'Exploited teachers forced into work feeding frenzy' by British Council

The British Council has been accused of exploiting hundreds of agency teachers on zero-hour contracts, leaving them to compete for lessons in a “feeding frenzy” every week.

- Tom Wall

An open letter from teaching staff reveals the prestigious government-funded public body does not offer regular hours to tutors on its popular English Online platform, which provides lessons to more than 45,000 students worldwide.

Instead, up to 350 teachers in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and India have to race each other to book fluctuating numbers of classes released every week ~ a process referred to as “the feeding frenzy”.

“Often, all available classes are gone in minutes. This means that if you're teaching or having computer problems when hours are released, you can end up with no lessons at all,” states the letter, which has been coordinated by the Tefl Workers' Union. “This Uberfication of teaching needs to stop.”

Teachers used to be directly employed by the British Council, which is funded by the Foreign Office to foster good cultural relations with other countries. But after the pandemic, the council’s commercial arm, which generates £700m annually, started recruiting teachers via partner agencies.

It comes as the government pushes ahead with legislation to ban “exploitative” zero-hour contracts. Ministers announced this month that firms will have to offer agency workers a contract that guarantees a minimum number of hours every week to stop employers evading restrictions.

There are growing concerns about exploitative gig economy practices spreading into new sectors of the economy and professional jobs. Unions have warned that the modern types of casualisation pioneered by Uber and Deliveroo are creeping into high street shops and education, with even Oxford University now putting academics on gig-style contracts.