Your Rights in Ireland

Five important questions are addressed below followed by four simple suggestions on how to secure and expand access to and knowledge about your employment rights while working as an English Language Teacher in Ireland.

Questions

1. Do I really have RIGHT TO UNION MEMBERSHIP in Ireland? (Can it be secret?)

The Irish Constitution secures workers’ rights to organise and be part of associations and unions. Article 40.6.1.3 secures these rights and reflects the International Labour Organisation conventions. Please join a union and use the resources there learn about and grow your rights through organizing the Irish ELT sector. Memberships can be held privately without the knowledge of your employer. Union membership is most affective when it is normalised so try not to be too secretive about it for too long but that is up to you.

2. What about my NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKING TEACHER friends?

Discrimination against qualified Non-native English Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) has been reported consistently in Ireland from lower quality schools but equal opportunities, pay and terms are guaranteed for EU citizens and those with EU treaty rights under Stamp 4. Transparency of pay is an issue in Ireland. There are reports of native speakers being paid more than non-natives. This is illegal and with the help of your colleagues and your union you can sort these issues out without resorting to courts. Non union members may wish to contact the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and ELT Advocacy Ireland for initial confidential advice.

3. What’s TYPICAL ELT PAY in Ireland?

The minimum wage is currently €9.25 for ‘experienced adult workers’. The Living Wage, working over 30 hours per week is €11.45. The typical rate of pay for contact hours appears to be 19/hr in Dublin according to an ongoing survey by Photocopy This (see below). The same survey reveals that initial rates of pay in Dublin ELTOs varies wild from 13 to 24 euros per contact hour as an initial rate of pay for inexperienced teachers.

There can be no sectoral employment agreement until significant ELT workers take advantage of their constitutional right to union membership as English Language Teachers. Once significant members are represented by unions, those unions can represent a have the Workplace Relations Commission finally establish a standard. At this point, really is up to teachers together to professionalize the sector through union membership.

4. What is a TYPICAL ELT CONTRACT like in Ireland?

You have a right to contract even for once-off substitute work. Do not work without a contract. Most schools will require a primary degree in any subject and a 120-hour ELT training course eg the CELT, the CELTA or the TESOL Certificate all available in the Republic of Ireland.

ELT workers are typically contracted for 15 or 20 hour per week. Contact hours with students are typically paid and all other services for the school organization may or not be covered in a token way (‘included in the rate of pay’; ‘administration rates for x number of hours per week’; etc…). This means English Language Teachers will deal with some form of coercion to work extra hours in preparation, grading and administration.

You should not be registered as ‘self-employed’ with a language school. This is termed ‘bogus self-employment’ by unions because a truly self-employed contractor would be able to subcontract their work. Bogus self-employment also leaves you vulnerable when employment conditions change as your employment will not count towards your Jobseeker’s if/when you become unemployed.

Zero-hour or low-hour contracts are frowned upon by most political parties and all unions as a sign of a predatory employer. If you are offered or forced to accept an initial zero-hour contract, report it to your union, ELT Advocacy Ireland and your local political representative.

5. What are my SICK PAY, MATERNITY/PATERNITY, SICK DAY and HOLIDAY ENTITLEMENTS?

There is extensive evidence of employers underpaying employees’ holiday entitlements. For example, most teachers have taught more than their contract hours, even before looking at preparation hours.

Despite holidays being awarded at 8% of ‘time worked’, many schools will attempt to award holiday pay and time on the hours agreed in the contract signed with the employee. This is against regulations. ELT workers are frequently treated as freelancers regarding benefits because they have never organised the sector. That is why sick pay is nearly unheard of and health, dental or pension plans are difficult to find. Most employers will deal fairly with Maternity and now Paternity Benefits but the author knows of cases where maternity was used as a way to push a teacher off the timetable. Real benefits are something we can and must organise to secure. So…

Suggestions

1. Join a Union

Nothing would help improve the security of ELT workers pay, contracts and conditions than the normalization of union membership across the Irish ELT industry. Encourage new teachers to join a union. It is your right. It can be done in complete privacy. Contact ELT Advocacy Ireland for more information. Though all of the unions below are open to ELT workers in Ireland. Unite has been most active and supportive in organizing a long-term solution for all the workers in the industry.

But the work of trade unions is more than collective bargaining across the sector so that these benefits can be discussed and won. Your union allows a safe space for you to discuss your workplace and its specific policies in the presence of an informed trained union representative or union organiser. Information services like NERA and Citizens’ Information are very useful starting points. It is your right to form organisations and associations. These associations can bring positive change. So join or form an association as well as a union.

There are many card-carrying private members of unions in ELT staff rooms but for union membership to be more than a source of advice and ‘insurance,’ your staff room should have a union rep and group of union members who are aware of each other and meet face to face with their elected representative to discuss issues and ideas.

UNITE

In early 2017 Unite approved English Language Teachers’ proposal to for a dedicated ELT Branch in the Ireland Region. On 16 March 2017 elections were held for the Unite Ireland ELT Branch. This election and branch is a unique accomplishment in  Ireland, and perhaps the EU. Unite has been consistent in providing support, leadership and advice to English Language Teachers in Dublin who are extremely dedicated to their work, their students, their profession and their schools.

English Language Teachers’ first started joining Unite in 2014 during the College Closure Crisis and have provided support to students and teachers involved. The TEFL Guild contributors for this page are proud members of Unite and recommend Unite for all English Language Teachers. Contact Roy Hassey for a copy of the Unite’s 2017 publication ‘A 10 Point Charter for English Language Teachers’ which explains Unite’s ELT membership objectives for change.

Join Unite here.

Independent Workers Union

IWU is a independent volunteer-staffed union representing disenfranchised workers, including English language teachers. IWU successfully defended low-paid teachers at EF Dublin against an unnecessary pay cut in the summer of 2014. Read the story here or in the Irish Times here. IWU wrote a letter of welcome in 2014 to all English Language Teachers in Ireland and continues to represent and organize English Language Teachers

IWU prefers you sign up in person. Contact the union directly on 021 4277151 in Cork or in Dublin ring on 018559716 and visit at their office at 61 North Strand Road in Dublin 3.

SIPTU

The most well-known union in Ireland has over 200,000 members from almost every sector of the Irish economy. Emerald has had representation from SIPTU and there are individual members from different schools across the country who SIPTU has represented in times of crisis for example during the College Closure Crisis of 2014-2015. English language teachers and administration staff have collective representation by SIPTU as workers at Dublin City University Language Services, an ACELS-approved MEI member school and DCU campus company. Their success there demonstrate they may be the best choice for English Language Teachers in similar organisations where state funding is applied, eg ETBs, ITs and university-based and state school-based ELT and EAP programmes.

Join SIPTU here.

2. Join Irish ELT Organisations

ELT Advocacy Ireland

ELT Advocacy is a volunteer association of union and non-union teachers who advocate for the improvement of ELT careers in terms of more solid contracts and better pay. ELT Advocacy holds Open Meetings for all working teachers to learn about their rights, about how to support each other. These meetings are safe occasions to discuss how to improve terms and conditions. The volunteer Organizers’ Committee communicates with unions, government officials, owners, other ELT organisations and primarily the working ELT community in Ireland. The goals include improving knowledge about ELT as a sector in the wider society and improving terms and conditions for working teachers. ELT Advocacy asks all its members to engage in professional development and be active in their union.

Contact eltadvocacy@gmail.com

Follow @eltadvocacy

ELT Ireland

ELT Ireland is an all-island ELT membership run by a Lou McLaughlin through her volunteer committee. It became an Irish associate member organisation of the UK-based IATEFL in 2014. Its mission is encourage and facilitate English Language Teachers in Ireland continuing and developing towards the ELT career goals of management and materials writing. It holds annual conferences attracting speakers from the UK ELT sector and IATEFL’s SIG groups. It organizes smaller events around the country. The committee produces the ELT Ireland Bulletin, unique since the demise of the FELT Bulletin in 2002. They also maintain a website with a useful jobs board.

Their focus on management by hosting Management Meetup how deeply resigned its committee are the business owners’ conception of an ELTO as an enterprise with teachers as lower level employees rather than as the centre. Lamentably, the committee cemented this position by handing the entire group a position of ‘neutrality’ or silence on terms and conditions of teachers in 2015.

Presumably to avoid the fate of FELT (199-2002) FELT Ireland focuses on maintaining  healthy organisational revenue and meeting its management-level members’ needs for status in the wider ELT world. But ELT Ireland also provides limited opportunities for its full-time working teachers as well. Teachers are free to meet and discuss issues unofficially away from the podium. These are welcome opportunities for working teachers meet face-to-face and recognise the common experiences of working in ELT, beyond the lessons and the students, and reflect how issues like precarity shapes the Lives of Teachers in Irish ELT.

Contact info@elt-ireland.com

Web http://www.elt-ireland.com/

Twitter @eltireland

Photocopy This

PT is a group of English language teachers who have written ideas, advice and experiences from their lives in Dublin’s private ELT sector. There is no online venue but paper copies of may be found in staff rooms. Every page of PT suggests you participate in the project by photocopying the paper, passing it on and/or writing an article to submit at the following address. They also maintain an ELT Pay Share where rates of pay and types of contracts at Dublin’s 60+ schools can be shared and compared.

Contact photocopythis@gmail.com

Third Level Workplace Watch

Though primarily concerned with education workers in Ireland’s growing third-level sector, 3LWW’s volunteer association of teachers, lecturers, researchers and education workers have a stake and often a background in ELT. Core members have co-ordinated meetings, research, communications, and demonstrations. 3LWW advocates strongly for gender equality and an end to the use of ‘zero-hour’ contracts by universities and colleges, a goal which all language teachers can share with them. 3LWW has been supportive of English language teachers particularly those in university settings. Many bright ELT people are pegging their hopes on a career in universities. When and if you get some lecturing work stay in touch and work with 3LWW.

Contact thirdlevelworkplacewatch@gmail.com

Explore https://3lww.wordpress.com/

Twitter @3rdLWW

3. Get familiar with government and semi-state information sources

Citizens’ Information

Impartial Ireland’s best source of rights information for individuals  http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/

NERA –the National Employment Rights Authority

According to NERA, contracts must be accompanied by Terms of Employment where you should find any information about sick pay.  See their Guide to Employment Rights.