TEFL Union challenges self-employment at WE Bridge Academy

The TEFL Union has commenced legal action to support one of our members on what the union believes is grounds of bogus self-employment and bullying. 

The worker, who wishes to remain anonymous, was employed by WE Bridge Academy, based in Cardiff. While working there, our member allegedly suffered several unfair workplace violations at the hands of WE Bridge.

Ray Goodspeed, the union representative taking the case to tribunal said:  

“The response so far from the company has been dismissive, with no attempt to give a satisfactory answer to why this employee was engaged on a nominally self-employed basis. It seems that it is simply a transparent way for the company to avoid its responsibilities towards its staff.”

Despite being nominally self-employed, the worker was not given the opportunity to exercise the flexibility that comes with being an independent contractor, such as negotiating their rate of pay. They taught to a set syllabus in classes organised by the academy, using the employer’s materials and facilities. Furthermore, they were not allowed to work in another school within a certain area.

Tom Liebewitz, chair of the TEFL Workers’ Union steering committee commented:

With high rates of zero-hours and fixed-term contracts, precarity is all-too-common in English language teaching. Self-employed contracts are even more precarious and our union will always challenge such unscrupulous practices.”

Like their directly employed colleagues, the member at the centre of this dispute regularly worked twenty-plus hours a week, was expected to attend staff meetings, had performance evaluations, and was expected to participate in the social programme for the students. The union believes that this is a de facto contract of employment.

Due to their self-employed status, our member did not have their national insurance contributions paid by WE Bridge, losing out on over £2200 in holiday pay.

This is not the only alleged dubious business practice at the school. The worker recalls international interns working at the academy. But, when inspectors from ISI performed a routine review, it’s alleged that WE Bridge management told the interns not to be present and staff were instructed not to mention them.

The worker also alleges that they were subject to mockery and bullying by certain sections of management. When unable to take a class or do a trip our member was openly criticised by their line manager in a staff WhatsApp group.

By taking the matter to employment tribunal the worker hopes to set a precedent to help others on self-employment contracts in the industry. 

WE Bridge have denied all wrongdoing in a response to the union representative in charge of the case.

If you work in ELT and you’re incorrectly on a self-employed contract, you are missing out on holiday pay, pension contributions, and key rights like access to the disciplinary and grievance procedures and redundancy pay. If you’re worried your contract may not be right, contact the union on [email protected] and a rep will have a look over it with you.