Sankei News: Nova Fails to Pay Rent After Deducting it From Instructors' Salaries

The Sankei ran a story yesterday about Nova not paying the rent after they deducted it from instructors' paychecks. The kicker in this story is that the Sankei filed it under "Scandals" （不祥事）. If you look at the URL for the story, you'll also see it falls under the "crime" category.

A big thanks to azabufan in the forums for translating this story. I'm going to cut and paste it here with a few touch-ups here and there.

Nova Fails to Pay Rent Deducted from Instructors' Salaries

News topic: Scandals

Nova, which continues to have problems paying its staff on time, is now facing the problem where many of its foreign employees living in apartments in major cities that are rented to them by the company are being asked by their landlords to move out because the rent hasn't been paid. The rent is automatically deducted from teachers' salaries but it appears that Nova has failed to make payment to these landlords. Nova is not willing to comment as these are individual cases, but there is the possibility in the near future that many more of these kinds of cases will appear considering many landlords are beginning to see that the company's business operations are at best unstable.

At the end of last month (September), two female teachers living in Osaka got a message from their landlord saying "You haven't paid the rent. I want you to leave." The two rented the apartment when they initially joined Nova after signing an agreement to have their rent automatically deducted from their salary of approximately 250 thousand yen. The rent up until now has been paid by Nova.

The two said, "We acknowledge that it is very troubling as well for the landlords not being paid by Nova. However, for us, losing our place to live has been very frustrating and we want the company to actually do something quickly to resolve the situation."

The General Union has received numerous complaints from teachers who have been forced from their apartments. The union held discussions with instructors from many areas including Shizuoka, Niigata as well as several areas in Osaka. According to the Union, Nova informed them that it is impossible to know exactly which apartments haven't had their rent paid to which the union is responding, "We want everyone to take measures quickly to find their own separate place to live."

Original article

ＮＯＶＡが講師給与から天引きの家賃を滞納

2007.10.1 21:02
このニュースのトピックス：不祥事

日本人社員や講師らの給与遅配が続いている英会話大手、ＮＯＶＡで、同社が大阪市内などで借り上げたアパートに住む外国人講師十数人が、家賃の滞納を理由に家主からの退去を求められていることが１日、わかった。借り上げ住宅に住む講師らの家賃は給料から天引きされているが、ＮＯＶＡから家主への支払いが滞っているとみられる。ＮＯＶＡ側は「個別の案件についてはコメントできない」としているが、今後、家主が同社の経営を不安視して退去をもとめるケースが相次ぐ可能性がある。

大阪市内に住む女性講師２人は先月末、家主から「家賃が支払われていない。出ていってほしい」と促された。２人は来日当初の契約時に、約２５万円の給与から数万円を家賃として天引きすることに同意する契約書に署名し、同社が借り上げたアパートに入居。家賃はこれまでＮＯＶＡが支払っていたという。

２人は「会社が家賃を払っていなかったことは、家主に対してとても申し訳なく思う。住む場所を失うのは困るので会社は早くなんとかしてほしい」と不安をもらした。

住宅からの退去を求められた講師からの相談は、ＮＯＶＡの外国人講師らの相談窓口となっている労働組合「ゼネラルユニオン」（大阪市、山原克二委員長）にも寄せられている。先月末、大阪市内の数カ所のほか静岡県、新潟県などの講師からも相談があった。ユニオンによると、ＮＯＶＡの担当者はどの住宅で家賃が未払いなのか把握できていなかったといい、「相談があれば、別の住居を速やかに提供するなどすぐに対応したい」と返答したという。