A BILLIONAIRE-owned global education provider is making all 82 of its British-based online teachers redundant, their union reported today.

EF Education First, which provides language courses, told staff last month that their jobs would be moved abroad where pay is as low as £3.75 an hour, the TEFL Workers Union said.

The company, which is owned by Swedish multibillionaire Bertil Hult, has been accused of refusing to negotiate payments higher than the legal minimum.

TEFL Workers Union lead organiser Tom Liebewitz said: “He has the money to do right by his staff, but corporate greed is ruining the livelihoods of dedicated, hardworking teachers.”

EF is reportedly refusing to count time worked at other firms within the brand towards its redundancy packages.

The union said that at least 15 per cent of the workforce had worked at other EF entities before transferring to the British online centre.

“Despite being a multibillion-dollar company, EF already employs these teachers on zero-hours contracts,” said Mr Liebewitz.

“The fact the company won’t even recognise their full contribution to that success is just cruel.

“It’s no wonder the company is routinely referred to as Exploitation First.”

EF is reassigning the teachers’ students to six other online teaching centres around the world, according to the union.

These include one in South Africa where it is advertising for pay at “up to” R87 an hour, about £3.75.

An EF online teacher, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: “No-one gets rich teaching English.

“But it’s work we love and we know our service is appreciated by students.

“EF’s sudden job cuts leave dedicated teachers facing unemployment in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

“Loyalty means nothing when profit’s on the table.”

EF Teach Online said in a statement: “As we continue to evolve EF Teach Online for the benefit of our students, over recent weeks we have been undertaking a formal consultation process that will affect some UK-based online teachers. This step was taken after careful evaluation of all alternatives.

“No final decisions have been made as the process has not yet concluded. We will work with potentially affected teachers to minimise the impact and are already proactively working to identify alternate roles within our organisation and affiliated entities. We hope a number of jobs can be saved in this way.

“Throughout this process, we have endeavoured to be transparent and fair. We have engaged with the many constructive suggestions that have been made including around the redundancy process, timeline and financial terms. We are fully aware of the impact it may have on potentially impacted employees, and we are doing what we can to support them.”