You can help the General Union and those working at NOVA by immediately sending an email to NOVA Holdings and NOVA, asking them to meet the union’s demands:
CAMPAIGN HAS NOW ENDED
Union Demands to NOVA Holdings and NOVA:
- Close NOVA branches and pay 100% to work from home.
- If there is insufficient work, use the employment adjustment fund subsidies to cover wages for those not working.
- No fines for contractors choosing to not work and return all fines paid to date to current contractors.
- Immediately stop the subcontracting system and make these workers employees so if there is not enough work NOVA can use the employment adjust fund. If not possible, NOVA should pay 100 percent of the guarantee if there is no work.
- Immediately stop all cross-prefecture travel for employees and contractors.
WHAT’S GOING ON AT NOVA?
On 19 April, General Union officials met with over 50 NOVA teachers from across Japan.
Their two main concerns? Fear of contracting the virus as NOVA continues to remain open, and the company not putting teachers on home leave, therefore forcing them to take unpaid leave.
This behaviour by a major eikaiwa school is scandalous!
While AEON, Berlitz, ECC, and GABA have closed schools and put teachers on home leave allowance, NOVA – with no concern for workers or customers – continues to operate.
They have just recently closed some schools and now will force teachers into online teaching centres, which employees claim to be too crowded to maintain social distancing.
Employees are forced to ride trains and travel to different prefectures in order to make money for NOVA.
This is not a grocery store, bank, or hospital and is not essential for the functioning of society.
Will NOVA take direct responsibility if a worker dies for the sake of their profits?
Making matters worse, employees aren’t even the worst off, either: NOVA also has many “independent contractors” (aka “freelancers”) who are not employees.
When these workers take unpaid leave, they are fined in addition to losing a day’s wages.
Despite doing the exact same job as employees, and despite the Nagoya District Courts ruling that they are in fact employees, NOVA continues to rob them of their rights – and then humiliates them by forcing a fine so that they can protect themselves from this deadly pandemic.
Many of these workers have been told to pay fines and that the only way they can stop this is by quitting immediately.
These workers now feel they will also be made homeless as they often live in company sponsored housing.
It is clear what NOVA is doing:
They are purposefully locking out their workers as they believe this will prevent them from having to pay stay-at-home allowances.
We say NO to this abuse of workers.
The General union has now demanded immediate collective bargaining.
You can help us by sending an EMAIL or FAX to NOVA asking that they accept the union’s demands.