As I’m sure we all already know, Gaba will implement new rules starting next fiscal year that will essentially classify teachers as sub-human. While there are valiant efforts by union workers to find ways to negotiate something more reasonable, its looking more and more likely that the only real option to avoid these ridiculous regulations is to just quit.
I’m curious, what is everyone’s plan? Go to a different school? Try to get into a different field? Call it quits and go back home?
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They’re probably hoping for this, so they can replace the old guard with fresh recruits who don’t know any better.
Any company that hands me a negative paycheck because I *checks list* was in a coma due to an accident and was in a coma for 2 months and was charged 1000 yen a day, is getting a round of laughter and nothing else.
This isn’t predatory, this is just evil.
Every GABA/NOVA teacher currently working for them should have plans to quit before the 6 month mark.
These are visa jobs. Not careers.
I’d like to encourage everyone at Gaba to be out by April, and also newbies to please go to a different company. Don’t let them get away with this.
I dont work at gaba but I’m seriously hoping that the majority of the teachers are conspiring and that they would all hand in their resignation on the same day.
They can do this because there’ll be hundreds of bright-eyed, bushy tailed foreigners currently watching anime in Netflix who’ll be over on the next plane at the drop of a stereotypical bamboo hat.
I have some friends who are in one of GABAs four unions and I gotta say I have no idea how four unions operate in one company how does that work logistically
I’ve spoken to several instructors, both union affiliated and not, and basically everyone is looking to jump ship. The negatives have incredibly began to outweigh the positives of the job.
The only people that are staying are the ones that have families and are too scared to go looking for another job because they feel they need to have a constant paycheck. Which is counter-intuitive because the pay at GABA is miserable and inconsistent. A steady pay from an eikaiwa that actually employs you would be much more beneficial in both benefits and actual take home pay.
More like, why aren’t you all quitting now(more so if you know you need to call in sick)?? Pack your bags, collect you next paycheck, and leave??
Do Gaba workers get paid in the month they’re working, or is it in arrears?
If the no sick call/ lesson cancelation scenario actually occurred, I guess Gaba could ~~steal~~ withhold what’s already been earned, but if the fees exceed the pay, then they couldn’t actually garnish that from accounts like the government does with unpaid tax, could they?
I hope they all quit and teach GABA a lesson, pun intended.
They’ll probably just hire people to do video teaching instead so they don’t even need to sponsor your visa and pay you as much.
I’m a current instructor. Almost all the instructors I’ve spoken to have started job hunting. A few of them are being forced out because they refused to join the QII Even those I know working in the head office can see the iceberg coming and are looking to get out.
I’m going to apply and quit immediately if hired
Maybe they could do what the Tokyo bus drivers did when they sealed off all charge machines but kept up the service. Just teach for free by rescheduling all classes with the students / customers to somewhere outside of the schools. GABA without the bullshit.
Dunno how you’d get the money back to people who already paid though. Or just tell them not to pay the next month and organise a mass ‘public GABA’ free session in a park or hall to keep it legal and non-protest-like.
Anyone with common sense should stay away from this company. I applied and never went further due to the sketchy nature. Like I said I applied then immediately they said send me your passport via email …. No meeting or prior conversation just sending info to a stranger via email. If that first step doesn’t ring alarms idk…
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What *are* the new rules? iirc, NOVA bought out GABA, so I’m sure they’re hideous.
I left years ago. It was never about English teaching. Highest booked teachers were attractive women. GABA forces teachers to fail students so they stay longer at a level and buy another 18,000 yen leaflet of a textbook. They screw not just teachers but students too.
I went into it knowing they were dodgy but I really didn’t want to teach kids and gaba was the only company to guarantee that – perhaps even now?
I’m out of the loop, what’s going on?
Book your schedule to the max and quit so they have to contact all of scheduled students.
People look at GABA as a jump off point anyway. Something that will get them through the door. And I think GABA knows that AND wants to be that. They just want temps. Thats it. It’s their loss anyway. Unless the quality ones gets a pay raise or promotion then why stay? NOVA owns GABA by the way so I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one of the ways NOVA is trying to get rid of GABA.
I worked at Gaba 2013-2015 and it was dehumanizing. Luckily I wasn’t depending on it as much as wanting to have a baito that was helping people.
I already had professional instruction certification (as a teacher and instructor in various institutions) and had been a school teacher and instructor , and had 15 years of business experience in international business in media coming from nyc – I had a ton to offer my students there, but Gaba really isn’t interested in teaching English they’re selling an undercooked curriculum.
I had very few problems with my students.
For me it came to ahead with the shit pay, considering the amount of McDonald’s type factory prep work required and laundry costs- that added to being tossed under a bus when a rude student became hostile, and needed to be removed, complained (I had very seldom had any complaints from any student) and cost me a monthly bonus, and when I asked the branch manager to review the client – they had a history of bouncing around learning centers flipping out on teachers, and allowed to persist without any protection for the instructor- which allowed Gaba to weasel out of their at the time monthly performance bonus. And Gaba wouldn’t remove the complaint against me.
I have no problem with providing high level of service quality. I’m all in on that part- the formality is an act of civility and mutual respect. I even get it- that they’re selling their system more than hiring educational instructors. A vaguely warm body that marginally speaks English while wearing a suit is what they really need and want.
Any business place that literally treats its workers like trash and disrespects their safety however doesn’t deserve the effort of its employees. Japan is not great in this front as we well know – but Gaba and the Eikawa world is particularly scuzzy in places.
I did have some private students that I taught for more than 8 years- they were wonderful. And my regulars at Gaba that showed up and were plugged in were wonderful too-
Point being, Gaba sucked. I’m really sorry for those dependent on that business. I really hope there is a serious (peaceful) walkout that is highly focused and publicized to shame the living daylights out of them.
My advice as a former ALT with a company called JAL(not the airline) is to get out. For those with family who think you won’t survive or find better, I too had a wife and three kids. But, sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.
I was with them for three years. I wasn’t happy with the way things were going, but like many I worried about supporting my family. Going into my fourth year, they waited until two days before school started to call me in to sign my new contract. The new contract had my original pay lined out with a new amount that was ¥40,000 less. Their excuse was that all teachers got a pay cut and I was free to look for a new job if I wanted. Since school was already starting I figured the odds of finding anything better were slim.
I bid my time and halfway through the year I turned in my two-week notice. They sent the company president from Saitama to Zushi to talk to me. He told me I was their best teacher and they were just talking about giving me a ¥30,000 raise. They declined my counteroffer of the raise plus the ¥40,000 they cut. They then tried to tell me I needed a month notice so I showed them in the labor laws where if you are with a company for more than three years you are only required to give 2 weeks.
I also had to go go to court against a former Eikawa company. It had been mutually decided to part ways after the current year was up. During that time they sent me as a substitute teacher for an international daycare. It was a temporary spot for them. She liked me and offered me a job when I was done with my current company.
The Eikawa got pissed off and never paid my final salary. After three months of playing dumb they said that they were taking my Final pay as compensation for damaging their company and were considering taking me to court for ¥600,000 for breach of contract. They claimed that:
A) The contract said I could not quit them and go to a company that they introduced me to. It is a common clause in many foreigner contracts. It’s illegal, but most foreigners are afraid to fight it or don’t care.
B) That they lost the contract with the daycare due to me getting hired there. There was another teacher who taught a different class. When the Eikawa found out they got angry and pulled him from the school. That’s not my fault. My position had nothing to do with his.
I had an interesting negotiation between the owner, the head teacher, my wife and myself. It was mostly him trying to intimidate us and my wife joking telling him “let’s go to the court house.it will be fun.” He was so angry that he couldn’t intimidate her.
I ended up winning the case. They had to pay me two months salary. It took a year and a bunch of headaches, but in the end it worked out. I’m in. Much better place career wise (no longer teaching). I took a leap of faith and it worked.
What is the salary at this job?
If it’s that bad, honestly it’s probably better to just get a job in construction or something. I’ve seen many foreigners on random construction jobs