A domestic worker from Sri Lanka was paid €112 a month, and was verbally and physically abused, according to a Dublin-based national support centre for migrant workers. Industry and Employment Correspondent Chris Dooley reports.
The case was one of a number of extreme cases of exploitation which continue to be dealt with by the Migrant Information Centre (MIC) nearly three months after a change in the law was promised to protect domestic workers.
In another case, a woman was sacked for logging her hours of work in a diary.
The change in the law was promised by the Minister of State for Justice and Law Reform, Mr Willie O'Dea, in February after the treatment of a Filipina domestic worker was highlighted by the MIC.
She worked as a nanny for between 80 and 100 hours a week for €190, instead of the 40-hour week for €260, as stipulated in her contract. She was also denied bonus payments.
Following the case, Mr O'Dea said the Employment Equality Act, which specifically excludes domestic workers, would be amended to include them.
A spokeswoman for the Minister said proposals to amend the Act would be submitted to the Government shortly.
Since the Filipina woman's case was highlighted, the MIC has carried out research into the experiences of migrant women employed in private homes.
Ms Siobhán O'Donoghue, co-ordinator of the centre, said it had documented cases where there was "substantial evidence of discrimination" on grounds covered by equality legislation.
The women concerned had been unable to pursue cases, however, because of their continued exclusion from the law as it currently stood. The MIC was, however, pursuing a case through the Labour Relations Commission on behalf of the Sri Lankan woman who was being paid €112 a month.
The woman, who was employed in a private home, had to sleep on the floor, had her passport withheld by her employer, and was told she would be arrested if she left the house, Ms O'Donoghue said.
The centre also understood she had been verbally and physically abused, and had been prevented from practising her religion. She was no longer working in the house, which was somewhere outside the Dublin area.
In another case, an employer found the diary of a domestic worker who had been keeping a record of her duties and hours worked. "He sacked her on the spot and told her to get out. And when somebody in that position is dismissed they find themselves homeless as well," said Ms O'Donoghue.
Nothing had yet changed, she said, as a result of the Filipina case highlighted in February.
The MIC, which is a national rights-based organisation, had written to Mr O'Dea about his promise to introduce changes to the Employment Equality Act, but he had not yet responded.
Ms O'Donoghue said the role played by migrant women in private homes was very important.
"There is an increasing reliance on these workers as they facilitate other women to engage in economic activity. These workers also support families in their home countries.
"This chain of labour activity has huge emotional and economic implications which is largely undocumented and unrecognised."