Welcoming MEI instruction on bogus self-employment, union says all abuses must be challenged 

“ELT sector must be reputable as well as profitable”

November 9th: Unite, which represents English Language Teachers, today welcomed the decision by umbrella body Marketing English in Ireland to instruct member schools not to use bogus self-employment practices.  MEI’s letter to schools comes on foot of a campaign by Unite exposing bogus self-employment and other abuses in the thriving English Language Teaching sector.  Unite is now seeking to meet with MEI to develop a joint approach to raising employment standards and improving the sector’s reputation.

Commenting, Regional Organiser Roy Hassey said:

“Unite has been campaigning to expose bogus self-employment and other abuses in the ELT sector, and we are pleased that Marketing English in Ireland, by instructing member schools to ensure that teachers are regularly employed, is now supporting our campaign.

“However, MEI needs to go much further and challenge other abuses in the sector. These include failing to provide teachers with proper contacts or issuing zero/low hour contracts, and failure to pay teachers for all hours worked.

“Schools and teachers have a vested interest in ensuring that English Language Teaching in Ireland is reputable as well as profitable, and in that context Unite is seeking to meet with MEI to develop a joint approach to raising employment standards and improving the sector’s reputation.

“Such an initiative is particularly important given the revelations in Monday’s RTE Investigates programme which exposed the exploitation of foreign students by unscrupulous landlords, including Global academics which acts as an agent for many schools in the sector”, Roy Hassey concluded.