Leytonstone yoga teacher speaks out on industry exploitation

Jessica Green, 43, has been a teacher for about six years, having taken her first ever class at Leytonstone Leisure Centre nearly 20 years ago.

The lack of regulation means she may earn as little as £5 for a class or work for three hours but be paid for only one, sometimes barely making minimum wage.

Teachers across the UK have set up one of the first ever unions for the industry, which is worth £60 billion globally, in an effort to win a liveable wage and basic rights like sick pay.

Jessica teaching a class at Leystone Library in February last year (Lisa Mooney)

Ms Green told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I’m very vulnerable. If I’m sick or if I have a cancellation, I don’t get paid. This is why I was so interested in the union.

“When I was teaching in studios, if only one person made the class, I would make £5. If you’re working with a big organisation, there’s no reason why you should not have some security.

“If a studio has a certain number of memberships then its teachers should benefit from that because we are the ones doing that work.”

She predicts new regulations to protect teachers would also benefit smaller studios, which “rarely make a profit”, by holding large companies accountable for "hogging the market”.

The Yoga Teachers’ Union is a new branch of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain, which organises gig economy workers, who often work zero-hour contracts.

The union represents employees of companies including Uber and Deliveroo and last year won a court battle to ensure their health and safety is protected like any other worker.

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The union hopes to win teachers the right to sick pay and annual leave and tackle what members describe as an unchecked culture of “bullying, harrassment and discrimination”.

Jessica agreed that the yoga industry she had witnessed shut out many types of people, adding: “You have to be a certain way, have a certain amount of money or look a certain way.”

She is keen to make her lessons accessible, including “chair yoga” for those who are elderly or less mobile and teaching at street parties and community groups.

Union secretary Simran Uppal said: “The global yoga industry is worth around £60 billion and much of that wealth is being extracted from underpaid, exploited yoga teachers.

“We’re not monks protected by an ashram or a wealthy elite of wellness celebrities. We have to survive just like the other precarious workers in the IWGB and around the world.”

A survey of members conducted by the union found only four per cent of yoga teachers have employee status and basic protection, while less than a fifth even have a written contract.

This lack of formal employment has left many even more vulnerable to poverty due to the Covid-19 pandemic, making them ineligible for furlough or the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.

More information about the IWGB and how to join is available here.

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