Tozen and the Gaba Workers Union are proud to announce that the union and management concluded a Labour Management Agreement with Gaba Corporation on Thursday, July 24, bringing our labor dispute to a satisfactory resolution.
Tozen GABA
GABA Dispute Update
The Tozen GABA Local leafleted the GABA Tokyo Learning Studio this morning in protest of their unfair discipline towards local president Tyler Christensen. The GABA Local also leafleted the Yokohama LS on Saturday night. On each occassion the union leafleted to both clients and instructors there – to let them know about Gaba’s persecution of Tyler. The responses were really positive; people continue to be outraged by Gaba’s seemingly senseless refusal to negotiate. Afterwards, the Local held its monthly meeting at a nearby restaurant, which prospective members could also attend. Tozen’s Gaba local continues to grow.
Tozen Report: All Day Dispute Action Against GABA
Last Friday, Tozen GABA Workers Union took its first all day action against GABA’s threat to fire Tozen GABA Workers Union President Tyler Christensen.
We began at 6AM to leaflet GABA Shinagawa Learning Studio. We moved on to Gaba corporate HQ at 9AM. There as we handed out leaflets, GABA representative Satomi Odaka emerged from the building.
The union handed Mr. Odaka a notification of dispute, outlining the specific demands of our dispute. You can read about them here. Mr. Odaka responded by asking for our “road use permit,” which we don’t need, physically obstructing Case Officer Gerome Rothman and threatening to call the police.
GABA then took the step of calling the police in an attempt to shut down our protest. We explained to the police that we were conducting legitimate union activity. The police decided not to interfere.
We did a loud protest call with the megaphone, and concluded our action. After that, we filed a protest with the company demanding an apology for their obstruction of legitimate union activity. We demanded they follow the law and desist from interference with union activity.
Tozen went to Yokohama Learning Studio, where Tyler works. During leafleting, Tyler spoke directly to his colleagues, sharing his story and drawing their support. He also took to the megaphone in an appeal to GABA management, asking them to “Let me do my job.”
GABA members and Tozen supporters wrapped up their protest at the end of the GABA work day, in Chiba. We leafleted at the Chiba Learning Studio.
Our first protest against GABA spanned 2 prefectures and the Tokyo Metropolis, 3 Learning Studios, and GABA HQ. We confronted a hostile management, and meaningfully engaged with sympathetic members of the GABA community.
We would love to think that a marathon fourteen hours of protesting GABA’s stubbornness will mean the end of our struggle for Tyler. We know, however, this is just the very beginning.
We need your help.
Tozen will not back down when its members are threatened with unfair discipline and attacks on their rights as workers. Tozen knows that all workers in Japan have the right to join a union, negotiate with management, and take collective action to improve their working conditions.
Join our fight. Let’s make GABA better for everybody.
Tozen Gaba Local President Tyler Christensen Under Fire
Tozen Gaba Local President Tyler Christensen has recently been disciplined with a warning letter by Gaba for staying at the office too late. Tyler is a model Gaba instructor. He is hard at work every day providing excellent lessons, even putting in unpaid overtime to keep his clients happy and the company well informed of their progress.
He apparently works TOO hard.
At our last CB on November 14th, the company pretended that a disciplinary letter was not really discipline, despite the fact that they threatened his future contract renewals in the letter.
Our union is standing up for fairness at Gaba, but we need your help. Join our campaign to improve working conditions at Gaba. Contact us at organizing@tokyogeneralunion.org for more information.
Tozen Gaba Local Wins Labor Management Agreements with Gaba
This summer the Tozen Gaba Local took three steps forward in our campaign to improve working conditions at Gaba.
We signed an agreement to raise wages.
We signed an agreement guaranteeing the right of instructors to change their home LS at any time without interference or discrimination from the company.
We signed an agreement to receive a twice yearly financial transparency document detailing revenue, profit, and number of clients for the company.
There’s More Work to Do
Gaba instructors are making progress, but we have a great deal more to win. The majority of our 2013 yearly demands remain unresolved. Gaba management says that they share our goal of improving working conditions for Gaba instructors. We can hold them to that commitment and win improvements such as job security, fair compensation for R-Slots, and a reasonable sick leave policy. We need your help. Join our union.
For more information e-mail organizing@tokyogeneralunion.org.
Tokyo Area GABA workers unionize
2012年9月28日
〒151-0062
東京都渋谷区元代々木町 30-13 グラスシティ元代々木 4F
03-5790-7000 (TEL)
03-5790-7145 (FAX)
株式会社 GABA
代表取締役社長 増田崇之殿
GABA Corporation President Takayuki Masuda
全国一般東京ゼネラルユニオン
執行委員長 ルイス・カーレット 全
国一般東京ゼネラルユニオン GABA 労働組合
執行委員長 ジェイソン・コームス
Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union
President Louis Carlet
Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union
GABA Workers Union
President Jason Combs
組合結成通知並びに団体交渉の申し入れ
Notice of Union Formation and Demand for Collective Bargaining
拝啓 秋冷の候、貴社におかれましてはますますご盛栄のこととお喜び申し上げます。
We hope your business is doing well this autumn.
私たちは、貴社に勤務する下記の講師が、全国一般東京ゼネラルユニオン(以下、「組合」と いう)の下に全国一般東京ゼネラルユニオン GABA 労働組合(以下、「支部」という)という支 部組合を結成したことを通知いたします。貴社は本日より、組合員の雇用・労働条件並びにその他 労働条件に関連する事項について、当組合並びに支部と協議決定する義務のあることを申し添えま す。
We hereby notify you that the instructors below have formed the Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union GABA Workers Union (hereafter, “local”) under the Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union (hereafter, “union”). We ask that management negotiate in good faith during collective bargaining regarding members’ employment and working conditions as well as other matters related to working conditions.
当組合並びに支部は、良好なる労使関係を確立するために誠意を持って交渉に臨む所存です。それ故、 貴社は不当労働行為など行うことなく、速やかに当組合並びに支部との団体交渉に応じられるよう要請いた します。なお、団体交渉を拒否することは、労働組合法第7条に違反する不当労働行為であることを念のた めに申し添えておきます。
In order to create good labor-management relations, our union intends to negotiate in good faith. We call on the company to respond promptly to our request for collective bargaining so as not to commit an unfair labor practice under labor law. We remind the company that declining a request for collective bargaining is a violation of Article 7 of Trade Union Law.
Gaba ‘contractor’ status under fire from staff, courts
Yet after stepping off the tarmac at Narita in August this year, William’s new life in Japan began to turn into something of a nightmare, and the source of the trouble was his new job working for Gaba as an English teacher.
According to William, his troubles began back home in the States when he was interviewed for a teaching position at Gaba by webcam.
“They told me I would be legally required to teach 160 lessons per month for visa sponsorship at a rate of ¥1,500 per lesson. But that didn’t happen.”
William says that rather than the 40 lessons he was promised, he averaged only around 25 — 30 on a good week, and sometimes as low as 10. “This was a source of conflict between myself and my management,” he says.
Despite the fact he was teaching what amounted to a part-time schedule, he had to be in the workplace 40 hours a week or more.
“I would be sitting around in a booth — they would call it a booth, but I would call it essentially a prison cell — and you are expected to sit there until something falls off the cart,” he says.
Gaba teachers are only paid for lessons taught, so the additional time William spent at the studio waiting for lessons was unpaid, yet the company, he says, expected him to be there at all times.
“Once I was verbally disciplined for going out to get lunch. I was verbally warned by my supervisor. . . . He said, ‘You need to be preparing your lesson notes and you need to look to the client like you are doing work and not going out and getting lunch. ‘ And I said, ‘OK, but on the other hand, I am a human being and I need to eat, and I am not being paid for this time so you don’t have the right to tell me that.’ “
Gaba is the only large eikaiwa chain in Japan that doesn’t pay travel costs to teachers commuting to training or work, so attending training would not only have cut into William’s teaching hours, it would actually have cost him money.
William refused to do any further training, and this put him at odds with his supervisors at Gaba, a situation that was exacerbated when he took two days off work.
“I had to go to the hospital because I literally couldn’t talk and found out I had a throat infection,” explains William. “They made me meet with the regional manager and told me not to miss any more days. They told me they were going to reduce my schedule as punishment.”
As an overseas recruit, Gaba was also the sponsor of William’s working visa, which made him feel particularly insecure.
“I felt very depressed, anxious, uncertain about what I was going to do. I was afraid I would have to go home. At this time I wasn’t making enough money monthly to pay anything more than pay my rent — I was losing money,” he recalls. “One day I went in for 8½ hours and I actually lost money going to work because none of my lessons booked. I figured out later on that this had something to do with the fact they had deleted my schedule from the client view of the instructors on their website.”
A complaint sometimes leveled by former Gaba instructors is that their learning studio manager or supervisor reduced their teaching schedule, and thus income, in order to discipline or control them.
In the Gaba employment contract that all teachers working in nonmanagerial roles sign, it states that “All instructors at Gaba teach under an Itaku, or entrusted, contract. The terms of this kind of system are different from employment. Entrusted instructors are essentially independent contractors that have been contracted to provide an established service, namely English instruction.”
In addition, many teachers also sign an “Entrusted Contract Awareness” document, which says: “Itaku contractors are not committed to fixed working hours as salaried employees are. We do not assign set work schedules but rely on instructors to inform us when they are available. Although we offer flexible scheduling, our peak times of operation are early weekday mornings, weekday evenings and all days weekends.”
Despite the fact that official company policy states they offer “flexible scheduling,” stories such as Herve’s and William’s suggest that, at least in some cases, pressure is put on instructors to choose shifts that fit the needs of the company alone.
Gaba teachers have even less freedom, despite their status as itaku contractors, with regards to dress.
Gaba was recently purchased by Japanese medical services company Nichii Gakkan for ¥10 billion. Earlier this month Canadian Bruce Anderson replaced Kenji Kamiyama as CEO of Gaba.
Nichii Gakkan Company to Launch Takeover Bid for Shares of Gaba Corporation
Nichii Gakkan Company announced that it has decided to launch a takeover bid for shares of Gaba Corporation. Nichii Gakkan Company intends to purchase 50,497 shares of Gaba Corporation at the price of JPY 200,000 per share during the period from August 8, 2011 to September 21, 2011. If Nichii Gakkan Company purchased as many shares of Gaba Corporation, it will hold 100% voting rights in Gaba Corporation. However, if Nichii Gakkan Company were not able to purchase at least 26,390 shares of Corporation, the takeover bid will be cancelled. Based on the result of the takeover bid, Gaba Corporation may be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
http://uk.reuters.com/business/quotes/2133.T/key-developments/article/2378201
Nichii Gakkan To Launch Tender Offer For Gaba
Nichii Gakkan Co. said Friday it will begin a tender offer to purchase shares of Gaba Corp., an operator of English-language conversation classes, in a move to bolster its education business.
Nichii plans to spend up to 10 billion yen to make Gaba a wholly owned subsidiary.
The offer price is 200,000 yen per share, a 53% premium over Friday’s close.
Gaba operates classes at 36 locations in the nation’s three major metropolitan areas. The bulk of its students are corporate employees. The firm posted 7.75 billion yen in sales and 596 million yen in net profit for the year ended December 2010.
Even though [Nichii’s] offerings have expanded beyond its mainstay preparatory courses for medical and nursing licenses, it is still struggling. The firm expects the Gaba brand to help it win contracts for corporate English training and to expand its online offerings.
Gaba teachers challenge ‘contractor’ status
Union fears employment model could mark first step on slippery slope for eikawa firms
Long accustomed to being ignored, being forgotten proved too much to take for unionized teachers at Gaba language school. On Oct. 4, the General Union registered an official complaint and request for an investigation with the Ministry of Finance’s Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC).
The union accuses Gaba Corp. of lying in its 2009 financial report filed in March with the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which states that there is no union at Gaba and that labor-management relations were “smooth and harmonious.”
The G.U. argues it has an established Gaba Branch. Its complaint also points out that the Osaka Labor Commission ruled in December 2009 that it considered earlier negotiations held between the union and Gaba to represent collective bargaining.
The union also charges that the financial statement’s description of Gaba instructors as independent contractors rather than employees is disingenuous. The complaint points out that the Osaka commission also acknowledged Gaba’s instructors as employees under trade union law last December, and that the firm’s failure to mention that fact was misleading.
The SESC complaint is tied to a larger struggle for union recognition and employee rights at Gaba.
Instructors first formed a union in September 2007 and, according to union members, met with company representatives for talks. However, managers always refused to enter into serious negotiations, arguing the instructors were not employees and, as itaku — independent contractors — weren’t covered by Japanese labor laws.
Determining who qualifies as an employee and who can be classed as an independent contractor isn’t always clear. However, the method in which workers are scheduled and their place of work are important considerations.
“The company must be very careful it’s not treating them as employees,” says [Christopher] Gunson [an international transaction attorney]. “Even having someone in an office and working with an employee is risky.”
Gaba instructors are not alone in their fight for recognition as regular employees. According to journalist Naoki Kazama’s book “Koyo Yukai” (“Employment Meltdown”), there are no official statistics for the number of independent contractors working in Japan, but estimates range from 500,000 to 2 million workers.
Japan’s Statistics Bureau’s annual Labor Force Survey shows the number of nonregular workers has increased steadily since 1999, after the Japanese government started relaxing regulations to make it easier for companies to hire workers outside their regular employment system. In 1999, 25.6 percent of Japan’s labor force was classified as nonregular. By 2009 the figure had increased to 33.7 percent.
Employing instructors as independent contractors allows Gaba to reduce labor costs.
Instructors receive no paid sick days or vacation, no pay for training, no overtime pay, and there’s no limit on the number of unpaid overtime hours that can be worked. The company also avoids enrolling its instructors in unemployment insurance, the national health insurance and pension schemes, and workers’ compensation. It also fails to pay a commuting allowance to instructors.
The instructors, working on six-month contracts, also lack job security. Employment as independent contractors means Gaba can dismiss any teacher, with or without cause, simply by not renewing their contract.