Many migrant workers are employed as domestic workers – as gardeners, cleaners, carers – relied upon increasingly by their household employers as government investment in education, elderly care, and other social services diminishes year on year. Their remittances are important for their home countries, and more importantly, for their families. They work with few rights, and companies, whose expatriate employees often recruit these workers, have felt constrained about whether and how they can intervene.
In this conversation, Vani Saraswathi of Migrant-Rights.org tells IHRB's Salil Tripathi why companies should be actively engaged with the workers' conditions, even if they are not their direct employers, and why they should take the responsibility seriously. She calls for the pressing need for improved national labour protections for domestic workers in the Gulf and globally, because their risks have increased dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with many of them out-of-work and stranded. She offers practical steps that can be taken to safeguard their rights.
About Vani Saraswathi:
Vani Saraswathi is the Associate Editor and Director of Projects, Migrant-Rights.org and the author of Stories of Origin: The Invisible Lives of Migrants in the Gulf.
Vani moved to Qatar in 1999, working with several local and regional publications, and launching some of Qatar’s leading periodicals during her 17-year stint there.
Since 2014, in her role with Migrant-Rights.org she reports from the Gulf states and countries of Origin. She organises advocacy projects and human rights training targeting individual employers, embassies, recruitment agents and businesses in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE.
She also contributes as an expert commentator on issues related to human rights in the GCC for various international publications and at international forums, including those hosted by UN agencies and is a member of the Policy Advisory Committee of the ILO Regional Office for Arab States.
Migrant-Rights.org is a one of its kind bi-lingual content-based advocacy platform that focusses on the GCC states and the corridors of migration, Asia & Africa. It was started 13 years ago by activist Esra’a El Shafei.
Welcome to voices a podcast from the
Institute for human rights and business
here we're seeking to elevate the range
of perspectives on the role of business
in the world and in people's everyday
lives hello everybody this is a little
tea party from the Institute for human
rights and business and I'm speaking
today with Vani Saraswathi who is a
director of special projects at the
migrant rights group which basically
works on domestic workers and migrant
workers who work abroad outside South
Asia first of all tell me does your
organization do oh we are GCC based
organization a bilingual advocacy total
so in English in Arabic so we research
and report on issues of migration labor
migration to the Gulf primarily from
Asia but also from East Africa and we do
advocacy on the ground with agents
businesses governments and embassies you
have worked for some time on this issue
of migrant workers and you didn't block
for us in the past and raise the issues
that are critical in this regard but
obviously a lot has changed in the last
few weeks and months after the coup bit
19 races about how migrant workers are
actually affected in the informal sector
in the Gulf region and you've been
depositing about that there is a de
facto segregation of expatriates and
migrant workers in any case and the
local population so given those
realities and given the reality in which
the domestic workers tend to be hospital
support staff drivers cleaner than
flow-on which are largely invisible in
this kind of a setup what what is the
current situation how are they affected
so if you look at domestic workers and
those who fall outside of the labor law
those are the agricultural workers
fishermen domestic workers in some cases
cleaning company workers as well
and many of the domestic workers except
in Saudi are female and the clearing
sector in the region is also highly
feminized in the best of times they are
still isolated and invisible and what
happened now is that situation has just
gotten worse so the kind of information
we are getting from these workers the
ones that we are able to speak to the
groups that work with them is ours have
gotten even longer where earlier they
used to work anywhere between 12 to 15
hours now it's even higher usually we
find over working during Ramadan and
it's a huge problem where origin country
embassies struggle with workers who
leave abusive employment conditions
during the month of Ramadan so now you
have that and the covered crisis and on
top of that countries themselves in the
Gulf trying to send back nationals now
not all of the domestic workers are
aware of their rights or what the
regulations are or how to protect
themselves because the messaging that's
being put out still has to go through
the employer now this is a big issue
because the employers tend to control
what information reaches the worker and
you know what is appropriate they decide
what is the appropriate information for
the worker in such a way that it doesn't
affect the work itself for them so of
course we're hearing a lot about
overworking a non-payment because
employers are not getting paid or there
is a delay and they pass on that
liability and burden to the domestic
workers even though they are paid very
little anywhere between 200 to 300
dollars even a 10% cut or something that
I can't afford and those who are being
paid are not able to remit money back
home because they are not included in
the financial system they are not
included in the wage protection systems
in the Gulf which applies to other
migrant workers so even if they receive
money remitting money back home is
becoming a problem so very broadly these
are the specific issues apart from the
fact that they don't have enough
protective gear they are exposed to more
bleach and chemical cleaning substances
they are the frontline staff within
homes if someone falls ill
taking care of them regardless of what
impact it has on their own health and
communication with their families as
well so we hear from families saying
they haven't heard from you know
daughters or wives in the Gulf because
either they've haven't been allowed to
call or they don't have money on their
phone so it's many layers of problems
which always exists but has gotten worse
because of the current situation so we
are talking about business and human
rights here and many of the workers that
you mentioned tend to work in the
private space I mean they are working
for individuals those individuals may be
local nationals or they may be
expatriates themselves hired by
companies so what role do you think
companies have in this situation and why
should it intervene in the private space
of the employee yeah sure I mean this is
something that businesses often raise
with us when we talked to them about
domestic workers why they need to speak
to the AI executives to the AH staff
I'll give you one example there are
various reasons they need to be but in
the Gulf especially say in a country
like Qatar if you want to employ a
domestic worker your sponsor your kafeel
has to give you a no objection
certificate that's the only way you can
in turn sponsor a worker if you're a
foreigner now that is the first line
right where the company also becomes in
a way liable because they've given
permission to their staff to hire a
domestic worker live in burqa secondly
you're giving special allowances that
allows those workers of your staff to
recruit workers your housing for
instance if it's a company housing that
you're providing and you know it's
you've hired an entire compound you're
an oil company event had hired an entire
compound there are quotas for domestic
workers so you kind of a feeding into
that system you're paying for it in a
way so you do have some responsibility
to educate your staff and to hold them
liable when there is very extreme
abusive practices now if you are the you
know main employer and you know
you know a manager in your company is
sexually or physically abusing someone
or forcing them to work against their
wishes those are by even even by the
laws of those lands on criminal charges
so you will be called in as well
your mon Dieu poor your Pierrot is going
to be stepping in to help your staff get
out of the situation and apart from all
these reasons also because it's a right
thing to do
yeah sometimes yeah sometimes the
problem is the laws the Gulf countries
are not very transparent they don't make
very clear what the laws are what the
liabilities are and that is what we try
to break down in our advocacy we work
with a law firm we try to break the dam
we try to make that information
available for individual households so
when they take the decision to hire
someone they know what exactly their
obligations are and they're just merely
asking businesses to pass on that
information and we have had some
successes there is an example which is
not our advocacy effort within Beirut
for instance the American University of
Beirut is very strict with their
guidelines for staff who live on their
campus who hire domestic workers so
there are very strict guidelines they
have to follow or action will be taken
now we have we don't have that kind of
success in the Gulf but there are
businesses that have incorporated this
part of it you know information on this
into the code of conduct into their
policies internal policies most of them
are international companies working in
the Gulf I must say they are not local
businesses but it's a work in progress
and we are hoping that this conversation
takes place at many levels including
businesses and I would imagine since we
mentioned the American University in
Beirut I mean New York University has
campus in Abu Dhabi I believe and yeah
the kind of thing that can become a
trendsetter that other academic
institution even if they are not profit
for-profit companies but they are
private entities can make such things
more widely known and intervene where
necessary absolutely so New York should
should mention NYU ad they do have
policies
or your staff who live on campus right
who hire domestic workers in the lots of
American universities across the dull
some of them are just strict about it
but most of them are trying to sensitize
they are employed because even floor the
Western experts coming in this is
probably the first time they have an
experience hiring a worker correct
or having something so you know it's
really important to clarify those things
today I know but the uniqueness of the
situation get spoken a lot about Gulf
you live in India so you know the Indian
situation there I lived in Southeast
Asia so I know it's somewhat similar in
Singapore and Malaysia and Hong Kong and
in America and Europe you do have
foreign domestic workers but they have a
lot more rights I mean you know they can
use the court system and so on so in
terms of post coverage scenario is if a
situation particularly acute in the Gulf
region and not serves well or is this
pretty much the phenomenon wherever we
look I think it's pretty much a
phenomenon wherever we look not just in
the Gulf but also in Taiwan and Malaysia
and in the asia-pacific region which
depends on domestic workers and we know
in past studies especially studies done
by the ILO that however bad the economy
gets in fact the worse the economy gets
the more the dependency on domestic
workers mmm because more adults from a
household have to go out and work so I
mean the dependency of domestic workers
is going to keep increasing that's not
going to go away because fewer and fewer
investments are made in public services
for elderly care child care all of these
are being outsourced to you know
individuals to take care of themselves
so they go and employ a part-time or a
live-in domestic worker yeah and I think
you made a very good point in one of
your blog's I think recently where you
talk about how it exposes them to
greater vulnerabilities it increases
their working hours as he was saying at
the beginning of the of our conversation
and it just makes it even harder
particularly during the time of Kuwait
absolutely yeah now I want you to ask
about you know you had a checklist of
what you expect of companies to do in so
what would you like what
what are the six or seven things of five
things you expect companies to do in
this kind of a situation I think one of
the things that companies should be
aware of when they are following workers
or when they are carrying out pay cuts
is to tell the world you know tell your
staff if they are employing someone to
try as best as possible not to pass on
that burden or liability because you see
I mean oh if there's an execute of
earning $10,000 which is a norm in the
Gulf you know it's it's a bare minimum
and you're paying $200 for work just
because you get a 20% pay cut doesn't
mean you need to pass that on yes I
think that's the key that if you need
them then pay them well you know this is
not your right to have a domestic worker
so if it's a privilege you need to be
able to pay for it
second make sure that whatever
protective equipment you are giving them
during Corbett masks gloves
you know disinfectants this should be at
the expense of the household because
this is part of the work yeah I guess
hearing a lot of complaints from workers
that they have to pay for it themselves
hmm and that is really really unfair
because they can't afford to pay twenty
four reels for a mask or hundred reals
for a glass or you know pair of gloves
these are things that households should
pay for another thing is if you're
working from home don't automatically
assume that the work domestic work is
gonna be on call 24/7 you might have a
late-night work call that doesn't
necessarily mean she has to stay up to
take care of your kids unless you're
paying her overtime with her consent
she's a she's willing to do those extra
hours she or he so being very very
conscious of work covers because when
you're at home you're just gonna be more
relaxed about your schedule yeah
and that kind of you know extends to the
domestic worker so her work is going on
24/7 you know where her work is working
from home regardless of commad you
shouldn't just make it worse and the
other thing is the off days now this is
a huge problem across the Gulf while the
dumbest
raucous low address it they don't really
have any mechanisms to monitor it so in
our research we found that most domestic
workers don't get an off day or weekly
often and when they do they're not
allowed to go up now there in any case
not going to be allowed to go out the
least you can ensure is that they do get
an off day and they are allowed to spend
it as they please if it's to watch TV or
do something or relax they cannot be on
call they cannot be oh just to call away
and then can ask them to do something
you know a one last job on a Friday
you've given them an off game ensure
that that you know that is maintained so
the off day is really important even
before kovin more so now work hours
wages protection that's for and
communication with your family so we in
in varies depending on the country if
you take a country like Southie the
majority of female domestic workers who
work inside households not the male
domestic workers who work outside they
do not have access to a telephone and
that's a case across the Gulf now this
means you're always dependent on the
employer to speak to their family and
friends and this has to go it is a right
and they should and bilateral agreements
are addressing this that employers
should give them at phone or allow them
to hold the phone so especially now I
think companies need to tell your staff
not interfere hinder with their
communication and finally I would say
facilitating online payments remittances
back home if they are unable to open a
bank account Qatar has now said you can
open a bank account without a minimum
balance and is encouraging employers to
include domestic workers and you know to
open their country to mystic workers not
all of the countries have this so in
which case maybe the employer can help
remit using their own accounts until a
time they'll be able to go out and use a
Western Union or a money exchange so
these are very broadly the things that
companies can start communicating to the
staff who employ domestic workers and
one final thing you're seeing an
increasing trend
of people going away from domestic
worker living arrangement they prefer
hiring freelance workers or workers to
cleaning companies to work hourly now
this entire sector has been shut down
across the Gulf which means a lot of
these workers are without a job they are
not getting salaries they do have
accommodation many of them but even food
is becoming a problem so if you have a
regular cleaning company you as a
business you use a cleaning company for
these services talk to the cleaning
company contractors see how you can help
them mitigate the allowability a little
bit well you could probably give them a
little bit of money in lieu of work
could be done later so that the workers
are not affected because a lot of big
businesses they do not hire directly for
facilities management that includes
cleaning catering security to you
subcontractors in the Gulf
now those businesses are really affected
and so the bigger companies could play a
role in making sure that you know again
that's not passed on to the workers
individual workers right I mean you
touched upon a lot of things I was going
to ask him a final question which was
what permanent changes you would like to
see so one of my questions is that is it
possible for there to be a model
contract so violet well one appreciates
that the individuals are being employed
by the employee and not by the company
but the company is interwoven because of
a visa process and so on that company
should give model contracts to their
employees that if you do hire domestic
cook or gardener or this is the this is
what you are expected to adhere to or
even maybe building some kind of an
incentive mechanism that you will be
given these benefits if you are here to
these standard but not otherwise I'm
just asking yeah yeah absolutely I mean
these are if if companies can say that
like you know we are giving you this
allowance we can idea to order to be
great but meanwhile even before the
domestic workers loss came in we had
worked on a standard contract based on
ILO standards and some of the company
shared that with this job and said try
and use this contract of course now
there's a live
there is a domestic workers law in most
of the countries and they have their own
contract but we also given guidance that
looks at how - one of the big issues
with domestic work is you don't know how
to calculate work hours you think the
child is playing and the nanny is just
sitting there so that's not work but
actually it is work even if she's not
like you know actively involved it's
work because she's just once moot for
the child so how do you calculate work
hours so these are some of the tools we
developed and with one particular Gulf
country we're trying to push that
through with the government where they
can kind of not you know add it as a
regulation where they tell employers
this is how you can make sure the
workers not overworked some businesses
have already started using this and that
could be the practice but I think the
big permanent change that we need to see
is the whole visa status currently the
only model the monopolies is live in
domestic work and that is inherently an
extremely exploitative model there's
really no way of making that fair and
you know at achill for the worker so you
need to give options where does
freelance work and for that the way
visas are issued has to change
you know Bahrain is experimenting with
flexi permit but it's very expensive so
it won't really suit the domestic
workers need so we need other countries
to start looking at an affordable way in
which domestic workers can live in a
country work in multiple homes but for
that you need to have other laws in
place you know other civil laws and
place criminal laws in place you need to
have a strong sexual harassment policy
at workplace minimum wages so it's it's
you know that's the long term thing but
immediately for businesses I think
educating this chance is is really
important and I don't want this to come
up something let us say the Western
employers are probably not aware of the
obligations right but the Gulf is such a
mix you have people coming from Asia
from other Arab countries and
people influenced by you know Asian and
Arab countries while citizens and the
worst of the practices if you visited
the galaxy with the driving style
everyone brings the worst of their
practices from home mm-hmm I entered in
the dull because no one is regulating
these things so you will see that carry
over you'll see Asian employers behave
in a certain way you'll see Arab
employers behave in a certain way you
see Western and all of which is a little
problematic because you're not being
held accountable right no it's it's it's
not an easy scenario at all but I think
the idea of these model contact that
you're talking about and the recognition
on part of some employers at least to
start doing something right and the kind
of example that the universities are
posting are probably are good building
blocks on which one can build forward so
all the best with your work thank you so
much in need yeah thank you Celine I
have me yeah
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