Granny worked illegally as maid,
granted no vacation in three years
~ Issue cast in context of Indian culture ~
By Judy H. Fitzpatrick
PHILIPSBURG--Sixty-year-old Indian woman Amrita (not her real name), who came to St. Maarten three years ago hoping to help her family get out of poverty and ended up working illegally as a maid, wore a quizzical look on her face last week Friday as she rewound the clock to last week Tuesday when she was removed from her employer’s home by police.
Fear still envelopes the elderly woman who, because of the language barrier, is still not sure whether she will be locked up, sent back to India or returned to her employer’s home – unanswered questions that are causing her a lot of grief.
Police spokesperson Chief Inspector Johan “Janchi” Leonard said the elderly woman had been removed from a heavily-barred-up home in Saunders last week Tuesday after concerned persons alerted police that something was amiss. No one else had been in the house for at least two weeks prior, as her employer K.B., an Indian businessman, was off-island at the time.
Leonard said police had to cut locks from the outside of the house with a bolt-cutter to get to the woman, who they said had been clearly relieved to have been “rescued.”
However, the Hindi-speaking grandmother, who spoke to this reporter through an Indian interpreter, insisted that she was not being held against her will and that she had keys to the home, which had been locked from the inside.
Leonard said that although the woman also told police she had a key, the police didn’t see how it would have been possible for her to open the locks, as the doors had been secured from outside.
The widow told the interpreter she had been scared when police showed up and said she couldn’t understand what they were saying. She said too that she hadn’t been given a chance to get her pain medication and was experiencing excruciating pain.
Throughout the interview Amrita kept saying that she did not want her employer to think she was the one who had summoned police to the residence, as he frequently visited her village in India and because her salary had not yet been sorted out. Amrita said she was old and just wanted to settle outstanding salary issues with her employer and return to her home in Wadi, a village in Gulbarga in the Indian state of Karnatak.
“I have a lot of pain and can’t work anymore. I just want to be paid and go back home,” she said.
She has been placed in protective custody while her case is being investigated. When the investigation is complete she will be repatriated.
Illegal
Amrita said she had a three-year contract to work as a maid for B. at the Saunders home. She ironed, cleaned and cooked for a family of five and for three of her boss’ employees, who shared a nearby flat. Shortly after B. left the island two weeks ago, Amrita said, the three employees told her they were very ill and were returning to India. However, there is speculation that the employees weren’t really sick and in fact ran away.
She was supposed to earn 5,000 rupees (approximately US $131) per month, but she had never collected her salary in the three years she worked. She said her employer had promised to send her pay to her family in Wadi monthly, but she couldn’t say definitively whether this had been done. She said too that she didn’t need money in St. Maarten but her sons, ages 32, 35 and 35-plus, in India needed it.
Her salary is far below the St. Maarten minimum wage of NAf. 7.96 per hour or NAf. 1,378 (US $765) per month for an eight-hour five-day workweek.
Head of the Central Government Labour Department Kenneth Lopes said there were provisions in the law for employers to deduct 425 guilders (US $236) from an employee’s salary for room and board. This means that a minimum wage earner should be paid 953 guilders (US $529) after this deduction.
Lopes said his department had been apprised of Amrita’s case and would make the necessary calculations to determine how much she was owed if her employer couldn’t prove that her salary had been sent to her family in India.
Amrita said her employer had promised her a bonus at the end of her employment to help her better her life in India. She never had vacation in the three years she worked and it wasn’t clear whether she had been allowed a day off per week as stipulated by law.
Her employer left the island about two weeks ago to visit India. He didn’t indicate specifically when he was returning, but he held her passport for “safekeeping”
“He called me a few days ago and said he would be back in three or four days,” she said through the interpreter.
He had also informed her that on his return to St. Maarten he would make arrangements for her return to India.
The elderly woman, who could barely walk because of severe pain in her joints and who complained of a toothache throughout the interview, was working without a residence or employment permit and hadn’t any medical insurance, but she said she had been taken to the doctor on several occasions when she was not well.
Amrita said she slept on a bed in a corner of her employer’s living room and lived out of a suitcase. This was confirmed by Leonard, who said the woman appeared to have been living in a corner of the house that was partitioned off.
She never ventured off the premises alone, not even to purchase personal effects. She said she did not need anything, as she had received 3,000 rupees from B. before she came here to purchase what she needed.
Despite the circumstances under which she worked, Amrita insisted that she was happy, had not been abused and said her employer was kind.
Amrita, who is not highly educated, is most probably not aware of the benefits she should receive in St. Maarten, including the minimum wage. Her biggest fear at the time of the interview was of being sent back to India without company, as she believes she is incapable of travelling on her own.
Her employer was still off-island up to press time and could not be reached for comment. However, Leonard confirmed that B. had been accused of ill-treating his workers in the past.
Investigation
Chief Prosecutor Taco Stein said the incident involving Amrita was being investigated. He said an employer found guilty of hiring an undocumented worker faced a fine of up to 50,000 guilders (US $27,777) per worker. First offenders are usually fined 5,000 guilders (US $2,777). The employer will also have to pay all the back taxes owed to Government.
He said it was imperative for employers to adhere to the laws of the island territory, including the requirements for the payment of the minimum wage.
Bigger problem
Allegations have been made against some members of the Indian business community for years that they pay low wages to their employees and treat them like slaves.
There have been several cases in recent years of Indian employees who ran away from their Indian employers alleging slave-like treatment, including low wages and living in cramped conditions. Stein said at least three of these cases had reached the Prosecutor’s Office over the past three years, one of which had been settled out of court.
In one of the cases an Indian national working at a store on Front Street said he had been lured to St. Maarten with the promise that he would have a “good life” here, but had been forced to work 12 hours, never even had a proper lunch break and had to eat quickly while standing up.
After working in the store he had to work at his employer’s house until late in the evening and was forced to live in a small room with several other Indian workers. When he spoke out about it he was fired and was threatened that the police would be called. His employer also refused to return his passport.
Attorney-at-law Moenir-Alam, who had represented this client as well as other clients in similar cases, was quoted as saying in an article published in an earlier issue of The Daily Herald that these cases were becoming prevalent.
Recent Census Office figures show that nationals of India constitute the sixth largest bloc of foreigners legally residing in St. Maarten, an island territory that is home to 106 nationalities and where thousands of undocumented economic migrants reside. Justice Minister David Dick has estimated that there are about 20,000 undocumented immigrants in St. Maarten. Many of them are known to be exploited by their employers.
Cultural differences
A prominent Indian businessperson who spoke on the condition of anonymity believed that a lot of the things the local community perceived as being wrong within the Indian business community were actually part of the Indian “culture.”
In the businessperson’s view, there was nothing wrong with Amrita’s situation, as many poor Indian nationals don’t mind residing with their employers.
“When they live with us (employers) it’s like living in a five-star hotel,” the businessperson, said adding that Indian employers opted to hire persons from India because they could pass on the Indian culture to their bosses’ children and prepare Indian cuisine with which the bosses were familiar. Additionally, these workers don’t mind staying indoors, because it is part of their culture not to venture out of the home back in India.
The businessperson said most Indian businesses gave their live-in maids three-year contracts and paid them between $200-250 per month, because these workers lived, ate and used utilities for free. The businessperson said too that live-in workers usually requested their employers to hold their passports for safekeeping and in most cases also requested their employers to hold their salaries or send the money to their families in India.
However, the businessperson conceded that it would probably be best if, in the interest of transparency, employers had their employees open accounts in which to deposit their salaries, an idea the Indian Merchants Association (IMA) probably could consider.
The businessperson said it was not financially feasible for employers to allow their live-in workers to take annual vacations, as a ticket to India cost around $1,500, which neither the worker nor the employer could afford to pay every year. One observer said it was not up to employers to decide what workers did or where they went during their vacations.
While four IMA representatives who were jointly interviewed by this reporter condemned the illegal practices of Amrita’s employer, they said the local red tape and long list of requirements made it “next to impossible” to obtain employment permits for domestic and some other categories of workers.
The IMA representatives said they felt “bad” about the frequent allegations that Indian businesspersons treated their employees like slaves. They said while they couldn’t force an employer to take the IMA’s advice, they usually stressed to their roughly 200 members the need to obey the laws.
While this practice has been ongoing for many years, the IMA contends that having their employees live in their homes is very much in keeping with earlier calls made by Commissioner Maria Buncamper-Molanus that employers should secure proper housing for their immigrant workers. (judyfitzpatrick2002@yahoo.com)
