Union takes legal tack to get Nova to pay teachers

OSAKA (Kyodo) The General Union, which represents foreign-language teachers and other staff at Nova Corp., said Monday it will lodge a complaint with the labor authorities against the company for delaying wage payments.

The union said it will initiate formal proceedings with the Osaka Central Labor Standards Inspection Office on Tuesday morning either in the name of the union or Nova employees.

According to the union, salary payments due in mid-September were delayed for some 4,000 foreign teachers and Nova notified them that the payment scheduled for the middle of this month will be postponed until Friday.

Pay was also delayed for some 2,000 Japanese staff in July and August, and they have yet to receive payments that were due in late September, the union said.

The union submitted a report to the Osaka labor office Sept. 27 claiming Nova is falling behind on paying employees in violation of the Labor Standards Law. The office has repeatedly called on Nova to pay its workers as scheduled.

The Labor Standards Law stipulates that an employer remunerate its workers at least once a month on a designated day.

Nova had placed fraudulent ads in an effort to boost student enrollment and lost much of its business after the scandal broke. The resulting financial plight apparently is making it increasingly difficult for the company to meet its payroll.