Teachers at EC London are demanding pay restoration to pre-pandemic levels, improved working conditions and union recognition. In a first for the industry, a letter demanding union recognition was given to EC management this morning and the teachers held a rally outside the school over their lunch break.
Teachers at EC London school of English in Islington have been organising with the TEFL Workers’ Union (IWW) for the past 18 months. Once union membership reached a critical mass, teachers took the historic step of seeking union recognition, meaning the company would need to negotiate with them directly on matters of pay and conditions.
According to one of the teachers,
“I love teaching and I love my students, but the industry just isn’t sustainable. We need stable contracts and proper wages – and that’s why we’ve formed the union. A better, brighter English teaching industry starts today.”
Following the delivery of the letter seeking recognition, the teachers held a rally outside the school. Union members from across London provided a banquet of food for the teachers as well as a congratulatory card signed by other EC unions from across the world.
Besides union recognition, the teachers have two key initial demands: the implementation of paid admin time and a restoration of the wages to pre-pandemic levels. Teachers argue that, when adjusted for inflation, pay has effectively been cut by 12% since the beginning of 2020. A qualified teacher with three years’ experience would expect to earn £27.06 per hour if pay had kept pace with inflation.
TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) is the only part of education where teachers don’t receive paid, dedicated admin time. Instead, teachers are only paid for time spent in the classroom and told their wage includes admin, prep and marking. As a start, staff are simply calling for 30 minutes of paid admin time per class, per week to compensate for the time spent on tasks outside of the classroom, with one teacher adding:
“Managers expect us to complete all of our admin tasks during class time, including online registers, weekly scores and tutorials with students. But there is never enough time to do this without leaving students sitting with nothing to do, and because we care about them we end up doing our admin after class. This is work and needs to be paid.”
The IWW’s lead organiser for the TEFL Workers’ Union, Tom Liebewitz, said:
“Too many teachers leave the industry when it comes time to buy a flat or start a family. That’s not fair for teachers or for students. By forming a union, the EC teachers are creating the foundation for an industry that respects and takes care of its employees.”
The workers have asked EC to begin negotiations with them in a week’s time but are prepared to take further action. The workers will ballot for strike action if union recognition and good-faith negotiations are not forthcoming.
Workers were upbeat about their chances for success, highlighting the strong mandate for action in their indicative strike ballot.
One of the teachers summed it up:
“We’re doing this for ourselves, for our workmates, for our students, and for the entire industry. We’re in this for the long haul.”