Mainichi Online: Ex-Nova boss handed prison sentence for embezzling from workers' fund

Not quite the public tarring and feathering I was hoping for, but anything will do.

The shine of this, of course, was dulled a bit by the news that Ted Kennedy had died. Not that this was a surprise - the man held on for over a year after he was diagnosed and ( Read more... )

One year ago today my company collapsed. I was faced with the possible need to go job-hunting in a flooded market, go on public assistance or, in the most extreme case, return to the US in ignominy ( Read more... )

Charges dropped against Nova, Sahashi for failing to pay teachers' wages

OSAKA -- Prosecutors have dropped charges against Nova and its former President Nozomu Sahashi for failing to pay wages to 400 foreign instructors and other employees of the English language school chain, law enforcers said ( Read more... )

Prosecutors charge ex-Nova boss Sahashi with embezzlement

Excellent.

Knowing corporate crime, though, he'll probably just get his wrist slapped. Still, as symbolic gestures go, it's a nice one.

NOVA's collapse has repercussions. Monkeybridge in in the police's cross-hairs because they found out that he shuffled gobs of money into his own personal accounts, as well as taking money out of employee salaries to pay refunds to students. Now they've found that about over 1 billion yen is "unaccounted for." No one knows where the money is or ( Read more... )

When we got to work yesterday, we discovered that our Corporate Masters have discovered that they can use a carrot as well as a stick ( Read more... )

NOVA/G.Education has a post up regarding the hiring of new part-time teachers. They're looking for 20 teachers in various parts of the country, and here is their hilariously inadequate offer:

Salary: From 1500 yen/lesson depending on experience and qualifications. That's really lowballing. Any half-decent native English speaker can get private ( Read more... )

I got my forms to receive unpaid wages today! All I have to do is make sure the information is correct, sign here, here and here, and send it out. I have no idea how long it'll take to be put into my account, but I'll be looking forward to that day....

I just got the call that every NOVA teacher dreads - "Kurisu-san - you are supposed to be teaching now."

"Uhhhh.... No, no I'm not."

Apparently I was put on an early shift today but no one told me. Great.

The good news first - I had my interview for the CELTA course today and passed it. For those of you who don' t know, CELTA is a certificate course for ELT teachers. It's run by Cambridge University and is internationally recognized as one of the best damn qualifications you can get. It's expensive and time-consuming, but by all accounts it is ( Read more... )