Many Gaba instructors are young and new to Japan. They are often brought to Japan by Gaba with little experience of Japan and sometimes as their first job after studying.

To make matters worse, in the Gaba system, there is no guaranteed income – only payment per lessons booked.

Pay raises are not easy to obtain, and often entirely depend on recommendations from managers.

Given the tenuous nature of this situation, instructors don’t want to rock the proverbial boat.

At Gaba, students choose their instructors; instructors do not choose the students.

This can cause problems when students behave inappropriately.

Many instructors have had great difficulty dealing with these problems, and have often not been supported by the company.

In fact, some instructors have even been given warnings for trying to deal with this situation on their own, even though there is no alternative.

Suffice to say, Gaba is failing in its responsibility to its instructors.

The union has repeatedly asked the company to publish guidelines about what to do when students harass instructors.

It has asked the company to publish the guidelines for blocking clients for inappropriate behavior.

In 2015, the company stated it would do this.

After repeated follow-ups, the company again stated in July of this year that it will do so in the third quarter of this year.

However, it has yet to do any of what it said it would do, and it is clear that Gaba’s assurances are little more than lip-service.

As a matter of fact, the Instructor Support Department has let it be known that there are “no plans” to actually follow through with these assurances.

Be that as it may, the General Union will never stop following up this issue.

Instuctors deserve better.

(日本語で読む)