Migrant Domestic Workers

Baroness Cox Excerpts

Wednesday 8th June 2011 Grand Committee

Asked by

[Baroness Cox]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they intend to address the exploitation of migrant domestic workers, including those employed within diplomatic missions in the United Kingdom.

[Baroness Cox]

My Lords, I am very grateful to all noble Lords speaking in this debate today on a subject that demands our attention both for the heart-rending predicament of many domestic migrant workers and for the urgent need for action to remedy the situation, which renders them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. In addition to those who will be speaking, there are colleagues who cannot be here but who share our concern. The noble Baroness, Lady Young of Hornsey, has especially asked me to say that she much regrets not being able to participate in the debate.

My first awareness of this very disturbing situation came from meeting Mende, a young girl from Sudan who had escaped from the Sudanese embassy. She had been abducted into slavery from her home village in the Nuba mountains in Sudan in a raid typical of many that I encountered there during the war that raged until the peace agreement was signed in 2005. Tens of thousands of women and girls have been captured and sold into slavery there; we had the opportunity to rescue many hundreds, and their stories were heart-breaking in the details of the cruelty inflicted on them.

Mende's story was no exception. After being captured, she was forced to work as a slave in a diplomat's house in Khartoum and then brought to London to continue her servitude here. She managed to escape, and it was my privilege to do a little to support her as she tried to find freedom in this country. Her story is recorded in the very moving book entitled Slave: The True Story of a Girl's Lost Childhood and Her Fight for Survival.

In preparing for today's debate, I have been grateful for excellent briefings, including those from Anti-Slavery International and from Kalayaan—justice for migrant domestic workers. The debate is particularly timely, because this month the International Labour Organisation is celebrating its 100th anniversary. As we meet here today the ILO is meeting in Geneva, working on standard-setting in relation to decent work for domestic workers, with the intention of adopting a new international convention on domestic work by the end of the month. This represents an historic opportunity to provide greater international protection for domestic workers and highlights the ILO's recognition of the critical need to do so.

Domestic work is generally poorly regulated and undervalued. Many domestic workers are subject to serious abuses, which often include forced labour and slavery. They frequently work excessively long hours, without breaks, days off or holidays. The pay is often very low, and wages are frequently delayed. Some are not paid at all, or only receive payment in kind, such as food or accommodation. Many also suffer verbal abuse such as insults and threats, as well as physical and even sexual abuse. Some experience a lack of food and poor living conditions, such as having to sleep on the floor in a utility room.

Many migrant domestic workers often make great sacrifices to live away from their families to earn money for their dependants back home. Their exploitation by unscrupulous employers renders their sacrifice doubly painful; the sadness of poignant separation is exacerbated by denial of appropriate remuneration to send home. In the UK in 2009, 14,898 migrant domestic work visas were granted. Also, in the UK in 2009, the group Justice for Domestic Workers interviewed 111 of its members and found that over 50 per cent of them were expected to work over 55 hours a week and 95 per cent of them were not paid even the minimum wage. Almost half had not had a paid holiday in a year.

Domestic workers are exploited behind closed doors in private households and therefore fall outside the normal regulatory and inspection framework applicable to other places of work. They are especially vulnerable when working in residences of foreign diplomats, who can use diplomatic immunity to prevent scrutiny. While welcoming the fact that UK migrant domestic workers have access to visas in their own right, I must say that some employers keep control of their passports, denying them access to the papers needed to seek alternative employment without fear of deportation.

Real-life stories illustrate the suffering behind the statistics. I have time for only two, but they are sadly typical of countless others. The first is about the plight of a sub-Saharan African woman trafficked by a diplomat from her own country. In the UK he withheld her passport. Whenever she asked about it he became angry. Twice she was severely beaten. She was refused medical care. The employer told her that in the UK he was extremely powerful in their community. He also refused to allow her to call home on the grounds of expense. She was not paid any salary. She believed the diplomat was claiming an allowance for her work because she was told what to say if the office ever telephoned and asked her about her work there. She worked for 15 hours a day, sometimes more. At one point she became so disillusioned at how bad her life was here that she asked to go home. The diplomat said she could not leave until his family did. He told her if she tried to go home without his permission he would cause serious trouble for her family. She had been too scared to approach the authorities and had been living in fear.

The second story is in the words of the domestic worker herself:

“At first I was really excited to move to London and work for an African diplomat and his wife. The plan was that I would live with the family and be a nanny to their young son. I hoped to learn English and I thought I could earn enough money so that when I go home I could study. I moved to London with the diplomat a couple of weeks before his wife and child arrived. I quickly realised I had made a terrible mistake. From the very first day I was treated like a slave. It immediately became clear he wanted more from me than just to look after his son. He sexually molested me and would become angry when I refused his advances. Life became even worse when the diplomat’s wife arrived. I was forced to work 17 hours a day, doing all the cooking, cleaning, nanny work, never allowed a day off. The wife would get violent and throw things at me as well as shouting at me. I was completely trapped like this for six months. One day the diplomat was drunk and furious. He became really violent, threw me against a wall and started bashing my head against the front door. I was so scared I knew I had to escape. I ran into the street. I didn’t know anybody, didn’t have any identity documents, no money. I was crying uncontrollably and bleeding from my head. I was lucky that a man who spoke my language spotted me. He took me to the police to report what had happened. They sent me to the hospital and Kalayaan agreed to help me seek justice … Seeking justice comes at a price. The diplomat and his wife are connected and I knew after making the allegations against them my life would be in danger back in my home country, so I applied for asylum in the United Kingdom”.

What should be done to remedy such problems? In 2010 the ILO voted by a comfortable majority to adopt a binding convention, supplemented by a recommendation, recognising the urgent need to protect this vulnerable category of workers. Although the UK did not vote in favour of having only a recommendation, it has maintained its initial reservations about the need for a convention. In the latest round of tripartite consultation, the UK found itself quite isolated on the international scene in its official response. Despite recognising that domestic workers are undoubtedly a vulnerable class of worker who require particular attention, it did not express its support for a strong convention and invoked legal exemptions in relation to the labour rights of domestic workers.

The Government are objecting, inter alia, to the regulation of domestic workers’ rights to working time and occupational safety and health. The Government stated that the working time regulations do not apply to domestic workers, making it clear that they want to exclude them from the protection they need and which the overwhelming majority of other workers enjoy. Anti-Slavery International is concerned that the UK is considering maintaining its position by invoking a number of possible exemptions to the EU working time directive. The regulation of working hours of domestic workers, especially those living in with their employer, is at the core of what this international standard has set to achieve: that is, to redress the legal gap that leads to so many abuses of domestic workers’ rights. May I ask the Minister if Her Majesty’s Government is reconsidering their position so as to enable working hours for domestic workers to be regulated in ways comparable to those of other workers?

The UK Government have also raised their opposition to Article 13 of the draft convention, invoking the exemption allowed by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 in relation to domestic workers. Domestic workers often incur burns, cuts and exposure to hazards from handling toxic and boiling liquids and lifting heavy loads. Surely they should benefit from the same protection in their workplace as other workers do. Will Her Majesty’s Government discontinue their policy of applying exemptions regarding core labour rights for domestic workers to ensure that they work under health and safety circumstances in the home?

I have two more specific questions for the Minister. Are Her Majesty’s Government considering extending the right to change employers to domestic workers in diplomatic households, and is the Minister aware of the recent report, Ending the Abuse: Policies that Work to Protect Migrant Domestic Workers, by the charity Kalayaan? It gives support services to these workers, including victims of trafficking. Will the department be considering its recommendations?

I conclude by asking whether Her Majesty’s Government will take a leadership role during these weeks in Geneva and join the wider international community, employers and trade unionists to demonstrate that we will no longer turn a blind eye to the maltreatment of vulnerable domestic workers. Many of them are paying a high price for a better future for their children. I hope that the Minister will be able to reassure your Lordships that we will support and protect them in their endeavours.