Merry Christmas from GComm...

Who thought that no-one in Japan had any Christmas spirit??? Here is a very late update (this actually happened about a week ago, but Christmas festivities...) All the people who took the B Option got fired... That's it... There are no jobs for you with GComm unless you want to work in restaurants...

The email was sent to me by about 3 sources... One of which was an anonymous comment on this blog... I will include it here...

Thank you for requesting re-employment with G.education. Since taking over operations at Nova we have put all our efforts into proceeding with the reopening of branches. As a result, we expect to have approximately 130 branches offering Nova lessons during December 2007.
At the same time, the Trustees in Bankruptcy are making progress with dissolving Nova Corporation. At present they have started proceeding sequentially with terminating leases of properties which will not be taken over by G.education and the problem of unpaid wages. With the cooperation of property owners, we have managed to rapidly reopen many branches but now intend to more closely align branch reopenings with the current business situation. The process of opening the Ekimae Ryugaku branches and restarting lessons requires a lot of time, personnel and expense. To enable us to offer lessons even more quickly to students who still have unused lesson points, we will shift the focus of development from the branches to expanding Ochanoma Ryugaku lessons with a view to even opening new Multimedia Center facilities overseas.

In the current business situation, it is only possible for G.education to employ a limited number of instructors in January and while we appreciate your request for re-employment from January 10, 2008, it is with great regret that we inform you that we are not able to offer you a position at G.education at this time.

This has been a very difficult decision for G.education to have to make and we would like to offer assistance to all applicants, including information about other employment options or financial assistance with purchasing an air ticket to your home country. Additionally, the G.communication group has opportunities available in the restaurant industry and would welcome inquiries if you have an interest in this field. We will also continue to assist the Trustees in Bankruptcy with the necessary documentation for making applications for reimbursement of unpaid Nova Corporation wages.

While the current business situation makes this decision unavoidable, we hope to be able to contact you and ask you for your assistance if possible once business operations allow.

In our endeavor to continue Nova fs business, we are constantly forced to make difficult decisions and, while our aim is to be able to have as many students as possible return to the branches and as many instructors as possible continue employment, it is with a heavy heart that I have to inform you of this decision and ask for your understanding.

We wish you all the best with your future endeavors.

Takashi Ono
Chief Executive Officer
G.education Co. Ltd.
5-12-3 Hondori
Kurokawa
Kita-ku
Nagoya-shi

There were a few people who made these jokes to me when GComm took over the business, as they owned a whole bunch of restaurants and izakayas... But of course I couldn't take any of that seriously until now...

Fortunately, I only personally know 4 people who took the B Option but none of them were actually seeking re-employment, they had either found other jobs in Japan or were using the 150,000 yen to help buy a plane ticket home... Some people I have heard of, though, used the period until January 10 to take a Christmas holiday home and are sitting in their home countries now trying to decide what to do... Go back to Japan and find another job... Just stay here and cut my losses... Go back to tie up any loose ends... All I can do is express my condolences to those having to much such tough decisions over this Festive Season...

Merry Christmas All...

The GComm NOVA Blog would like to wish everyone who bothers to read this and share the information a Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year... I will post again soon... I have heard about the email... I will comment about this terrible state of affairs in the coming day or two! Take care all, and enjoy the Holiday in the way it was meant to be enjoyed!!! Safely...

The mysterious brown envelopes...

So... Speaking to some friends yesterday, I have heard that some Rishokuhyos have arrived... these came in a couple of days ago, and that I know of, only came for people who have said they will not go on to further employment with GComm NOVA... Does anyone else have a similar experience? Are there more people that have received the large envelopes? I haven't...

They said they received a bunch of information in Japanese in a large brown envelope (the same size as the big ones we have at NOVA)... Most importantly it contained a large (A3) page I think they said it was green, with handwritten amounts of the salary owed to them over the months that they were not paid for... Now I assume this means that they are entitled to 80% of the number shown on that form, and that there will be a substantial wait for that money...

The regular application time when a small company goes under is about 1 month I am led to believe, but in the case of NOVA (one of Japan's largest ever bankruptcies, and the one that has led to the most creditors out of pocket in history) then that application time could be substantially longer... Not that one should necessarily believe the 6 month figure being bandied around (particularly as the only "sources" quoting that number are union figures who spend a lot of their time scare and hate mongering)...

The actual amount of time it's going to take is an uncertainty, but it is certain that 1 month will be too short... It is, however a possibility that people could start to see their money within the next 3 or 4 months... Certainly not ideal, but better than the 6 month wait we are being told to expect as a certainty...

So for those that have received them, good luck! Let us know how the application process goes... For those who haven't let us know when you do finally get them...

I apologize for the 4 day absence...

Glad to hear that a lot of you have been receiving your money... Are there any people that are still waiting on money from the G-Unit?

So I show up at work yesterday and my staff come running up to me... "I have a letter for you from GComm"... Take a quick look and it's a payslip... Unfortunately there within was withheld the awful news... Anon was correct... We were not getting paid again until January 15, 2008.

This means that after all the waiting, all the trouble, and all the issues and most of our continual struggles to pay rent, we now have a 41 day wait from one pay to the next... I guess that is slightly better than the previous wait, which was either a 79 or 68 day wait depending on whether you were a trainer or not... And at least this time we are being promised a full paycheck... A FULL PAYCHECK!!! UNBELIEVABLE... Almost inconceivable until a few weeks ago... But 41 days is still a long time to wait... If they don't pay on the 15th, I will be the least happy man in Japan... My rent will be late now... Hope the real estate agent is OK with that...

Got a text message from a former coworker with 2 main details... Number 1, his new company sucks as they get paid less, work longer hours and they get no rest time... Like absolutely no break time in between lessons, and a 20-30 minute lunch break...

The other thing though was that he has not received any severance documents at all... He was quite concerned as expected... I explained that I had received the initial severance documents, but not the ones that we needed to apply for the past salaries (thanks Paul)... Has anyone else not received their initial paperwork? Are there any stranded people who can not apply for unemployment because they don't have the paperwork?? If you have time, leave a comment, let everyone know if you are OK regarding severance documents, money etc...

Sorry all..

Celebratory beverages have coincided with a bout of illness as well as further celebratory beverages... Seeing as this post has taken about 10 minutes, I think it would be wise for me to post on Monday when I am a little more sober...

My ship has come in...

We got paid... I got about what i expected in my bank account.., When I got into work this morning I went to the ATM and saw I got paid... I will post again after celebratory beverages...

Another day... Not another yen... Maybe today...

OK, the 5th came and went and no-one got paid... I didn't post last night as it would have been loaded with expletives and curse words... This morning I can look back and laugh... What else can you do?

I checked my account late on Tuesday night (at about 1am)... When NOVA was a viable company, the money used to go in at midnight automatically, but no money had been deposited... I got a text message from a colleague yesterday at noon saying that her money had not been deposited either... I arrived at the branch and everyone was asking... "Did you check your account?" everyone had, as we are all broke... No-one had any money...

The AAM called and explained that when they got paid on December 30 for the December 10-20 period (as they had worked from December 18) that the pay had gone in at 2pm a day late... During the afternoon a fax came... (I have included it verbatim)...

"Regarding the trouble of the data transmission of the salary and reward.

Thank you for your continued effort to revitalize new NOVA.

Today December the 5th is the Supposed payday for the former month payment from the 20th November to the 30th November.

But we are sorry to inform you that your salary for November has not transferred to your bank account yet because of some errors in the transfer operation system with the banks to which the data of your payment was already sent.

We are now looking into this problem and asking the banks to transfer money by today. In case your salary should not be put into your bank account by today, we will change the way to transmit the salary so that you will definitely receive your salary tomorrow.

We are very sorry to have caused any worry.
We greatly appreciate your understanding in this matter.

G.education"

Sound familiar? The teachers room echoed with "What? No black clouds this time?"... A silent rage covered with laughter filled the room...

Speaking to the AAM that evening he explained that GComm had never made such a large bank transaction as the salaries become one major transaction and if there is one error, they send the whole thing back... There were 110 errors in the salary deposit...

Trying to remain positive, the monkey never said the word definitely... He used things like scheduled and maybe... Also, our staff called one of the G.Ed or GComm bosses, before the fax came and he also said that we would get paid today (December 6)... NOVA had the details sorted and just had to plug in numbers, GComm have had to try and enter the data of about 2000 people and their bank and salary details in about 3 days... It doesn't surprise me that the first one was late... I'll give them the benefit of the doubt... for now...

Let's see how that goes... There is only so long you can keep people going on promises... We'd better get paid today, that's all I'm saying...

The time has arrived, or at least the paperwork...

So, I received my Rishokuhyo or notice of termination effective on November 30th, yesterday... Even though I have been working for the new company since November 22nd, it still says that I am dismissed from the old NOVA effective on November 30th... That's OK I have been reassured that it becomes effective on the day I started work with GComm...

The pack came in an envelope naming NOVA as the bankrupt company and inside there were about 5 pieces of paper... the main one is the release or dismissal form, and after thet there is a 4 page booklet about finding work at HelloWork for those that are yet to get a job or are looking for work other than NOVA... I haven't yet gone to the effort of reading these documents carefully, so I am not sure if they include the process of applying for past salaries in them... If anyone else has read them, please post a comment and let me know if something like that is included... Otherwise, please let us know what we have to do if you have any information...

Well, just a short one today, hopefully tomorrow, I'll have more to write, as I will have been at the branch and tomorrow is slated to be payday! I hope it's on time this time... I have forgotten what it's like to be paid...

2 updates in a day...

Sorry I haven't updated for a couple of days... I have been a touch busy... I can afford to just a little bit now as the advance came through...

We started working on Thursday November 22, filled in the paperwork then, the AAM took it in the next morning. Friday November 23 was a national holiday and then we had the weekend. So the process probably didn't start until Monday the 26th... We ended up getting the 50000 yen on Thursday November 29. A little later than expected, but we got it... This gives me a bit of confidence in the new company, as with the old company, we would never have seen that money...

Schedules have also become a little confusing in the branch as our branch and the neighboring one are both closed on Monday... So some instructors are doing self swaps, some are changing days off, some are taking unpaid days off for the Mondays... Help shifts don't look to be an option as for now, so few branches are open that there is no realistic place to do the help shifts...

Lessons in the branch started yesterday but as I was off, I am not sure how it all went... I wonder if anyone else has started lessons yet... If anyone has, please leave a comment and let me know how it's going...

The new system...

The new lesson system is posted on the internet as a PDF file... It should be easily readable in your browser though...

There are 2 kinds of lesson plans in place... Number 1 is the standard plan, and 2 is the Senior Plan... (GComm are after the Grey Yen it would seem...)

Lessons can be booked for either 4, 8, 12, 16, or 20 lessons per month and are to be paid monthly... In this system students can not use these points for Man to Man lessons as they used to... When I asked the staff, they explained that for students who want to book Man to Man lessons there is a different plan... If you look at the PDF file, its the box on the right of the 2 standard and senior plan boxes... So ex NOVA students who want to take 12 group lessons a month, will end up paying 6900 yen a month and those who buy the Man to Man system will pay 27600 a month for 12 man to man lessons...

Similarly VOICE and KIDS students have to buy their points back at a reasonable price, but seeing as the already paid old NOVA once having to repay doesn't seem too reasonable...

For those who can read Japanese there is a Q&A for students up on the G Education website...