Freelance English teacher working rights

I recently went through an unfair dismissal case with a language school and in the process learnt some important things Freelance teachers need to know about – tell any freelancer teacher you know about this!

1. You cannot be sacked without warning!
2. You cannot be sacked for working at another company!
3. If you are financially dependant on a company for your pay in the eyes of the law you are the same as a contracted employee!
4. If the conditions of work for freelances are, use their materials, teach their method, teach when they say - to who they say, have no negotiation over pay rates and you must keep records of your work in their files, means again in the eyes of the law you are the same as a contracted employee!
5. You even have rights to holiday money!
6. All this is covered by the word Scheinselbstständigkeit – it means fake employees, companies hire you as a freelance but you work under contracted employment conditions, it saves the company thousands in social tax payments.

Keep note of this stuff – one day it may earn you thousands!

Here is where your bargaining power comes in. Companies found guilty of hiring freelancers who are really employees must pay back the last 48 months of social taxes, plus the employees insurances! That would be thousands! Plus the company would be under full investigation and as pretty much every freelancer at large language schools is really an employee they would be in big trouble.

Know your rights, these big schools try and push you around sometimes but you have a position of power, all the information you need is on the internet or go to a lawyer!

Good work Rockpig, now go have a beer and relax.

Really ? As a 'deemed employee' ?


And did you use your bargaining power ? Did they pay back?

I got a hefty compensation package from the company for firing me unfairly.

I presume the court decided that your status wasn't "freelancer" but an "employee."


Check any contract you have. As a freelancer you don't have much protection.


As a freelancer you can work where you want.


Yep, they've classed you as an employee and not a freelancer because you only worked for this one school.


Not, if you're classed a "freelancer".


It often useful for both sides. Not all freelance teachers want to pay for unemployment insurance, make contributions to the German pension scheme or pay for full health insurance etc.

Normally an employer and employee both pay 50% contribution to health insurance, pension etc. Did you have to pay these backdated too?

Well done on sticking up for yourself and enjoy the money.

My case didn't go to court because my lawyer clearly pointed out to my ex employer what they had to lose.

Freelancers are legally entitled to holiday money but if you asked for it the company would probably phase you out!

Anyone who works for just 1 language school and that is their primary job can expect to be treated as an employee in the eyes of the law.

Having a contract has it's downfalls as mentioned, you pay lots more taxes, pension and social insurance and have german health care - which is really expensive, expat healthcare is just as good, you are treated as a private patient yet pay less than half the price!

It is a great feeling to get one back over a multinational!

I can't figure out this point. For example, I'm self employed. If I asked my clients/companies, where I work, for holiday pay they'd roll up on the floor laughing. You agree a price with your customer and sign a contract and that's it. I thought the same went for freelance teachers.

Backdating of your contributions?


It's a lot cheaper because you not paying for when you're older, right. It's only valid for 2 years?

The point is that these language schools hire "freelancers" but they are not freelancers at all.. if you work for the same company for a long time, the government will see you as a full time employee and your employer should start paying all the social insurances they should have been paying and they should give you holidays etc..

These language companies are just trying to get out of it all lightly.. I've heard of language "freelancers" getting 12 euros an hour! No freelancer should work for that amount, that is a joke. You can't pay pension, take holidays, pay medical insurance all on your own for 12 euros an hour.

Yeah, yeah, i get your point. But if you are a "real freelancer". For example, you work for 2 or 3 different companies, you wouldn't get holiday pay etc...

What IS standard freelance pay? 20 per hour? 25? 30?

Hey Vicar - being self employed and being a frelance teacher is a completely different thing, you set the contract yourself not the company you work for. And expat health insurance can be renewed indefinately, at least my AXA one can.

As for pay, most freelance teachers will get between 11 and 15 euros per unit, ie 45 minutes. When you compare it to the options of working in a bar/restuarant or call centre it is actually alot. When you think that within 6 months you don't even do any lesson prep anymore because you know the books inside out, it really is money for jam! Any when you realise that if you get someone to help you do your tax you'll pay less than 10% your laughing all the way to the bank!

Where I worked our freelance teachers averaged 100 to 150 units a month, for life in Berlin, we were cruising.

€11 - €15 an hour (I bet you have to be there 5 minutes in advance and probably spend 5 minutes after the lesson clearing out) is appallingly low pay as a freelancer. If you're preparing for lessons (even if "only" for 6 months), it becomes even worse.

You can get double that amount for contract work that requires little or no experience - just a degree of common sense.

Do you know how much your agency charges the client per unit? If they are taking any more than 10-15% of what you earn, you are getting ripped off. Remember, it is you actually doing the work...

But you can negotiate the conditions of the contract. They may dictate the conditions but you should still be as a " freelancer" be able to negotiate the conditions on each job they give you. As a "real freelancer" you should be working with 2/3 schools/clients anyway. You can work most of your hours at the school/client which suits you best.

But it only covers you for the time that you're in Germany. You're not paying for the young lady to come and clean your bottom every Tuesday when you're 76, for example.

150 units a month at €15 a unit gives you a gross income of €27000 a year, which is an average salary at best to begin with.

Deduct the amount you don't get paid for holidays (€3375 for the standard German 6 weeks), then you have to pay your own health insurance in full and look after your own pension. I take it you don't get paid if you're sick either.

After that, you've got a pittence - and if you earn under €15 an hour, it's even worse. I'd certainly never call it "money for jam"

I'd be interested to know what the agency charge the client per hour of teaching. I bet it's several times what you earn. That's exploitation...

150 units is teaching around 19 classes a week. That's an insane amount of work if you have to travel to the classes. If it's in a school and the students come to you, with one class after another, it's not so bad. Judging from the nature of Rockpig's first post, I'd say he's probably talking about teaching on location of a school.

Fortunately 11-15 Euros an hour is not the standard everywhere; especially for anyone with experience. However, I would say teaching English is still not a get-rich-quick or even necessarily a get-by scheme.

In Berlin you do get screwed on the pay. Munich and Nuremberg are the places to be. But here you really have to be good to compete. If you can show you're worth the money, freelancers average between 20-30 per hour. Not all companies are on the 45-min deal here. But sometimes you end up with companies paying upward of €45 per hour.

On the other hand, if your skills are limited to a method-type school, so is your pay. Inlingua gives freelancers here €16, Berlitz €12, and Wallstreet 10-11.

Wow you are all a bit hung up on the pay thing heh. If I wanted to be rich I'd be doing something else, not teaching English for goodness sake. And yeah there are people who organise themselves contact companies, set up courses and plan out lessons and get €45 an hour. But they never talk about how many hours it took them to prepare everything and find the jobs in the first place and the hours they did study Language at a course etc etc. And yeah sometimes you work your ass off, I've done weeks with 50 units, it's madness, you live on coffee and burst into spontaneous fits of laughter over nothing as you go slowly crazy. But c'mon if you take home over €1500 in the hand a month in Berlin, your laughing! I didn't come here for a career I came here to enjoy a life that's more fun than back home! For that you can't put a price on!!

Amen

Does anyone knnow anything about Freelance rights on terminating a contract? and even what can legally be written into a contract. I signed a contract as a freelancer for a language school, and have worked for them under increasingly stressful conditions. I informed them in writing that I was not going to be available to work for them any more, effectivly giving 2 working days notice. Now they are threatening to sue me for damages for not giving enough notice. Apparently according to the Freelance contract i signed i am susposed to give 8 weeks notice. Is this legal what rights do I have?? I thought freelancers didn't have to give notice? HELP should i get a lawyer? does Germany have the equivalent of an employee protection agency or an advice line?

I presume you signed the contract. If so, my suggestion is to talk to the school and try to find a solution where both parties are happy. Maybe if you honour some courses they'll let you go earlier. To be honest I can understand the school's position. Giving them 2 days notice you've probably left them without a teacher to do the work. You only have to honour existing courses. For any new courses they give you, as a freelancer, you can turn them down.

Good luck

Misty,

I see you're in Sachsen-Anhalt. Tell me you're not dealing with Inlingua!

I think that area has the absolute worst crooks in the entire ESL industry.

Hehe No i was not working for Inlingua!! And i didnt have a timetable for the following week so all classes that i had i taught. (we never get timetables till sometime on the weekend before the working week) Funnily enough though they have tried to give me a timetable for this coming week... which i said i couldn't do... crazy!!

It's a little late to be replying here I know.

I forget what I was offered per 45min class by Berlitz in Leipzig, but I am working for WallStreet Institute in Cologne, now and they started me on 13,8 for the first year, with a 20 hour a week minimum. When you teach companies, you get more per teaching hour (60min) because of the travel time, but oyu don't actually get paid for the extra time, if that makes any sense.

If you're qualified and want a job, you can find one easy enough. The tricky part is getting the permission!

If you're one of the lucky who have a working permit but no job, IM me and maybe I can help.

I'm one of those able to work, qualified teachers, without a job. From what I've read here, I'm not entirely convinced TEFL is the way to go.

Can any one persuade me otherwise?

TEFL will give you flexibility and the freedom to decide what work you do. It won't let you earn a lot of money. What teaching qualification do you have?

You get to shag a lot of women.

What if I want to shag men instead?

Now being slightly more on topic, I have a CELTA.

Interesting thread... fight for the rights of the freelancer!

Come on guys, it is not that bad you just need to find a school that is fair. It would be interesting to see what people with schools would say to this (smile)

Have fun

I run a Stammtisch for freelance language teachers (mostly for English) in Düsseldorf. Most of the people I know.. no.. ALL of the people I know wouldn't even THINK about accepting EUR 15 for 45 minutes.

Teachers with experience and who take their job seriously - including preparation for example - would want at least.. well.. the very minimum would be EUR 20 per 45 minutes. But many want more than that. I have just accepted 120 lessons at EUR 25 per 45 minutes and a lot of my freelance colleagues would consider that as low. I know of one school that is offering EUR 30 for 45 minutes for the first 80 lessons of 45 minutes, rising to EUR 35 later.

And before I turned to translation, I did 22 classes a week - only two were 60 minutes long, the rest were 90 minutes long. And I did Open University science courses and later MA courses at the same time.

You just have to be organised.