Domestic workers demonstrate over UK visa changes

[joebloggs]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14778107

Current rules allow them to change jobs and move to a different household without losing their immigrant status.

The Justice 4 Domestic Workers campaign says plans to end the right will leave staff open to abuse or exploitation.

Migrant workers entering the UK on Overseas Domestic Worker visas include chauffeurs, gardeners, cooks and nannies.

Justice 4 Domestic Workers, which represents 500 members from countries including the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Morocco and Nigeria, also has the support of the union Unite and the charity Kalayaan.

I'm surprised the gov hasn't closed the domestic workers route altogether.

[grahamw48]

Yes, it really is time we stopped the idle rich from importing their slaves with them.

I'm thinking of that poor woman that Gadaffi's wife poured boiling water over.

How many Filipinas (and DWs from other poor countries) suffer in silence wherever they are in the world, because they need the money.

Our govt. typically sides with wealthy employers, rather than their downtrodden staff.

[KeithD]

A lot of domestic workers that come from those countries do so as they are generally treated as part of the family. For instance a Brit family works abroad and has a baby so they employ a DH who is with them 10 years and who the kids have grown up with, so when the family move back to the UK, immigration law allows the DH to come with them. Nothing wrong with that, it is the families right as far as I'm concerned.

DH abuse is only a small minority, and abuse happens in all jobs in one way or another.

[Dedworth]

I'm surprised the gov hasn't closed the domestic workers route altogether.

Probably due to the fact that most of the ruling classes require overseas domestic staff and prefer to employ them legally unlike that ghastly Baroness Scotland woman.

[Tropicalpenpals]

Thing is from the domestic violence cases I have come across I doubt the rules would affect the people involved due to diplomatic status, yet its those with diplomatic status that seem to abuse the staff the most

I can see an issue if someone came in to work for family A and family B offered them a higher salary etc. that its unfair on family A after paying all the fees and airfare. At the same time the contract should be binding at least to cover all costs incurred if such a thing happens. How does this affect careworkers?

[South-east boy]

Yes, some domestic workers are treated well, but others are taken advantage of and are not treated very well. I know of at least 2 who were not paid well (they wroked for middle-eastern families), had to work many hours with hardly any time off or days off due to their normal working hours + extra time on top of that. Not surpising that some domestic workers who are treated like that would like to work for a nicer family with more normal working hours, who give them a bit of their own time and of course are paid a decent wage.

[RickyR]

I can offer a little insight into the Domestic Workers Visa.
This visa almost exclusively exists to allow 'Middle Eastern' families to bring their staff over to their UK palaces (of which their are a lot more then you'd like to believe)
Someone entering on the visa, has absolutely no rights in the first year in the UK, is exempt for UK minimum working hours and UK salary minimums as the overseas contract remains applicable.

The person must have worked for the employer for 2 years prior to coming to the UK.

The visa is not a normal UK work visa, and I sort of agree at the closing of this allowance for people to change employer. It's not intented for people who want to specifically come and work in the UK. If they don't like their employer anymore, return home.

[scott&ligaya]

return home! provided they have access to their passports and have been paid properly, we knew of many workers even in Hong Kong whose Chinese emplyers underpaid them, had them sleeping in the kitchen and kept their passports!! mainly Indonesaians though as most of the Filipinas knew their rights and had better support

[joebloggs]

like i said, i'm surprised the gov has not ended this visa type altogther, whats wrong with employing a Brit or european to do the job ? .. and it would end the exploitation of those on this type of visa.

[RickyR]

I honestly doub't there is a great deal of exploitation on this visa in the UK. It's not like a M.E family employing someone straight up from Manila through an agency.
The person coming to the UK has to have been with the family for two years prior, and they are only expecting them to remain with the family when they are in the UK looking after them. They have plenty of opportunities to back out, and are in a very different situation to those left in Saudi etc. I've worked with several Middle Eastern Royal Families, and can say that I and all the staff were always treated and looked after well, all the maids and butlers I met were happy.
I think the press have created a bit of a stigma after a few bad incidents in the UK.

I honestly think the domestic help should be reminded, they have never applied to work in the UK, they are only here to accompany the sponsor they are working for.

[joebloggs]

I've worked with several Middle Eastern Royal Families, and can say that I and all the staff were always treated and looked after well, all the maids and butlers I met were happy.
.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...us-attack.html

[RickyR]

Exactly, my point. This is one single event in the uk from the Saudi Royal Family, which is a very large family. But I would consider it the exception rather then the rule.

[Terpe]

This is an interesting review. Although it's already almost a year ago, the points made remain valid.

It seems to highlight a possible link between ‘runaway domestics’ and wealthy Arab employers.

Personally I can't see any good reason to change the current rules.

[RickyR]

Interesting Article Terpe

Filipino Domestic Workers earn £25,000 or Pesos1,700,000 per annum including benefits

Domestic Workers usually enter the UK with their employer having worked for them abroad. As a further right, Domestic Workers are allowed to change employer once in the UK under the ‘Domestic Workers Concession’ brought in the nineties to protect workers from abusive employers.

Whilst there are cases of bad treatment, the vast majority of Filipino Domestic Workers in the UK enjoy higher than average salaries (you will not get a Domestic Worker in London for less than £300/£350 per week NET of taxes – a salary package equivalent to over £25,000 per annum or 1.7 million Pesos) and free board and lodging in the best parts of town.

So good are the benefits that many stay with their employers long after gaining UK residency, or Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), at which point they are free to do any kind of work for any employer.

I recently met a Filipina Domestic Worker who had been here since the 1980’s who was helping her daughter come to the UK to study.

When looking at her assets she owned two properties in the UK and five in the Philippines! Her daughter got the student visa!

Each year immigration advisers deal with a number of what is commonly known as ‘runaway domestics’. Evelie Padadac, an adviser for Bison UK said:

“It starts around May or June when wealthy Arab employers arrive with their teams of domestic staff.

“Many flee with only the clothes on their back, leaving belongings and passport behind. They seek refuge with other Filipinos’ and usually manage to regularise their stay with a new employer.

“We have had many a tussle with former employers who try and hold on to passports, which are not their property. But even without their passport it is still possible to regularise your stay if you have run away from an abusive employer.” She stressed.

[joebloggs]

Exactly, my point. This is one single event in the uk from the Saudi Royal Family, which is a very large family. But I would consider it the exception rather then the rule.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/199207-m...s-abused-in-uk

One in ten migrant domestic workers in the UK is being sexually abused by their employers, new research has warned.

According to Oxfam, many migrants are being given little or no rights when they come to Britain.

Of the workers registered with migrant support agency Kalayaan, which worked with Oxfam for the report, in 2006, 10% reported sexual abuse, 26% physical abuse and 72% psychological abuse at the hands of their employers.

In addition, 43% of workers said they were not given their own bed, 41% were not given regular meals, 70% were given no time off and 61% were not allowed out of the house without their employer's permission.




why should someone who employs a childminder or maid for a couple of years be able to bring them to the uk ?

[grahamw48]

Because their employers' regard them as 'chattels' ?

What else can we expect of people who practice medieval beliefs ?