I signed a 6-week contract. One of the lead teachers said he didn’t need a contract as he was an ‘old hand’ and ‘had it on trust’ he’d have work through the summer.
But he didn’t. There were less students than anticipated; they’d hired too many teachers. After a phone call telling him he was ‘no longer needed’ a blazing argument between him and the course manager blew up in the corridor—with students tip-toeing awkwardly past.
‘You promised me WORK! I’ve given up SIX weeks to come home for this ********!’
There were tears.
***
Then everything settled down, until it was time to be paid. At break the course manager rushed in. She was agitated, and fed up, as she often was.
‘Oh God, not again’ she said, slamming both hands onto the table like a guillotine.
‘What’s the matter?’ asked a younger teacher.
‘I’ve just got off the phone. Bad news I’m afraid. It’s Brian at Head Office. He’s only gone and messed up the contracts. He’s done this before.’ She sighed.
Alarm bells started ringing. The course manager said the contracts we’d signed were wrong, that Brian at Head Office had sent out the wrong ones. Of course it was Brian ‘s fault—he’s such an idiot. If you can just bring in your contracts tomorrow we can sort all this out.
Bloody Brian …
Silly Brian …
Bad Brian …
***
‘Well what’s wrong with the old contracts then?’ I asked.
‘The pay’s wrong – the old fool. Well, what can you do? It’s an honest mistake.’ And with that she left the room.
‘See you tomorrow. And don’t forget the CON-TRACTS!’ she added, her voice trailing off as she disappeared into the shadows.
This contractual ‘mistake’ meant our pay would be reduced by about – as I remember – five pounds an hour. That’s five pounds an hour less FOR THE WHOLE CONTRACT PERIOD! That’s right. We went through the application process, signed contracts, and then the company wanted to rearrange the pay – and backdate it!
***
And do you know what happened? Can you guess? Despite a few groans and whispered conversations, ALL the other teachers handed in their contracts. That’s right. Voluntarily, they gave themselves a pay cut, and a pay cut on hours they’d already worked.
But I refused – despite comments like ‘well we really don’t know when you’ll be paid then’ – and went to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau. Not surprisingly they said the original contract was the valid one signed by all parties and those were the working conditions and pay that both parties signed up for. And this would stand up in court.
They were amazed at the cowboy behaviour of my employer – especially as they’d hired the premises and sporting facilities of the poshest school in the neighbourhood.
I refused to hand over my original contract. I got my full pay.
***
‘There’s cowboys in every industry’ you might say. But this company wasn’t a cowboy. It was a long-standing provider of summer school courses. Well-established, well-respected, and well-known; accredited by the British Council, and the rest.
Then perhaps this a sign that the issue is systemic? And if so, what should be done? Here’s one idea. The Society of Authors – an independent trade union in the UK representing writers – has a contract-checking service for their members. So why can’t like this happen in ELT? A contract-checking service that ensures, at the very least, that teachers know their rights – and that ELT organisations, big or small, don’t break the law.
The legal meaning of contract has a similar meaning to the verb. It defines the expansion of a relationship to include new phenomena, new restrictions and responsibilities—and arises from the switch from a medieval to a capitalist world, from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft, community to society; a society where we ‘contract’ as free, rational individuals pursuing our own self-interest, apparently.
Yet while ELT profits have ballooned, teachers’ conditions and pay have bottomed out. Perhaps it’s time for the ELT community to stand up to the ELT industry—and speak up for the people who do the work, wipe the whiteboards, and smile at the students day in, day out—working under contracts they have little freedom to change.
But what do you think? Let us know your experiences of contracts, and what you think should change.
Join the conversation.
Further Reading
How English Teachers in China Are Lied to and Exploited
Minister asked to improve conditions for English-language teachers – Union says bad conditions and zero-hour contracts ‘rife’ in private teaching sector
ELT Advocacy Ireland – Working to improve the working conditions and professional lives of English language teachers in Ireland through organisation and communication.
TEFL Guild – Know your Rights in Different Countries
October 31, 2017 7:16 pm
Very good post and very typical of a lot of people’s experience (including my own). I have a couple of thoughts about these scenarios.
1. The lead teacher in the first example who said he didn’t need a contract is wrong – he has been promised work (which while not ideal) is still a contract. He would have had previous contracts, I’m sure, and their would be a record of correspondence of some kind (like emails) which would be classified as some kind of agreement. There would also be other teachers working on comparable terms and conditions, who would have contracts. Far from perfect, and a terrible situation, but could be used in a tribunal – nobody is contractless. In a tribunal, a lack of written contract would typically favour the employee. Stupid of him not to insist on something written, mind. Advice to people on these same kind of contracts – always sum up in an email what you understand you have been offered. If the employer does not respond, then your email is the final record (and would favour you).
There is a small chance he could recover the lost pay (through a tribunal) if he could demonstrate that he had been promised six weeks work – if he is lucky and can get all his correspondence together, though this is risky, stressful and expensive. I have experienced this and is definitely not something I would like to go through again (I won, for the record).
Also, join a union and tell your colleagues to join a union. This kind of nonsense is easily countered if you are organised.
In the UK, there is something called continuous employment (https://www.gov.uk/continuous-employment-what-it-is) so his contract would have rolled over from previous ones, even if it is a new term/new students etc.
2. Brian is an idiot, but he is not the one offering the work – the buck stops with the managers. The CAB are correct and your colleagues can you thank you themselves when they receive the difference in pay that they are due at the end of the year (should you tell them about it).
3. Contract checking service: most (if not all) trade unions would do this for you as part of the monthly fee you pay. There is no TEFL contract expertise in the field … there needs to be.
4. You can change your contracts through collective bargaining. I wrote a post about this some time ago. https://teflguild.wordpress.com/2016/05/31/what-is-collective-bargaining/
I agree, we need a conversation about contracts. A long and honest one.
Blair
October 31, 2017 8:35 pm
Thanks for commenting Blair.
1. Good advice on trying to get written confirmation – just an email would be something I agree.
I can’t really remember what happened – but the person in question didn’t live in the UK, so trying to get back money owed would have been a nightmare.
2. It was a supreme buck-passing effort yes. And I got the feeling they’d done this before. Perhaps even every year…
3. Totally agree.
4. Collective bargaining is definitely something to aim for, yes.
October 31, 2017 9:10 pm
What prompted me to leave Israel was a hiring incident at a major regional college (then a branch of a large university) in walking distance from my home where I was offered and signed a contract to teach teenage Russian immigrants. I had struggled some six years to get a job teaching EFL in Israeli academe, and had applied several times to that College, with no response. Colleagues there knew me.
I happily signed the contract on Friday and spent Sunday preparing for courses. I had no other teaching anywhere. On Monday I was surprised to be told by the dean I had been ‘discontinued’, a ‘terrible mistake’ had been made, he said, the College had hired ‘one teacher too many’. And I was was the ‘one too many’.
I am sure this was a ‘political’ contract annulment — possible in Israel for colleagues in ELT and other disciplines, Jewish and other, who are known to ‘authorities’ to be connected with the civil rights movement for Palestinian Israeli citizens and are in effect ‘blacklisted’. The College most probably did a so-called ‘necessary security check’ with the Security Service (Sherut Bitachon).
I then proceeded to fight with the College administration for two months to get a bit of symbolic pay for the one day I had worked, and finally did get a few shekels. Several months later I applied to a major university in Bulgaria, was hired immediately and left Israel. Even academic contracts black-on-white in Israel can be torn up in an instant for clearly political reasons.
To what extent colleagues where you are may be ‘blacklisted’ for whatever reason is a question the profession remains hesitant to address.
October 31, 2017 9:45 pm
Hi Bill,
Thanks for sharing your story. That’s truly terrible. I remember hearing of the blacklisting of construction workers in the UK. It was denied for years – but it turns out it was true! (https://www.bwint.org/cms/sectors-in-action-55/building-construction-56/news-57/uk-construction-blacklisting-victory-sees-10-million-pay-out-to-256-workers-344)
I had no idea that they could do this with such impunity in Israel.
Paul
November 1, 2017 5:35 pm
Among Arab teachers in the Israeli Arab state school ‘sector’ (a segregated school system), such monitoring and possible blacklisting of teachers who have been ‘activists’ for civil rights issues is quite common. And those teachers (prospective teachers and their students) know this very well. ‘
Among Jewish teachers political repression of this kind is much less common. Bear in mind that among the huge number of NESs teaching EFL in Israel as immigrant citizens — often a ‘default’ career choice for many such immigrants, born and educated in the UK, US, Canada, South Africa, AU — very few are on the critical left.
The late Esther Lucas, an early pre-state immigrant from the UK to British-controlled Palestine — closely associated with UNESCO and a key figure over decades within Israeli TEFL (and in later life a key person inside IATEFL GISIG) — was an outstanding exception.
November 19, 2017 9:54 pm
For any readers in Spain, we recently published an interview with a union coordinator who said that their main work involves dealing with fraudulent contracts. The “work and service” contract he cites is very commonly used but precarious – and apparently illegal in many cases. http://www.slb.coop/know-your-rights-interview-with-heiko-puechel-ccoo/
Just to add that we’re now seeing more mercantile contracts, for which you have to be freelance. One shared recently on Facebook stipulated that the company was under no obligation to check whether the worker was authentically freelance, due to a clause in the new autónomo law relating to freelance earnings of less than the yearly minimum wage. A quick check of the new law showed it says no such thing. The person concerned was basically being invited to become a fraudulent freelancer, all for the princely sum of 15€ an hour.
In this case and many others, however, the company would also be liable for not meeting its responsibilities. As your post points out, there’s so much people can achieve if they just stand up for themselves.
November 20, 2017 7:45 pm
Hi Neil,
Thanks for your comment. I’m not surprised to hear your union coordinator say that fraudulent contracts are common. I’m sure it’s the case in many countries.
The problem is, that not only do teachers need to be informed of these practices – they need channels of action to take afterwards. Because without schools actually been taken to task on these things – which really means joining a union as a group – then this will continue, especially at the lower end of the market. All this kind of slow organising takes a lot of time, and many teachers aren’t in it for the long haul (which is also understandable), so there’s a lack of long-term commitment (which is encouraged by the industry). Not an easy set of problems…
And as well as having channels of action available – they have to act!
October 9, 2018 9:25 pm
I bet this sort of thing almost never happens, but the way you write about it, it’s the norm. I wonder if this school will employ you again? I certainly wouldn’t!
October 10, 2018 5:58 pm
I presume that’s not your real name is it Jacobus Singelweiss, as your email address as listed is jsingle@gmail.com.
Or did you spell your own surname wrong?