A lot can happen in 25 years. Children grow up. Families might grow. You might start a new business and watch it change and develop. In all cases, the secret is in adapting to whatever challenges you might be called to face.

In our 25 years of business, Harris Recruitment has seen the recruitment sector transform, but we have never lost sight of what our goals and principles have always been. We provide a bespoke service to our clients and match them with carefully chosen applicants to create the right fit. That has been and will always be our foundation.

I founded my first business, North West Childcare (now trading as Harris Recruitment), in March 1999.

I had been looking for a nanny for my own children and I was unsatisfied with the standard of help available at that time. I knew that I wanted the service I provided to be different. I knew what parents like me needed.

From the very beginning, my standard for applicants is whether I would feel comfortable having them work in my home with my children. I knew that if it wasn’t good enough for me, it couldn’t be good enough for my clients.

After this, I decided to branch out and apply these recruitment principles to other avenues. First, I set up The Housekeeper Company, providing housekeepers and other domestic staff to clients nationwide, and then The Carer Company, providing companion/carers in households. In every case, we have always kept sight of our mission.

Whether it was a matter of childcare, homecare, or elder and disabled care, we are presenting clients with someone they trust with the important things in their lives. That’s why we’re not just in the recruitment business, we help people build relationships that last, built on respect and trust.

I like to think that the reason why I am a respected voice in domestic recruitment, with thousands of successful placements under my belt, is because I never forget why it is that I do the work I do.

I have been consulted for my expertise by government ministers and cross-parliamentary groups about overseas domestic workers and advised the Home Office on skills shortages in the care sector.

I’m proud of everything that the companies that make up Harris Recruitment today have achieved.

With every successful placement, I know that I have given someone the help that their household needed. Honestly, that’s what keeps me going after 25 years.

Julia Harris

For more information, please visit our website: www.harrisrecruitment.co.uk. We will be pleased to receive any queries you may have and help you to begin your journey.

 

Coronavirus Update:- 

 

We are here, ready to help you ……

 

Even though most of the restrictions have now been lifted, as  Coronavirus is something we will all be living with for the foreseeable future, please see below for the latest relevant Government guidance and a link to the relevant parts of the UK Government website (as the Government guidance is continually changing, we recommend that you regularly check the Government website yourself, for any updates):-

www.gov.uk

 

Advice on working in people’s homes as a Housekeeper or Nanny during Coronavirus (COVID-19):

Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) – Guidance – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

If you are carrying out work in a home such as cleaning or paid-for childcare in a child’s home, you can continue to work, providing that you are well and have no symptoms. No work should be carried out by a housekeeper or nanny who has any of the Coronavirus symptoms, however mild, or if someone in their own household has any symptoms.

We recommend that the following basic rules are adhered to, as it is good practice:-

During a visit:-

  1. On entry to the home you should wash your hands using soap and water for 20 seconds.

 

       2. You should wash your hands regularly, particularly after blowing your nose, sneezing or

           coughing, and when leaving the property.

 

      3.  Where facilities to wash hands are not available, hand sanitiser should be used, and you

           should carry this with you at all times.

 

     4.  You should maintain a safe distance from any household occupants, where possible and

          ensure good ventilation in the area where you are working, including opening windows.

 

 

 

 

Please see the link below for the latest Government Guidance on Holiday Entitlement & Pay for employees during the Coronavirus Pandemic, including if staff have been Furloughed.

https://bit.ly/3iiSihH

 

 

 

Cleaners are being ignored in the government’s provision of a safety-net during the pandemic. The current crisis is rooted in a long history of domestic work being made invisible, writes Laura Schwartz

May 14, 2020 · 7 min read

We may no longer be living in the days of Downton Abbey, but employing a cleaner has once again become normal practice. Not just for middle-class families, but also for shared houses of young professionals and even university students. Half a million people in Britain work as cleaners, employed by as many as one in ten households. But what happens to them during lockdown? 

Off the radar 

Updated government guidelines on private cleaners say that they can continue to work, providing they have no symptoms and those in the house they are cleaning are neither shielding, self-isolating or presenting symptoms themselves. However, it seems that most people want to avoid the risk of bringing an outside party into their homes. We might hope that anyone who could afford to hire a cleaner in the first place would not begrudge continuing to pay the (average wage) of £9 an hour during the pandemic, but it turns out that this best practice scenario is far from widespread. Instead, lockdown has led to large numbers of household cleaners being laid off without pay.

‘Overnight the sector ground to a halt,’ says Stephen Munton from the Domestic Cleaning Alliance, the trade association for household cleaners. ‘One concern is that some people in the industry are employed informally, and may never have registered with HMRC, perhaps thinking they didn’t need to if their earnings were less than their tax-free allowance. They are completely off the radar and will not be able to claim under the government’s scheme for self-employed people.’ 

‘There is also a knock-on effect,’ Munton continues. ‘Some people who employ cleaners are also having their income affected by the lockdown and so are less able to pay.’

 

The NGO The Voice of Domestic Workers has created an emergency fund to support the many domestic workers now facing destitution. One of its members, Jane, works as a housekeeper to a family of four. ‘On 13 March, I had my day off but my employer told me not to go back to work anymore because she was afraid I could be a Covid-19 carrier. I didn’t receive my salary for that week and have not received it since.’ 

Given how difficult it is to build up savings on such a low wage, the effects for Jane were immediate: ‘At the beginning of the lockdown I already had no money to buy food or top up my gas and electric. I am really worried about becoming homeless because now I also cannot afford to pay my rent.’

Hostile environment

Live-in domestic workers are in an even worse position. If laid off, they are not only made homeless but can also have their immigration status placed in jeopardy. Around 30 per cent of Britain’s cleaners are migrant workers, many of them employed on overseas domestic workers’ visas. They have no recourse to public funds, which means that when they are dismissed from their jobs without cause or notice, or because they fall ill, they cannot benefit from the furlough scheme, cannot claim statutory sick pay, and cannot apply for Universal Credit. 

The servant culture continues into the 21st century

The Voice of Domestic Workers provided financial aid for Cristina, an undocumented domestic worker working as a cleaner in a private household. She told me: ‘I suffer from asthma. I cough a lot whenever I have an asthma attack. My employer (who employed me despite my status) was afraid that my cough could be Covid-19 so before the lockdown she had already asked me not to work.’ 

Her situation shows how the hostile environment continues during lockdown: ‘I have no GP and I’m afraid to go to hospital because of my [immigration] status. My children still need my support, so going back to my country is not an option.’ Cristina has had to rely upon another member of The Voice of Domestic Workers posting her inhalers.

Cleaners have not been included in the government’s list of key workers, which includes supermarket cashiers and dustmen for example, meaning that their children cannot be cared for in schools.

‘Many cleaners are mothers with young children,’ Stephen Munton points out, ‘so now lack of childcare prevents them from working – it’s a massive issue for a lot of people.’ Given the crucial role that cleaners, especially in hospitals and on public transport, will have in fighting the spread of Covid-19, it seems bizarre that their work has not been classified as essential.

No accident

That cleaners have been ignored in the legislation designed to provide a safety net for workers during the pandemic is no accident. It is rooted in a long history of domestic work being made invisible. Historically, servants were expected to be neither seen nor heard, and how well they did their job was judged upon how unobtrusive they managed to be. This servant culture continues into the 21st century: think of the number of times you’ve heard someone complaining about how they cleaner clunks the vacuum cleaner around, or interrupts them with chit-chat while they are trying to concentrate on their work emails. 

Cooking, cleaning and caring has long been women’s work. It has therefore often been seen as ‘non-work’, just something that your mum or your wife likes to fuss about. Even when paid, it is defined as ‘unskilled’ work that anyone can do.

During this pandemic, we are beginning to realise which work is really necessary to keep society running. If I don’t teach the history of the Industrial Revolution for a few weeks, nobody is going to die. The same cannot be said for the work of cleaners. We are all spending more time keeping our own houses clean to stop the virus spreading, and we need experts to do the same for our public institutions and public spaces. Will it take a global pandemic to give domestic workers the basic respect and decent wages they deserve?

Laura Schwartz is Reader in Modern British History at the University of Warwick and the author of Feminism and the Servant Problem (Cambridge University Press, 2019)

 
 

In a recent conversation with one of our lovely clients, Mrs M, we were shocked to realise that we had known each other for over 15 years, as that was how long we have been helping her with her domestic recruitment.

 

We first dealt with her when her children were little, as we found her a nanny, we then found her a live-in housekeeper/nanny and now as her family have grown up, we have recently placed a daily housekeeper with her and have also found her a gardener/ handyman.

 

Mrs M told me that her husband refers to us as her “domestic HR manager” and I felt humbled and proud when she told me how much she trusts our judgment and the honest advice we offer regarding what she should be looking for.

 

She knows that we only have her and her family’s best interests at heart and that we will do our best and always go that extra mile, to find her what she is looking for.

 

Mrs M knows that we won’t waste her time sending her applicants who are unsuitable. We have a frank and open dialogue with each other at all times. She is easy to recruit for, as she trusts us to find the best person for her and is happy to listen and take on board our recommendations to make her vacancy appear more attractive to prospective candidates.

 

We don’t disappear once we have placed someone, as we are there, should she need us, to offer any back up or support that might be needed and she told me that this was one of the reasons why she always comes back to us.

 

Mrs M isn’t alone, as at Harris Recruitment, we aren’t just interested in helping our clients in that moment, we view all placements as an ongoing relationship between the agency and the client.

 

The same applies to the candidates that we place in jobs and this is testimony to the number of returning and referred experienced candidates that we work with.

 

Over the past 18+ years nothing makes us happier than when a client comes back to us again, either looking for a similar type of help or for something different or when they recommend us to their friends or colleagues. This shows us that we are doing something right and they have been pleased with the service we provide.

 

In the current climate, since the UK Government stopped the domestic worker visa entries in 2012, there is already a shortage of experienced domestic candidates and we have seen that the market has changed regarding the types of help still available. I can’t help but think that with Brexit on the not so distant horizon, attracting the right staff is going to be an ongoing challenge. However, given our wealth of experience, it’s a challenge that we are more than equipped for.

 

We feel blessed to have some really good working relationships with our clients, like Mrs M, and we hugely value their custom and look forward to continuing to work with them for many years to come.

Harris Recruitment are excited to announce their new venture offering nationwide bespoke corporate recruitment, through Harris Corporate Recruitment.

Utilising the team’s experience from working previously in various sectors of the corporate world and using the same careful placement matching skills that Harris Recruitment is well known for, we are certain that this new division will prove to be as successful as the others are.

We offer the same excellent level of recruitment service, whether you are looking to hire a PA or an MD. Our team has a wealth of commercial experience in a wide range of corporate sectors including retail, banking, financial services, manufacturing, hospitality & travel and non-profit organisations.

Please see below for feedback from one of our recent placements:-

“Harris Corporate Recruitment have been fantastic throughout. From the moment we gave them the brief, they were courteous, helpful and didn’t tire of our many requests and questions about the process. We had some great candidates, who were all very well prepared and interviewed well. The whole process was seamless from start to finish, thanks to Julia and the team.”

R.Steddy – The Executive Coaching Consultancy

Yesterday, Julia Harris and Clare McKenna went to The House of Lords to attend the presentation by James Ewins of his independent review of the Overseas Domestic Worker Visa. The event was hosted by Lord Hylton who welcomed us all and there were about 40 of us in attendance.

James Ewins was commissioned by the Home Office to carry out an independent review of the overseas domestic visa in March 2015 and the review was published in December 2015.

We are proud to say that we took part in the review, with Julia Harris supplying information and data about how the post 2012 changes to the overseas domestic visa have affected the domestic, childcare and care labour markets. Projected figures on loss of revenue to the Treasury caused by the illegal black market that has come about as a result of overseas domestic workers not being allowed to change employer or renew their visa were also provided.

At James Ewins request, Julia contacted the other UK domestic staff agencies to ask for their input, so he was able to show a true representation of the industry.

We were so pleased that some of Julia’s recommendations have been included in the final published review.

James Ewins outlined the content of his review and his plans to try to get the changes he suggested implemented. He seemed committed to trying to push through his recommendations, which include allowing an overseas domestic worker the right to change employer and renew their visa for up to 2 1/2 years.

We also heard from Marissa Begonia, who runs Justice for Domestic Workers, working tirelessly and selflessly to improve the rights of overseas domestic workers in the UK. We wholeheartedly respect and support the work Marissa and her team does. *

We listened to moving testimonies from overseas domestic workers who were so brave attending today and sharing their stories with us.

Diana Holland from the union Unite, who continues to be a great support to the overseas domestic workers summed things up at the end saying that we all need to do all we can to help convince the Government to implement the review’s recommendations.

Even though she had planned to say nothing, Julia couldn’t help herself and added to the discussion on a couple of occasions.

We were very proud to be the only organisation from the private sector represented at today’s meeting and will continue to fight for the rights of overseas domestic workers in the UK and the reinstatement of their right to change employer and be able to extend their visa.

* If you wish to contribute to the wonderful work that Justice for Domestic Workers does, please follow this link to donate to support this very worthy organisation :-
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/hiddenslaves

One thing that most people probably don’t think about whilst enjoying a family movie night with Walt Disney’s 1964 hit Mary Poppins, is what potential legal risks George Banks was setting himself up for in employing the magical nanny for his  children, Michael and Jane.

Given the thrill of the light-hearted, jovial fun and adventures that Mary takes   Michael and Jane on, you would be forgiven for failing to see Mary as an employee and Mr Banks as her employer. In fact, Mr Banks did everything you would expect an employer to do in recruiting Mary to be the new nanny; from sending out a job   advert, shortlisting candidates and eventually, somewhat reluctantly, agreeing with the terms of employment offered by Mary (albeit after a gust of wind had blown all of the other candidates away). Mr Banks even considered firing Mary when he     became tired of the ever more cheery atmosphere at his family home.

In the modern day, this relationship, believe it or not, would be fraught with     statutory rights, contractual obligations and guidance from various EU directives. Families who are now intent on finding their own Mary Poppins, Mrs Doubtfire or even just a sensible and reliable nanny to look after their young children would do well to consider the consequences of establishing an employment relationship (even if not intended).

It is important to ensure you get adequate protection from the various future claims that might arise in what should be the safety of your own home. Here are just some of the things to consider:

Contract

Providing certain terms is a requirement under UK law and believe it or not, failure could potentially cost you up to four weeks of their gross pay in the future.  Doing a search on the internet or just somehow getting hold of a “standard contract” is about as useful as buying a standard hat. If it does not fit, it could cause you   headaches. This person will become integrated into your family, so make sure that the terms are right. It is usually cheaper than getting it wrong.  It is best that both employer and employee understand the terms of employment from the outset to ensure that the contract makes good sense and is not unnecessarily complicated.  Candidates for domestic work come from all over the world and so it is important to be clear in the language of your agreements.

Holidays & Sickness

As an employee, your nanny or housekeeper (or other domestic worker) is entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid leave each year (typically made up of four weeks plus the usual bank holidays). Even though they may join you on your holidays, this may not count as leave for them.  They should also still be paid if you are going on holiday and they are not required to join you.

Subject to certain qualifying criteria, your employee is entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (currently at £88.45 per week) on absences of four or more days in a row (including weekends or holidays) for up to 28 weeks.  Be aware that since GP sick notes have been replaced with “fit notes”, GPs no longer sign employees as fit to work.  If an employee is or becomes disabled, you may find that you are under a legal obligation to make adjustments to their duties, hours, equipment or your home.

Pregnancy / Maternity

Many nannies become childcare professionals because of their genuine love and  desire to care for children. It should come as no surprise therefore that a nanny may decide to have children of their own.

You may have to:

  1. pay statutory maternity pay;
  2. keep the job open until she either returns or notifies you that she will not be;

Any decisions placing your nanny at a disadvantage may be discriminatory.

As an example, if you employ a live-in nanny or housekeeper and they are pregnant, asking your nanny to leave your home or their separate accommodation   temporarily whilst you move in her maternity cover replacement could amount to a  disadvantage. You might well be obliged to arrange for suitable alternative accommodation, which would have to be of a similar standard to that currently  provided. This is a problem that can easy multiply if you have employed a couple (and there is a growing trend for doing so), as you may find that you have another child under your roof that you had not bargained for when you offered the couple accommodation as part of their terms and conditions.   It could be more damaging still if your “standard contract” does not deal with the point at all.  Of course, while you may be obliged to offer the employee their job back after their maternity leave, you are not under any obligation to permit your nanny to bring their child with them to work.

Equally, do not fall into the trap of asking candidates if they are planning to have children or screen out candidates on the basis that they are of child-bearing age. Applicants for your vacancy are entitled to bring tribunal claims to challenge your decision not to appoint them if it was on the basis that they are having or may have children.

Termination

The time inevitably comes when you must end the employment relationship due to your children growing up, dissatisfaction, incapacity or misconduct issues.

If not managed correctly, liability to unfair dismissal and payment for loss of future earnings could follow. You may also owe a minimum notice period; and, if the services of the nanny are no longer required, a redundancy payment calculated on past service may be obligatory.

Conclusion

It is easy to be seduced by the idea that because someone is coming into your home to work with you, your family or your children, it will be a relationship that is built solely on mutual trust, understanding and reasonableness. Remember that, as an employer, you will shoulder almost all of the legal burdens and responsibilities that large trading companies owe to their staff. The risks involved here can be addressed and minimized by taking proper legal advice from the point that you are considering creating an employment relationship, and ensuring that you have a source of advice and support to the time that you wish to end the employment.

If you have any further queries regarding domestic workers or are considering  employing someone to work at your home, please contact Kuits’s Employment Team on 0161 838 7806 for specialist support.

Since April 2012 migrant domestic workers who enter the UK with their employer on the Overseas Domestic Worker visa have been tied to this employer by the immigration rules. The visa is valid for six months, is not renewable and prevents them from leaving their employer, no matter the circumstance. If the worker leaves anyway, they have breached the immigration rules. This has led to an increase in exploitation and restrictions of freedom of a group of migrant workers already shown to be vulnerable to exploitation.

In 2014 16,753 individuals entered the UK on the Overseas Domestic Worker visa.[1] Little or nothing is known as to what happens to the majority of these workers once they have entered the UK. What is clear is that the reports of abuse made by workers who register with Kalayaan have been consistent over the three years since the tied Overseas Domestic Worker visa was introduced. These statistics show that the levels of abuse reported by those who entered on the original visa, and so who have some rights, remain unacceptably high.  Even more concerning is that these already shocking levels are consistently higher for those workers who are tied to their employers.

Between 1st April 2014 and 31st March 2015 Kalayaan registered 188 new workers. 64of these workers were tied to their employers, either because they entered the UK on the tied Overseas Domestic Worker visa (43), or because they entered in the employ of a diplomat (16). Those who come to the UK employed by a diplomat enter under Tier 5 of the Points Based System, a separate category. Their visa can be valid for the duration of their diplomatic employer’s posting, up to a period of 5 years. They are not allowed to change employer or since April 2012 to apply for settlement or to bring dependants to the UK.  The prevention, via the immigration rules, of allowing a domestic worker to change employer means that they cannot challenge any aspect of their employment, as ultimately both they and the employer know they cannot leave without becoming undocumented and destitute and so unable in practise to access any kind of justice or legal remedy. For those employed by diplomats, this situation is compounded by the employer’s diplomatic immunity as demonstrated in last year’s Court of Appeal case Reyes and Suryadi vs Malki[2] in which diplomatic immunity was found to trump trafficking.

Of these 188 workers reports of abuse made by the 64 tied workers are proportionately consistently higher than the (also unacceptably high) levels reported by the 124 other workers.

When we look at the reports of abuse made by workers to Kalayaan during the three years since the introduction of the tied visa in 2012 the trends remain the same; while levels of abuse reported by all workers on the Overseas Domestic Worker visa are unacceptable, those who are tied are consistently higher.

In the three years between April 2012 and the end of March 2015 Kalayaan registered a total of 590 new workers. 184 of these workers were tied to their employers.  Proportionally, the levels of abuse reported remain consistent.

Removing basic employment rights will lead to more abuse

It is not surprising that proportionately more workers on the tied visa have consistently for three years reported higher levels of abuse. Kalayaan has long warned of the disastrous implications of removing the right to change employers. This was also predicted by the Home Affairs Select Committee in their 2009 inquiry into trafficking when they said that retaining the visa was “the single most important issue in preventing the forced labour and trafficking of such workers”.[4] Since its implementation the tied visa has been criticised by Human Rights Watch[5], the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women[6], two parliamentary Committees[7] and the Centre for Social Justice among others.  At the request of Theresa May, a further review of the visa is currently underway.

The above statistics are based on data gathered when workers first register with Kalayaan. These workers have not yet built up confidence in the organisation nor learned to trust the staff member working with them. Many will have recently fled abuse and be preoccupied with receiving practical help, perhaps not knowing where they will sleep that night. Many will still be fearful of their former employers and the employers’ perceived hold over them.  At Kalayaan we are constantly told by workers that they don’t want to ‘make trouble’ for their employers in spite of appalling treatment. It is highly likely that much abuse, particularly concerning more sensitive areas such as sexual abuse, are underreported for reasons of stigma and a fear of the implications of telling.

The number of workers coming to Kalayaan has consistently decreased since the introduction of the tied visa in April 2012. However, as mentioned above, the number of visas issued has increased slightly. Given that all available evidence shows that treatment has worsened, the smaller number of workers coming forward is not likely to mean an improvement in the circumstances of migrant domestic workers generally.  It seems that fewer numbers are coming to Kalayaan because it is clear that the organisation can do far less to help them in practise since the immigration rules changed. The majority of our clients find us through word of mouth and are likely to be told that they have breached the immigration rules, making them fearful of coming forward. The increase in reported restrictions on freedom suggest that it is also likely that fewer have the opportunity to escape.

‘Suma’ came to Kalayaan having worked for eight years as a domestic worker in the Middle East. It was clear that by the time she escaped the employers who brought her to the UK she had suffered extensive psychological damage. For years she had no privacy or day off, sharing a room with the employer’s children. She slept on the floor and would often be kicked by the children. She was addressed with animal names rather than her own. She spoke with her own family rarely and had not told them the truth about her treatment. Instead she despaired as they complained why she couldn’t send money more regularly and asked why she couldn’t come home and visit ‘like the other mothers’. Suma entered the NRM in the UK and was conclusively recognised as trafficked. However together with this notification she was told to leave the UK and given a leaflet on voluntary returns. Suma maintains that she cannot go home as her children ‘will not eat’.  Kalayaan has secured further immigration advice for her but it is likely she will not be able to remain in the UK. Suma insists that if she goes home she will migrate again for work. She recognises she may again be trafficked but explains that she has no choice, she has to ‘sacrifice herself’ for her family.

Empower workers to address exploitation

One of the reasons given during the debates on the Modern Slavery Bill (now Act) for not reinstating the basic right and protection of permission to change employers what that this would not solve the problem. It is correct that allowing migrant domestic workers to change employers would not end exploitation for domestic servitude. However this is no reason to maintain a visa system which all available evidence suggests has led to an increase in abuse.

Instead the right to change employer is a first step which goes some way towards preventing abuse and allowing migrant domestic workers to challenge mistreatment. This most basic of rights alone can never be the whole answer while the balance of power in the employment relationship remains so unequal and the domestic worker’s workplace so unregulated.  The ability to change employer allows migrant domestic workers to leave their employer without breaking the law, but if migrant domestic workers are to access justice in practise it must be supported by other measures.

The UK Government should introduce a number of checks to clearly demonstrate that they are serious about the status of migrant domestic workers as workers and be prepared to enforce these measures. The current six month visa, in addition to prohibiting change of employer, sends the message that the worker is in the UK on a temporary basis and that UK employment law will not be seriously enforced. If the worker is in the UK for longer than six months, they should start earning enough to become eligible for tax deductions. When an application to renew the worker’s visa is made there should be checks to ensure that they are registered with the HMRC and that they have their own bank account.

The UK Government should sign and ratify ILO Convention 189 for Decent Work for Domestic Workers.  In addition a range of relatively inexpensive and simple measures could be introduced to ensure that employers who chose to employ a worker in their home are complying with their responsibilities and addressing the current situation where all of the responsibility lies on the worker to speak out, and in doing so losing their livelihood, where there is a problem. Such measures could include:

Migrant domestic workers are acknowledged internationally to be more likely to be exploited and abused than workers in a more visible and regulated workplace.  If they live in (as the majority do) the boundary between work and leisure time is often (intentionally) blurred. Without colleagues, most are dependent on their employer for all information about the UK and their status and rights here. Their work is often not recognised as work, and many employers appear to believe that they have purchased the whole of the worker, who is not entitled to privacy, space or time off to develop her own relationships or identity. The current Home Office guidelines which stipulate that the employer’s name appear on the worker’s visa[11] can only help encourage this perception of ownership. Workers tell of asking for time off and being told by their employers ‘we are your family; you don’t have time off from your family’.  The majority of these workers have their own children, who they left at a very young age in order to provide for and who they will see briefly once every one or two years.

Migrant domestic workers need to be recognised as workers and as people. The current immigration rules have disempowered this workforce and the UK needs to urgently address this. The Commons amendment, now included in the Modern Slavery Act, does not do so. It provides only that migrant domestic workers who have been trafficked may be granted a six month visa. Aside from the fact that six months is too short a time to realistically secure work which predominantly involves caring for a child or elderly person, it also does nothing to prevent abuse, nor for workers only exploited but not trafficked, nor for workers who are desperate to leave but need the reassurance that they are not breaking the law before doing so.

For more information please contact Kate Roberts at Kalayaan on 020 7243 2942 or atKate@kalayaan.org.uk