Our union is proud of the support we’ve been offering to British Council English Online teachers over the past few years. This recently culminated in a long article in the Guardian, which you can find here.
The article, entitled British Council accused of forcing gig economy teachers into ‘feeding frenzy’ for work, details the precariousness the teachers face and largely takes its lead from an open letter TEFL Union members put together prior to the article’s publication.
The article correctly points out that while the immediate cause of the precarity is the “feeding frenzy” approach to scheduling, the larger issue is the BC’s use of employment agencies. Such an employment relationship allows the BC to outsource their poor working conditions and allows the agency to blame the BC for those very same conditions.
In the end, the agencies line their pockets, the BC avoids its responsibility to staff, and the teachers suffer.
Numerous union members are quoted in the article, as is the BC’s mealy-mouthed response.
But, while media coverage is important, this battle is far from over. The British Council is undoubtedly the biggest player in the global ELT industry. If we want to change the TEFL industry into one that respects staff, that means forcing the BC to change. Our union is here to do just that.
How you can help support:
- If you work for the BC, reach out! Hit us up at [email protected] and we can let you know what our members have been up to BC and how you can help the work along.
- Share the article with your workmates! It’s not often that ELT gets big mainstream media coverage, so make some noise about it!
- And don’t just share it – get involved in the conversation. Martin over at ELT Experiences has already made a YouTube video off the back of the article. We need more of that! If you don’t have your own YouTube channel, write something for the EL Gazette or contact us to write something for our website.
- Share the open letter on your social media!
- Sign the petition to support the BC teachers – and ask your family, friends, and workmates to, too!
- Finally, consider making a donation to the legal fund to support the BC teachers. We already have one BC teacher going through a tribunal on a whistleblowing claim. We know the BC has teams of lawyers at their disposal, so we need to make sure we can defend ourselves, too.