Migrant domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, with some ending up trapped in their employers' home, working very long hours for a pittance, writes JAMIE SMYTH, Social Affairs Correspondent
BARBARA (not her real name) thought she had struck gold when she was offered a job in Ireland.
The position, as a part-time childminder and domestic worker in the home of a diplomat working at her country’s embassy in Dublin, sounded like the type of job that could secure her family’s financial future and lead to better things.
But within weeks of arriving, her dream turned into a nightmare. She was working for the equivalent of 26 cent per hour and when she objected, she was told she would be put in jail.
“I was promised part-time work, but was forced to work from 6am to 9pm. I worked six-and-a-half days a week and was paid €100 per month. I had no money to send back to my husband and three young children in my home country, where life is tough,” says Barbara, who cannot reveal her identity or that of the employer because of an ongoing legal case.
“When I arrived, I had to share a room with my employer’s children. I was not permitted to use any hot water to bathe myself. I had to wash the household clothes by hand and was forbidden to use a Hoover to clean the carpets to cut down on electricity costs,” says Barbara, who speaks with broken English and a voice that shakes from her ordeal of several months.
She was never given a written contract and her employer held her passport. When she asked for a written contract and her papers, she was told if she asked for them again she would be sent home.
“I was desperate and very alone,” says Barbara, who had no friends or family to turn to.
“It was only when I became friends with someone while shopping at a supermarket that I was finally able to leave the home of my boss. Since then, my employer has sent me text messages harassing me. He still has my passport,” says Barbara, who is being supported in her legal action by the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI), an NGO supporting the rights of migrant workers.
Barbara’s experience of exploitation while working here is not unique. An MRCI survey published today as part of a campaign to change the law to improve the conditions of domestic workers shows 60 per cent of those questioned have experienced some form of exploitation.
Two out of five of the 50 domestic workers who responded to the survey work longer than 48 hours a week and one in five works more than five days a week. In severe cases, workers are paid between €2 and €5 per hour, well below the legal minimum wage, which is set at €8.65 per hour.
“Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation because many of them are migrants who don’t know the country or their rights, most are women and they often live in the home of their employers,” says Aoife Smith, coordinator of the Domestic Workers Action Group (DWAG), a division within the MRCI.
“There is often a language barrier, which leaves workers unable to speak out against exploitation. Even if they speak English, there is often a fear they will be thrown out of their home if they challenge their employer,” Smith says.
The MRCI is pursuing 24 cases of suspected exploitation and has already had considerable success in cases on behalf of migrant domestic workers.
Irish laws protecting domestic workers offer them broadly the same rights as all other workers. For example, they are entitled to the minimum wage, a written contract stating terms of employment and a higher rate of pay if they work on Sundays. Penalties for breaching these rights include fines of up to €50,000 and, in severe cases, imprisonment.
Anele Jakiel, a domestic worker from Malawi, recently made a complaint against her employer to the Labour Relations Commission. The commission did not accept all of her claims, but it did award her €33,000 compensation following its investigation into her case.
“My employer brought me here in 2006,” Jakiel says. “He told me I had to live with him for five years and took my passport. I was paid €400 per month to work seven days a week. I did all the cooking, cleaning, school runs for the children. I worked 7am till 10.30pm. It was very difficult,” she says.
“On the school run, I was too afraid to speak to anyone . . . there were days when I just thought I wanted to die in my sleep,” says Jakiel, who ran away in 2008 and got legal support from the MRCI.
Hilda Regaspi from the DWAG says the isolation experienced by migrants working in their employer’s home is a major problem.
“The Irish authorities do not inspect employers when they have domestic workers living in their private homes so it is very difficult to identify when exploitation is taking place. But these are exactly the high-risk situations when workers can face abuse,” she said.
The DWAG is calling for a change in the law to enable the National Employment Rights Authority (Nera) – a body set up to enforce workplace rights – to begin a campaign of inspections in private homes. It wants the Government to support an international labour organisation convention on domestic work and is also calling on Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin to endorse a protocol to protect domestic workers employed in diplomatic households in this country.
This last demand follows the South African embassy’s decision last year to invoke diplomatic immunity in an employment rights complaint taken against former ambassador Priscilla Jana, by a Ukrainian domestic worker. This immunity prevented the Labour Relations Commission from intervening in the case.
Minister for Labour Affairs Dara Calleary says he recognises the vulnerability of domestic workers but that extending inspections to private homes is legally problematic because of the right to privacy in the Constitution. He says the best answer to the problem of abuse is to make domestic workers more aware of Nera and to facilitate them in making complaints. He also highlights the moral responsibility of foreign embassies in Ireland to treat domestic workers fairly, regardless of the legal situation.
For domestic workers such as Barbara, however, relying on an employer’s sense of moral duty has not been enough to save them from exploitation. And there are few signs this will change dramatically without Government action.
“There are other people from my country here facing the same problems I do. But they may not be lucky enough to get the chance to run away,” says Barbara.
For more information on migrant and domestic workers’ rights, see mrci.ie
DOMESTIC WORKERS IN IRELAND
Cleaning, housekeeping, caring for children or elderly are typical jobs for domestic workers. They often live in the home of the employer.
Some of the biggest providers of domestic workers are non-EU states such as the Philippines, Brazil, China, Ukraine and India.
It is difficult to tell how many migrant domestic workers are in Ireland. Just 251 work permits were issued for domestic work in 2008. But many workers from outside the EU are undocumented or may use different work permits. Domestic workers from other EU states do not need work permits and therefore cannot be counted.
In 2007 a code of practice for protecting persons employed in people’s homes was introduced to encourage good practice and compliance with employment law.
Nera investigates any cases referred to it by workers. But it may not enter a private home without a warrant or an invitation. It has successfully investigated just one case, which led to a five figure sum awarded to the worker.
