline ticket to return home. We love Japan, and we don’t want to leave with a bad memory.”
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071102p2a00m0na016000c.html