Taking classes online when the pandemic hit was a great solution for many and filled the coffers of learning platforms, but it didn’t do anything for language teachers’ pay. This struck a chord with English language teacher John Hayes, who originally hails from the US, but has been living and working in Poland for the past six years.
He’d already clocked a number of inequalities in the industry that bothered him, including that native and non-native speakers were paid different amounts, and that teachers were paying up to 35% of their income for the privilege of being hired. Plus, there were often punitive cancellation fees levied on teachers.
It all inspired John, along with four other founders, to start up MyCoolClass, a workers’ co-operative for teachers who are based anywhere in the world. Advantages of the model include teachers paying a relatively modest 19% of the income they receive for work through MyCoolClass, that they can earn up to seven paid days leave per year, get paid sick leave after a two or three month probationary period and that they can receive royalties from courses they design.
So far, 1,600 teachers from over 60 countries have signed up.
“I believe that MyCoolClass will be a success simply because we all run the business collectively, and provide a fair and democratic virtual working environment,” says John. “MyCoolClass has no interest in dominating the online education market. We do, however, hope to disrupt business as usual and inspire not only teachers, but all gig workers to do the same thing we are doing. I want to see thousands of platform cooperatives, not millions of exploited workers.”
