Page 6 - ELG2102 Feb Issue 474

FEATURE .

Online Teflers challenge self-employed

status as union membership grows

By Matt Salusbury and Melanie Butler
TEFL Workers Union has submitted a legal
claim on behalf of at least 15 UK-based EFL
teachers against an online teaching entity
that engaged them to teach online to China.
It’s a further example of the increase in
union action seen in recent years across the
EFL sector.
In the UK and Ireland, union cases have
centred on teachers left unpaid when schools
suddenly closed or, in the case of the English
Studio in early 2020, when sister schools
in Dublin and London both ceased trading
at the same time. Given the parlous state
of the industry, we’re likely to see more
such actions.
The latest case, however, is over the
employment status of teachers, a subject the
Gazette has been covering since 1987, though
never before involving teachers who have
been working online.
The teachers in this case, mostly young
undergraduates, were hired on a self-employed
contract by a website called The Overseas TRUTHSEEKER08 FROM PIXABAY
Teacher (TOT) to teach students on English
courses run by the Chinese online giant
DaDaABC.
The online teachers are asking the
Employment Tribunal to redefine their work
status as employees, thus allowing them to
claim holiday pay, sick pay and compensation in schools cannot be self-employed. The According to its website, The Overseas
for ‘unlawful deductions’ – in this case, practice is now rare in accredited schools, Teacher is a joint venture between the
including fines for being late, cancelling classes but a recent case taken by the TEFL Workers long-established computing company ADM
or being unavailable. Union against an unaccredited school Computing and a Chinese partner. The
A teacher working for TOT identifying involved claims that, unbeknown to them, director is named as Adrian Bryant and the
herself by the initial ‘H’, told the Gazette fines teachers had been treated as self-employed address given is in Canterbury, Kent.
for being unavailable were common. Fines for for tax purposes. The tribunal found in the There is an ADM Computing Ltd listed
absence due to sickness varied from US$15 teachers’ favour. at Companies House, but it is not in
‘without evidence’ to US$5 ‘with evidence’, Canterbury and has no directors named
such as a doctor’s certificate. Bryant. However, an Adrian Bryant is listed
H said she was paid in pounds via an app – The online as director and majority shareholder of ADM
her rate was £3 per 25-minute lesson – with Computer Services Ltd, whose registered
DaDaABC’s US dollar fines deducted before teachers are asking the office is at the Canterbury address listed on
she received payment. Employment Tribunal to the website.
These claims are supported by a sample According to a union spokesperson, all the
contract found on The Overseas Teacher’s rede!ne their work status TOT teachers it represents were informed
website (www.theoverseasteacher.com/online- in early December that they had ‘had
contract). It covers teachers working under as employees their contracts cancelled’. Neither ADM
The Overseas Teacher & DaDaABC Joint Computing, The Overseas Teacher nor its
Online Teacher Program, also referred to as sister site The Online Teacher have responded
Free Talk. The pay is given as ‘UK National TOT may claim that those working to email enquiries from the Gazette by the time
Minimum Wage’. Fines in US dollars are online were not teachers. Another teacher we went to press.
detailed for being two minutes late, cancelling interviewed by the Gazette said her job title With more teachers working online, the
lessons and failing to complete any of the was ‘language consultant’. She also told us she question of their employment status may
required training. was 18 at the time, meaning she was entitled become an increasing concern, further
Under UK law, employers cannot make to just £6.45 an hour at minimum wage rather fuelling the move towards unionisation.
such deductions from employees’ pay if it than the £8.72 required for employees over the Union membership across sectors has been
takes their hourly rate below the National age of 25. rising steadily in the UK and Ireland since
Minimum Wage, but self-employed workers TOT may also claim that the contract was 2016. In Malta, the Union of Professional
are not covered. not with them. The Gazette couldn’t find Educators, which began to fight for EFL
Previous UK employment cases have any companies with the name The Overseas teachers in 2020, saw membership grow
consistently found that EFL teachers working Teacher registered at Companies House. over 10%.
6 February 2021