The Irish Parliament is looking to enact protections for English language teachers
The appointment of Patrick King as mediator between employers and employees in Ireland’s ELT industry marks a major landmark in the campaign by Irish EFL teachers for better regulation of their terms and conditions.
The issue of conditions for EFL teachers hit the national press after the sudden closure of Dublin language school Grafton Colleges Dublin left at least 23 members of staff out of work (see news report on page 6).
The story went viral when the Irish Times reported on two members of the Grafton staff, Robert and Gisela Dunlop, who were informed of the closure on their wedding day. The pair found themselves unpaid and unemployed just weeks before the birth of their first child.
The school closure added pressure on the government to respond to a two-year campaign by teachers, spearheaded by the ELT branch of the Unite Union. Union officials held a first meeting with King, himself the former general secretary of Irish teachers’ union ASTI, in January.
Following the meeting, Unite the Union Ireland’s senior regional organiser, Davy Kettyles, issued a press release stating that the union, “look forward to continuing engaging with Patrick King and the Department [of Education] to develop minimum employment standards for teachers – standards which reflect the work they do and their contribution to the ELT sector in Ireland”.
As we reported in our previous issue, political support for the teachers’ cause has been growing for some months. In December, Ireland’s Senate passed amendments to draft legislation on regulating the ELT sector, which included protections for teachers in the event of the sudden closure of any private language schools.
The political pressure continued to mount after the school closure. In a speech in the lower house, the Dail, Member of Parliament (TD) Richard Boyd Barrett referred to a Grafton teacher he knew personally. According to Barrett, Grafton was the third school his friend had been working which had closed suddenly, so that he had been “left high and dry by one rogue employer after another”.
Ireland has seen a string of language school failures, peaking in 2014-2015, most in the unaccredited sector. This led to the introduction of government measures to protect student fees, but did not address the plight of staff left owing wages.
The Union began a campaign for better terms and conditions some two years ago, but the teachers’ plight first gained widespread public attention only in April 2018, with the closure of Lanlearn, an unaccredited school in Limerick.
Despite a number of well-publicised demonstrations by teachers, the government initially refused to meet with their representatives. Pressure on the government increased after members of the Irish Senate, the Seanad, added teacher protection measures to the Qualifications and Quality Assurance Bill 2018, which sought to improve the regulation of the international education sector.
The Bill, which passed its second stage in the Seanad in December, was amended to include a teacher protection fund to cover unpaid wages in the event of sudden school closure, and the creation of a Fair Employment Mark, awarded to Schools which guarantee decent terms and conditions to their teachers.
Despite the media storm breaking around the Grafton teachers, the government initially held out against intervening in working conditions. By early January, however the policy had changed.
Addressing the Seanad, minister of higher education Mary Mitchell O’Connor said of Ireland’s ELT industry, “Those working in it are integral to the quality of that provision… No-one want to see English language teachers not being paid or being deprived of their employment rights. The situation that has emerged at Grafton College where teachers have been left without salaries is completely unacceptable.”
O’Connor announced the appointment of a mediator, as well as the possibly of establishing a legally-binding collective agreement between employers and employees. Under Irish law, any Registered Employment Agreement that emerges from such mediation is enforceable by a Labour Court.
While such rulings only apply to the workplaces of employers that have signed up to such agreements, if enough employers in ELT conclude agreements with their workforce it will have a positive effect on working conditions across the industry.
O’Conner also called on “employers and staff representative bodies to actively engage with Mr King to explore the potential to address the employment related issues that have been so damaging to the sector in the recent past. This will be a positive benefit to the sector.”
As of mid-January, the Qualifications and Quality Assurance Bill was still awaiting the remaining Committee stages, after which there are then at least six stages in the current session of the Dail before it can pass into law.
