The TEFL Workers’ Union was appalled – if not surprised – to hear of the shock redundancies at the British Council school in Bilbao.
No teachers – but especially long-serving, dedicated, experienced teachers – should be forced to pay for the bad decisions of management.
The purported way in which the British Council has treated their Bilbao staff speaks to an employer that continually fails to treat workers with dignity and respect. Our union stands in solidarity with British Council teachers in Bilbao as they fight for justice.
Below is an interview with one of the Bilbao teachers. We’ll be keeping an eye on this dispute, so watch this space for more updates.
If you want more information on the TEFL Union’s current dispute with the British Council – or to make a donation to the legal fund – see here.
Give us some background to the situation. What happened? Why are folks so upset?
At the end of September, the BC fired six good teachers and one senior teacher.
They did it just after the COVID protections ran out. So instead of getting 30 days of pay for every year worked they were given the legal minimum of 20 days for every year with a cap of a years’ salary. Still worse is the fact that they waited until classes had started so the affected cannot find any work.
Something like this happened in Barcelona in 2019 and the person representing management (Mark Howard) admitted that it was horrible timing and that it would never happen again. Of course, we brought this up and we were told that he was involved in the redundancy process of these people.
And as if this was all not bad enough, the BC botched the redundancy. Spanish law requires the indemnity payment to already be in the redundant worker’s account when informed. Apparently, the industry standard would involve a face-to-face meeting in which the person is informed, with the money put in the account shortly before.
In this case, the BC sent an email but the money was already in the account and the wife of one of the workers found the indemnity payment and alerted her husband. Thus the wife learned first and then told her husband. Management never bothered to talk to the affected teachers.
Tell us about the timing. I understand there’s a suspicion the BC planned the redundancies at a time when certain COVID-related protections ran out?
As for the timing, the Comité of worker representatives* asked about this and was offered pathetic excuses: “delays” said our HR manager as he shrugged; another big fish said, “Who is responsible? I don’t know who is responsible.”
None of those responses would be accepted by management if it were about my students or reports. It’s pretty clear that they dragged their feet to avoid the bigger payout. The problem is that all of the affected have lawyers and are going to court which is almost guaranteed to come out badly and costly for the BC, as it has in the past with redundancies.
*Spanish labour legislation allows for ‘works councils’ in which employees can elect workplace representatives, even if there’s not a recognised union.
What support have you gotten from local unions? Are there any other organisations offering support?
Some of the affected are affiliated and have access to union lawyers. I’d say the unions have been helpful and our colleagues in other centers have been very supportive. We are reaching out to garner as much support as possible. The form of that support will likely vary. Ideally, clients/students would voice their discontent, thus applying pressure from one side, but having unions apply pressure certainly helps and is easiest to organize. Of course, it would be great if someone inside the BC would take note and resolve this by changing managerial practices, however, that seems like a more improbable source of help.
If you could sit down with BC management and really get them to understand one thing, what would it be?
If staff could have management understand one thing, I think it would be that the approach being taken by the BC is dysfunctional and must stop as it is harming the business as well as the workers. Their top-down patriarchal style is suited to the military, not teaching. They are bullying their way into a strike.
How can folks offer support? Anything else you’d like UK-based TEFL workers to know?
I think TEFL workers in the UK and elsewhere should know that the BC is acting badly in many places. That’s why Portugal has decided to strike and we in Spain have voted in favour of industrial action. The corporate approach is not isolated to the hardships of one group in one place. BC management is behaving badly.