Step 1. Give a teacher a 40 minute class
Step 2. Add two paid minutes before and after the class.
Step 3. Leave a six minute unpaid gap between classes.

Voila!

Now teachers work six minutes for free, and the company has an excuse to keep the teacher out of health and pension insurance (in an “oh, what a coincidence” kind of way).

To add insult to injury, NOVA then pockets the difference – keeping both the time it should have been paying for those six minutes (which may not sound like a lot, but add it up per class per say) AND the money it would have had to contribute to the shakai hoken system.

The General Union is taking action over this gross non-payment of wages and will begin filing complaints at local Labour Standards Offices across Japan.

We know that the Labour Standards Office usually doesn’t just help just because a law is being brought into question, but we hope they’ll take notice when we file these complaints everywhere and force them to investigate.

Want to help? Let us know.

Join the union, and we’ll file a complaint for you, too.