Part 2 - Coco Juku

It has been a while since my last update.  There were issues logging in to my account with password issues, etc.

The latest news is that I am back, living in Australia.  Coco Juku, even after I left the company made life hell for me.  This is the same company that I used to defend.  A cruel lesson.

At the time that I left Coco Juku, I had 9 days of paid holidays outstanding that I was trying to claim.  There was also roughly 3 months remaining on my contract which I was trying to claim.  Coco Juku refused to pay me my paid holidays.  They also refused to pay me out my contract because they claimed that I voluntarily resigned, even though they bullied me out of a job and forced me to resign.

Either way, I needed paperwork from the company in order to take to HELLO WORK.  They would not even give me the paperwork until 4 months after I had left the company.  Their reason?  They wanted me to sign the following document which can be found here.  The document (which is really a bribe appears below:

合　意　書

Agreement

ニチイ学館労働組合（以下「組合」という）及びペラ・バニパル（以下「ペラ氏」という）と株式会社ニチイ学館（以下「会社」という）は、ペラ氏と会社の雇用契約に係る諸問題の件（以下「本件」という）に関して、下記のとおり合意したので本合意書を締結する。

　Nichii Gakkan Union (hereinafter called “the Union”), Banipal Pera (hereinafter called “Mr. Pera”), and Nichii Gakkan Company (hereinafter called “the Company”) made and enter into this agreement as a result of various problems concerning Mr. Pera’s employment contract (hereinafter called “the matter”). The description is as follows:

記

第１条　組合及びペラ氏と会社は、平成２６年９月２４日付でペラ氏が会社との雇用契約を終了したことを確認する。

Article 1  The Union, Mr. Pera, and the Company confirm that Mr. Pera’s current employment contract terminated on September 24, 2014.

第２条　会社は、ペラ氏に対し、本件の解決金として金180,000円を支払う。

Article 2  The company shall pay Mr. Pera 180,000yen, and the matter will be considered solved.

第３条　会社は、本合意書をペラ氏から受領後、１４日以内に前条の解決金をペラ氏の以下の口座に振り込む方法で支払う。なお、振込手数料は会社の負担とする。

　　　　　　　 　　銀行　　　　支店　普通預金　口座番号：

口座名義：ペラ・バニパル

Article 3  The company shall pay the sum of money stated above into the following bank account belonging to Mr. Pera, within 14 days after they make and enter into this agreement. Furthermore, the company shall be liable for the cost of the bank transfer.

            Bank,              Branch Office, saving account 

Account No.:        

Account holder’s name:                 

第４条　組合及びペラ氏と会社は、各当事者間（会社に所属する、あるいは過去に所属していた従業員を含む）において相手方を誹謗中傷する行為を今後一切行わないことを確認する。また、ペラ氏は、現在ペラ氏が管理・掲載する会社についてのオンライン記事を削除することに合意する。

Article 4　The Union, Mr. Pera, and The Company shall affirm that they will not slander or defame each other

in any way presently or in the future. This includes past and/or present employees belonging to the

Company. Also, Mr. Pera shall agree to remove his current online content about the Company or its

past/present employees.

第５条  組合及びペラ氏と会社は、本合意書に定める他、事由名目の如何にかかわらず、一切の債権債務が存在せず、今後一切争わないことを確認する。

Article 5  The Union, Mr. Pera, and the Company shall affirm that there are no debts or credits among them

regardless of any name or reason, and that they will not claim or take any action against the Company by trial or otherwise.

第６条  組合及びペラ氏と会社は、本件ならびに本合意書の内容について、第三者に公表しないことを確認する。

Article 6  The Union, Mr. Pera, and the Company shall affirm that they will not make public the contents of

this agreement after they make and enter into this agreement.

以上

平成　　　年　　　月　　　日

(Month)       (Day),       (Year)

（組合）ニチイ学館労働組合

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　委員長　山本千恵子　　㊞

                                                            (Union) Nichii Gakkan Union

Chieko Yamamoto

Chairperson

（ペラ氏）　　　　　　　　

 (Mr. Pera)

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　㊞

（会社）株式会社ニチイ学館　

事業統轄本部　教育事業本部

本部長代理　遠藤みち子　　　㊞

(Company) Nichii Gakkan Company

Education Business Headquarters

Michiko Endo

Acting General Manager                                          

You have read this right.  they wanted to bribe me a mere 180,000 yen.  All the pain and suffering, not to mention 3 months salary denied to me as well as 9 days paid holidays and they wanted to bribe me a small amount of 180,000.  How shameful is this company?  

Just for the record, I did not accept this money.  180,000 to keep my mouth shut?  You have to be kidding me!

So off to HELLO WORK I went when they finally gave me the paperwork and there were yet more dramas.

The rules for making claims at HELLO WORK are that if you resigned, you must wait 3 month and if you were sacked or found yourself unemployed due to a bankruptcy, you wait for 1 week.

According to the paperwork that Coco Juku sent me (4 months after I had stopped working for them), I had voluntarily resigned, even though that was utter nonsense.  HELLO WORK then  asked me for proof that I was in fact bullied and harrassed.  Despite all the emails and other paperwork between myself and the company, the only "proof" they accepted was the document above.  It was clear that Coco Juku wanted to bribe me into not saying anything and that was enough proof for them to start paying my allowance.

A mini victory for me against Nichii Gakkan where they wanted to wait 4 months till they gave me paperwork that I was entitled to, and then wait an extra 3 months before I can receive an allowance.  

To anyone reading this who is considering working for this company.  DON'T!  They will promise you the earth and yet put you through hell.  

I have been back in Australia for 3 months now and although I was sad to leave Japan, I am happy to be back.  I work in a company where people are accountable for their actions and bullying is not tolerated.

I look forward to threatening messages from Nichii Gakkan.  They could have paid me a lot more to keep my mouth shut (like the money they owe me) but they chose not to.  Keep bleeding money Coco Juku.  Nobody will defend you.  You had one loyal staff member and you put him through hell!

Working For Coco Juku

My late father always taught me one thing.  He always said that, "if a man can't admit when he is wrong, then he is not a man". 

I had previously had another blog post, praising the company and giving a positive spin on working for Coco Juku, amid all the negative publicity and all the negative blogs around cyberspace.  With recent events, and remembering what my father said to me all those years ago, I have deleted the previous post and replaced with this new one.  There will be those who read the original one from last year who will enjoy telling me, "I told you so".  Well, here I am admitting how wrong I was.

So where did it all go wrong?

They say there is one idiot in every crowd and I guess our office in Tokushima is no different.  We had a great manager, we had 2 great native instructors, had great counselors and have 3 great Japanese instructors.  The reason for the "success" of our branch is because of the good staff.  The ICC section of Nichii Gakkan  has nothing to do with the running of Coco Juku but in Tokushima, the head of ICC, not only interferes to the extent the people can't do their jobs, but she also gets credit for the success of the branch.  This person's indiscretions include but are not limited to, taking overseas vacations with students, gossiping about staff to students/customers including gossiping about our manager, placing students in levels where the student themselves don't feel comfortable in such a difficult level (behind the teacher's and counselor's back), creating a lob-sided schedule where some instructors are run off their feet while other instructors struggle to stay awake due to them not having classes, blocking all lines of communication among the staff and between the counselors and students, lying to and misleading the students, forcing and bullying visitors to join against their will, forcing students to sign contracts 2 months before necessary.  The list goes on but you can get my drift.

Anyway, this tyrant requested me to do a group class during Obon which was against the rules.  I said that it was against the rules and that I would not be bullied into doing it.  The reason this love-child of Josef Stalin wanted me to do this class was because I was going away for training next week and then I would be on vacation the week after, so this student would miss 2 weeks of lessons.  I reminded Ms Stalin that a teacher was available while I was away but the student refuses to take his lessons due to Ms Stalin's gossiping about my co-worker.  There is no reason for this student to refuse his lessons other than she has been misled about him.  Ms Stalin still booked this lesson and I was forced to teach it but I took action by taking it up with the union.  The union was made aware of all her indiscretions and the fact that 6 members of staff have already resigned because of her bullying and intimidation and collated a list of her indiscretions with many examples of how she has stopped us from doing our jobs properly.

Finally the day of the meeting between myself and union reps against the Shitencho (who is loyal to Ms Stalin, whose loyalty has created the problems in the first place) and the Head of Education at Coco Juku.  After 3 hours, the Shitencho and Head of Education made it clear that they are aware of all the indiscretions, and that Ms Stalin is in fact a bad person who is difficult to work with (which I wanted them to say impossible to work with) but due to her sales record, will not have any restrictions placed upon her, nor will there be any sanctions against her due to her indiscretions.

You read that right.  They accept she is a bully who intimidates the staff to such an extent that 6 people including the manager have quit their jobs, they accept that she has made it impossible for the office to function properly, but due to her sales record, will not do anything about it.

There is nothing flash about her sales record.  If she has worked there for 2 years,, it is understandable her sales record will look better than those who lasted 3 months until they were bullied out of a job by Ms Stalin herself.  Plus, the reason we have customers is because the students like the lessons given by the teachers, not to see the head of ICC in the Coco Juku office.  Shitencho has been brainwashed by Ms Stalin, even though she admits that all the points against Ms Stalin are true.

They gave me an ultimatum.  That I accept that Ms Stalin is there to stay and that I must go back to work.  I told them that I will not go to work and be bullied and harassed just for doing my job.  I suggested to them that Ms Stalin could be based in the branch office, rather than the Coco Juku office where she can cause problems and the Shitencho refused this request, knowing full well there will be more resignations if this simple remedy would be ignored.

I had no choice but to resign from the company who I had last year felt compelled to write a positive blog post about.  A company who made it clear that if a person breaks all the rules, and bullies the staff and students, but has a good sales record, will never have any sanctions made against them. 

Therefore, any person offended by my blog post last year, praising Coco Juku, I apologise to you.  You were right and I was wrong.  "Bullying is okay" was the key message from the meeting.  They said it several times because I did not believe they said it and was convinced that I was misunderstanding them.  There was no misunderstanding.  They made it clear they are aware of all previous staff's complaints but refuse to sanction her, not even warn her.

Apologies/gomen to all previous contributors to my previous blog.