Victory against wage stealing language school!

After a short but intense campaign, Marta, a receptionist at the Speak Up London language school, has won a week’s unpaid wages and a glowing reference.

Submitted by Angry Language… on May 27, 2014

Marta was sacked without reason and without the required one week’s notice. She got in contact with Solidarity Federation who quickly organised over a dozen people to March into the bosses’ office with a letter demanding she be given a week’s pay in lieu of notice and a positive reference.

After Speak Up failed to respond to Marta’s letter, SolFed and other supportive individuals and organisations organised a massive blockade of the Speak Up Facebook page. Hundreds of post appeared within the 45 minutes. An hour and half into the action, Speak Up shut down their Facebook page entirely to all UK users.
The next day SolFed received an email from the bosses at Speak Up: they were paying up. It contained a copy of Marta’s final payslip alongside a copy of a positive reference letter.

Congratulations to Marta and thank you to everyone who supported the campaign!

To all workers in the language teaching industry: we don’t have to accept bullying bosses or bad conditions lying down. When we “speak up” the bosses will pay up.

Whether, like Marta, you have no contract or just a lousy contract, don’t be afraid to fight back. Talk to your workmates and think how you can collectively fight to improve your working conditions. And if you need help, don’t hesitate to contact SolFed.

Comments

Swell Map

9 years 9 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Swell Map on June 6, 2014

Another story of English language teachers winning against paycuts and zero-work contracts just this week in Dublin:

http://www.wsm.ie/c/english-language-teachers-standing-together-union

ocelot

9 years 9 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by ocelot on June 6, 2014

NB the firm involved in the Dublin fight, EF International, have schools all over the place, including UK and USA.

Caiman del Barrio

9 years 9 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Caiman del Barrio on June 7, 2014

That's great news about EF. They're fucking scummy bastards who pay poverty wages.

Worse news from Berlin: https://berlin.fau.org/news/svenska-deutsch-all-personal-pa-svenska-skolan-i-berlin-har-fatt-sparken-belegschaft-in-schwedischer-schule-gefeuert?set_language=en&cl=en

Angry Language…

9 years 9 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Angry Language… on June 26, 2014

So, aside from the racism (which is pretty f*cking unacceptable), there is a bit of an interesting write-up and research into Speak Up here:

http://tefltradesman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/speak-up-forced-to-pay-up.html

EDIT: Just had a re-read of this and I'm adding a TRIGGER WARNING for explicitly racist language in the comments in the above link.