METI orders Nova to suspend part of business for lying to consumers

And that is my impression as an outsider as well. Instructors have, by and large, pretty good conditions compared to some of these dreadful, too-bloody-awful-for-words cowboy outfits. The horror stories I've heard... I should write a book really. It'd probably start with the young American kid sitting on his suitcase outside a phone box trying to figure out how to call home, first day in Japan. He'd been duped by a local school (not Nova) into thinking he had a job but the school.

Just to be on the safe side, the 'academy' invited two and took the other. Yeah, things like that do happen but I've never, not once, not a single once heard a bad thing in the legal counseling work I assist with, about Nova. Not once so it can't be that bad for instructors at least.

 

just who is this legal counselling service you assist?

perhaps you could provide a community service and let NOVA teachers know how to contact you.

i find your assertions hard to believe.

 

On a public forum? Sorry, I won't say. Look around, open your eyes. Services like these are available for free; for foreigners at least. And in most cities.
Hard to believe? That's your prerogative.

 

But what's the problem? They found a legal way around it, and regardless of how much money it saves them, it does save teachers money too. Everybody wins. People screw the government in any country, not only Japan! Hell, I'm not paying tax back home for what I earn here, and I should be!

 

In many ways I agree with you. Compared to some other English language schools the job at Nova was certainly safe, at least was until now and you'd get paid on time and with no hassles. However there a couple of important points to remember here.

1) I don't know if comparing Nova with other English schools is the right comparison to make as Nova is not a small school that could ditch a teacher on their first day, but is in fact a large business with many arms. It should be compared to similar size businesses. I don't think a graduate fresh out of college working 13 hours a day for say, Daiei, would say Daiei was not such a bad company to work for just because they paid on time. In the world of English teaching in Japan this and other similar things might be a plus point, but for a sizeable company it is the least that should be expected.

2) Most people who work for Nova do have some complaints, some small and some big, very big, like a friend of mine who had to pay 500,000 in back National Health Insurance payments becasue Nova said they were "having trouble administering" his Shakai Hoken request, but in general most Nova teachers either a) don't care if they're are being screwed because often they gain at the same time, though to their possible long-term cost, b) just don't care anyway becasue they can bite the bullet if they have to and just return to their home country if they hit a real problem, c) are intending to stay for only a short period of time anyway rendering any action useless, or d) because it seems like a mountain to climb to take (legal) action against Nova without the required Japanese ability or knowing the right people, and Nova Union has too much infighting going on to be of use, and I'd say 1% of teachers knew of it's existence when I was there anyway

So I'd say there are a number of reasons why you might not see too many Nova teachers in a legal counselling service. That, of course, hides the real problems behind the facade.

 

The problem is that I don't think it's right to congratulate Nova on "doing it for the teachers". That assertion is laughable in the extreme, and you'd be naive at best if you believed it.
Secondly, as I said they did not find a legal way around it. They thought something up that only a complete moron couldn't see through, but luckily for Nova that is exactly the mental level and thought process speed of the Japanese government and it's regulatory bodies.

 

You've raised good points and presented them articulately.
i guess from my perspective which is an outside one, I've seen too
many young people burned by some of these places. I've also felt powerless
to do much as the lawyer advises, I translate. Some of the stories bother me
as they so blatantly cross the bounds of human rights, let alone labor laws
and it seems to me at least, that some of the worst of these shonky places prey on the fears all those fresh off the boat have:

They neither know the language, nor laws and
many a school exploit this. The classic is withholding pension payments
and then forgetting to tell the instructors that, hoping they'll leave in a year or so
and pocket it. I take your points though, and thanks for the post.

 

Nova is hardly great, but its far from as bad as the horror stories make out.

Nova is obviously out to make a profit, but i also don't think its out to screw teachers or students as much as people make out.

Nova is like any other low-cost outfit.. they try to offer lessons at the cheapest cost possible, but that means they have to make their profits somewhere... and i don't see people complaining that "nova lessons are too cheap".

For the vast majority of students and teachers, I'd imagine that nova's policies.. self serving as they are.. are at least neutral, or maybe even beneficial.

I was pretty worried about the Shakai Hoken situtation too, but I gotta say that the one time i needed medical treatment the nova insurance lot paid me back the full ammount, and within about 2 weeks. So i was a fair bit better off than i'd have been under that system.

Ultimately, nova probably isn't the best school, but it's convienient for students. It's probably not the best employer, but it's convienient for teachers. It's healh insurance probably isn't the best, but it's convienient for people new to the country, it's accomodation isn't the cheapest, but it's more convienient in the short term than renting your own.

Still, it is fun to bash them.. ;-)

 

I don't know man...even if it is a scam, it is legal. And given the circumstances recently I think they'ed be nailed on it if it wasn't. Sure it's a tricky way of getting around it, but stuff like that happens every day. Every company does stuff like that.
I guess I just get sick of people calling Nova an "evil" company. You want evil? How about tobacco companies? How about companies that manufacture guns so people can kill each other with them? That's evil! A language school that screws the government? Not so much...
f(^_^)

 

Err, no it's not legal, I said in the previous post. It's accepted because this is Japan and the government is too corrupt to bother investigating, or just doesn't care, and neither do the teachers so who's going to bother kicking up a fuss? Most Nova teachers are in their early 20's, out to have fun, of course they don't have normal employment concerns that people with families would have, and not being Japanese have less recourse to legal services or normal support services. Even logically the argument is pathetic. Do people who work on shop counters have to time exactly when they are not actually serving a customer and get paid accordingly? Has nobody ever heard of time is money? Just for being kept somewhere you should be paid a certain wage whether you're working or not!
Interesting point about guns and tobacco companies, but I would say the same to you that I said to nutsagain, don't you think it's strange you have to compare Nova to gun runners and tobacco companies to be able to look on them favourably?! I agree Nova is not "evil". I don't know who said that and I think it is a ridiculous word to use, but there are some situations such as the friend I mentioned in my above post, who have very genuine major grievances abot Nova.
As a company JMA was great, they paid quickly and 100% and the staff were good, but some people suffered greatly from not having other insurance as the maximum payout was 1,000,000 yen I think. With SH or NH everything above 300,000 or so is paid 100% so if anyone had a real medical problem SH or NH would be immeasurably better. Through a stroke of good fortune another friend of mine signed up to employment insurance 2 months before contracting tuberculosis. He was in hospital for 6 months and of course couldn't work, but because he was on EI he was paid 70% of his salary while he was there and had his medical expenses paid, no thanks to Nova.
It's only when cases such as these happen or happen to someone you know that turn you against Nova. Of course they don't happen to the majority of people who work for Nova, who are usually there for just for a year or 2 anyway, but they do happen and that's why the laws are in place to supposedly guard against them happening.

 

"it's true the national health is not a great system for non-japanese but the unemployment insurance would have sure come in handy. could the nova supporters please try to explain how nova is doing its teachers a favor here?"

Are you serious? I'm guessing the average Nova teacher spends less than a year in Japan. Ones who stay in Japan longer have usually moved on to another company after a year anyway. You're talking about "screwing over" such a tiny percentage of Nova's employment. Setting up each and every teacher for government benefits as they come off the plane would just be a massive waste of time and resources. Perhaps they can offer a change for teachers who want to participate after their first year or something as middle ground, but doing it for everyone off the bat is insane, and would probably get a lot of backlash from teacher who aren't interested in being a part of the system anyway (ie another deduction from the paycheck).

 

I've heard people argue that before and I would agree if it were not the deliberateness of the action on Nova's part. It's only a lack of "time, resources and money" precisely because Nova doesn't expect and doesn't want teachers to stick around for any longer than necessary, and knowingly goes about making good teachers leave before they would otherwise.
Of course people are not going to be happy if they come over not thinking they'll be on SH or NH and then get switched to it, but if they came over with the knowledge they'd be paying it I doubt anyone would complain, and if they thought that strongly about it they wouldn't come in the first place. JETs have to pay it and I don't hear them complain much about it because even though your salary is a little lower while you're here you get 90% of it back when you leave, assuming you stay for 3 years or less. If you stay for more than 3 years I don't see why anyone should have any sympathy for you having to make contributions to a country's welfare system. Are these Nova teachers children or adults? It's life. Of course the payback system which only extends to 3 years worth or payents or the max of 25, is flawed and needs changing, but I hardly think that's the reason Nova opted to deceive everybody.
What did Nova do instead? Of course they set up their own flawed travel insurance company which they took all the profits from, but of course that had absolutely nothing to do with their reasons for doing what they did. It was stealing, pure and simple, from the government who are too stupid and ballless to do anything about it, and potentially financially debilating for anybody who worked for Nova who suffered a serious medical problem.

 

Apparently Nova is considering issuing more shares to get around the problem of their dwindling capital.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070617a3.html

 

No, it's the company who saves. You get up to three years of your pension back when you leave Japan, so if you stay with the company for less than three years, your pension payments become a nice savings account. The company, however, does not get their matching contribution back.

So if you stay for longer than three years (which some Nova teachers do,) but less than 40, the pension is a waste, and by not enrolling you the company does save you monry, but most developed countries have a reciprocal agreement with Japan, so if you have been paying into the Japanese pension system, those years count towards your national pension in your home country.

And regarding the potential cashflow problem, a little birdie told me that some Nova teachers weren't paid on time this month...

 

Time for the Nova kids to start job hunting.