Abusive practice cheats workers, students and the state

October 18th: Trade union Unite, which organises English Language Teachers, held a protest today  to highlight the worrying levels of bogus self-employment in the English Language Teaching sector.

Explaining the background to today’s protest, Unite Regional Organiser Roy Hassey said:

“Among other abusive practices identified by Unite, bogus self-employment is a serious issue in the ELT sector.  Where a worker is falsely identified as self-employed, the employer does not have to pay any PRSI contributions or deduct PAYE.  The worker is responsible for their own taxes,  and is significantly disadvantaged in respect of sick pay, holiday pay, maternity/paternity pay, unemployment benefit and pension entitlements.

“They may also not be covered by employment protection legislation is relation to issues such as unfair dismissal.

“Bogus self-employment cheats English Language Teachers and students – and it is also cheats the state. The Irish Congress of Trade Union has estimated that bogus self-employment has cost the Irish state around €80 million per year, or a staggering €650 million since 2007.

“Our protest today was held outside the Dublin College of Advanced Studies – just one of the employers identified by Unite as engaging in this practice.  We hope that highlighting the issue of bogus self-employment will cause all schools to re-think their employment practices and treat English Language Teachers with the respect they deserve”, Mr Hassey said.