ELICOS Articles Library

Getting Organised!

V9N5 - October 2019

 

The IEU has employed an organiser part-time to help us visit English Language Colleges, recruit new members and create networks to build our capacity to improve wages and entitlements in ELICOS.

Sadia Schneider is our great IEU rep at Kaplan English and knows what it is like for ELICOS teachers – the good, the bad and the ugly. Sadia is keen to help members improve the industry and win more respect and better conditions for teachers. If you work in ELICOS or have contacts who teach English to overseas students in colleges – Sadia is keen to hear from you – 03 9254 1860.

The IEU has put together an advice sheet for ELICOS teachers covering issues that we’re often asked about. Pay, classification, advancement up the pay scale, rights for casual and sessional teachers, conversion to ongoing, contracts of employment and Superannuation.  We’ve also made a flyer – ‘6 reasons to join the IEU’ to encourage non-members to join. Contact us if you have any questions and/or would like hard copies for you and your colleagues.

We’re only at the beginning, and we need your help!

We want to know what issues matter to you and how we can help fight for an ELICOS industry based on fair pay, conditions and respect.

So far this year we’ve organised two successful ELICOS IEU events with 50+ people and we are planning another for October. We’ve secured one Enterprise Agreement with improvements in pay and conditions and are bargaining at two other schools. We’ve spoken to teachers about the IEU at café meetings at another three schools with more to come. We’re also helping individual members follow up entitlements and pay. We want to do more and we welcome your suggestions – please get in touch!

ELICOS Teachers Fired Up

V9N4 - August 2019

 

A large group of ELICOS (English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students) teachers from 13 different English Language Colleges joined reps at Victorian Council on 10 August.

Teachers gave up their Saturday morning to come together to learn about key rights and entitlements and to workshop plans to transform the ELICOS sector into one where they are respected, paid decent rates and organised to negotiate Enterprise Bargaining Agreements.

It was shocking to learn about some of the issues ELICOS teachers face, including wage theft, underpayment of superannuation, insecure casual work, sham contracting, unpaid additional work, sexual harassment claims brushed under the carpet, and incorrect classifications based on a refusal  to recognise prior service.

We were inspired by the determination of those present to create change in their workplaces and across the sector. Attendees committed to following through on  actions including:

  • Talking one-on-one with other teachers about their issues & asking others to join the IEU

  • Creating and sharing information and resources on ELICOS issues

  • Setting up meetings of potential members & inviting ELICOS reps or the IEU Organiser

  • Joining and being active on the new ‘Organise ELICOS’ Facebook page

  • Organising ELICOS industry  wide events.

Contact the IEU office if you work in the ELICOS sector or would like more information!

ELICOS Teachers Doing
The Hard Yards

V9N3 - July 2019

 

Every year about 1.3 million people travel to an English-speaking country to learn English and the global industry is worth over 12 billion dollars. Australia is ranked third as a destination, with its share of the market estimated at 15%. Victoria has a 32% share of Australia’s international student enrolments. For those English language teachers working in the sector however, the industry is a tough one.

There are very few Agreements providing protection, due mainly to very high rates of insecure employment and high staff turnover. Wage rates are well below those of teachers working in the mainstream education setting. Union membership is predictably low in the vast majority of English Language Colleges (ELICOS).

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Sixty ELICOS teachers turned out last month on a Friday night to an IEU get-together initiated and mostly organised by our IEU reps at Kaplan, Impact and EC English, three ELICOS colleges. The meeting included more than twenty non-members – many of whom have now joined the IEU.

There were presentations from the IEU reps and IEU staff around key issues in ELICOS colleges, and strategies for organising to tackle them. The personal stories about reps and teachers taking a stand in their workplace were inspiring and demonstrated that even in this difficult sector, success is achievable.

At EC English, Kaplan and Impact IEU members have won wage rises ranging between 5 and 20% above the Award, as well as increased job security, consultation, extra leave entitlements and a range of other benefits. Teachers can apply to convert to ongoing secure jobs after 12 months service. Importantly, the union has provided a platform in bargaining where teachers can be heard and respected at work on issues ranging from workload issues, professional development, to ensuring clean toilets for staff use.

The IEU has also been successful in having a clause inserted into the ELICOS Award (Post-secondary Education Award) that allows casual teachers to request conversion to ongoing employment after 12 months. The request can only be rejected on reasonable grounds where the position is genuinely casual. This development should assist ELICOS teachers to achieve better job security and allow the IEU more capacity to organise and negotiate Collective Agreements in the sector.

Our next steps are setting up meetings college by college with teachers, electing IEU reps, identifying issues and building support. Another ELICOS get together is planned for Saturday 10 August at South Melbourne coinciding with Council.

Significant Vote At Kaplan

V9N1 - March 2019

 

At Kaplan International English, where we have been in negotiations for the last 6 months, IEU delegates will be recommending that teachers vote up the latest version of our Enterprise Agreement.

This will be our first ever EA and the second among dozens of English language colleges across the state. We have got to this point by building up a unionisation rate of close to 90% (we started with zero!), setting our sights high, maintaining our unity throughout and holding our ground.

Once passed, the Agreement will enshrine significant improvements in our wages and conditions that will put us ahead of most private English language schools across the state, which are all on the industry Award. Key wins include a 12% pay rise over the next two years, casual conversion to ongoing employment after 12 months, a consultative committee, part-time work provisions and a $2,700 bonus as the wage increase for the bargaining period. Importantly, for an industry with virtually zero union density and where most teachers have never been in a union, we have secured important union rights such as paid leave for delegate training and union inductions with a delegate for all new staff.

We hope our victory inspires other schools to organise... This is in an industry that is highly casualised, precarious and underpaid, and, like many others, is claimed to be unorganisable on those grounds. This victory is set against the background of a company claiming to be in financial strife during an apparent dip in the industry overall. Organising from scratch is never easy, but we feel that our example proves that it can be done and it is worth it. This might be the end of negotiations, but IEU members at Kaplan see this as the beginning of a longer journey towards creating the kind of workplace where the union makes us strong, where we are heard and where solidarity can provide the basis for our collective improvement. We hope our victory inspires other schools to organise and we look forward to reaching out and working with more teachers who want to make a change.

The IEU will host an information session during April open to all ELICOS Teachers with our IEU Reps from Kaplan, Impact and Embassy English. If you’re an ELICOS teacher, get in touch with us at the IEU office!

KAPLAN Collaboration

V8N2 - May 2018

 

Following a refusal to commence negotiations on an EBA by their employer, IEU members at Kaplan International English School Melbourne have begun the process of putting together a petition in support of an application by the Union for a Majority Support Determination at the Fair Work Commission.

Where it can be demonstrated that a valid majority of employees to be covered by a proposed EBA support the negotiation of an EBA with their employer, the FWC can make an order compelling the employer to negotiate.

Kaplan International School Melbourne is part of a global network of private education providers operating in what has become a highly lucrative market catering for international students in Australia. Students are drawn from all around the world to Kaplan but currently there are large groups from Central and South America, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Japan.

English Language teachers at Kaplan are seeking an EBA because their wages and conditions currently sit well below those negotiated at other English language colleges in Melbourne. This is despite the fact that Kaplan teachers are very well qualified with many holding honours degrees and postgraduate certificates in TESOL as well as Masters’ level qualifications.

The IEU has a strong sub-branch at Kaplan with rep Sadia Schneider recruiting many staff to the Union. Sadia works closely with assistant reps Claire Zimmerman and Andrew Zincke.

IEU members at Kaplan say that, while in many ways Kaplan is a great place to work, sometimes the rhetoric doesn’t match the reality.

They say that considering ‘Kaplan prides itself on being the best in the world, they should pay their teachers accordingly.’

Assistant rep Andrew Zincke says that the staff at the school have created ‘a fantastic supportive environment’ for themselves and Kaplan students. He joined the IEU because he ‘has seen how unions can benefit professional educators.’

Claire said that the IEU sub-branch has really grown at Kaplan. ‘I took on the position of assistant union rep because I’m passionate about it,’ she said. ‘I think that the whole sector should be organised. Companies should support their staff being protected and fairly compensated.’

Sadia Schneider said that she took on the role of rep because she thinks ‘organising workplaces is vital to pushing back against the assault on living standards by both corporations and consecutive governments over the last few decades.’ She is also an active socialist who says unionism is something she is passionate about.

IEU members are hoping that negotiations on an EBA are positive and constructive. They say that there are benefits of working in the industry but that, in relation to wages and conditions, better regulation is required. For this reason, IEU members at Kaplan strongly support the ACTU ‘Change the Rules’ campaign.

The IEU has supported members seeking majority support determinations at a number of workplaces over the past few years and then successfully negotiated EBAs which have delivered significant improvements to wages and conditions.