PLP Calls For Action On Domestic Worker Abuse
A recent advertisement for a live-in housekeeper “has once again brought the issue of abuse of domestic workers to light and the PLP is calling for urgent action,” Shadow Minister of Home Affairs Walter Roban said today.
The ad was seeking one person work at three separate households, and do all aspects of general cleaning, heavy cleaning, ironing, windows, polishing brass/silver, supervise children, take care of pets and be prepared to work evenings and weekend.
Mr. Roban said this is “tantamount to slavery and must be stopped,” and called on the OBA government to “cease issuing work permits for work in multiple households immediately.”
He proposed measures including having Immigration Officials do unannounced spot checks, check that employees are in possession of their own passports, and the creation of a minimum set of working conditions.
Mr Roban’s full statement follows below:
A recent advertisement for a live-in housekeeper has once again brought the issue of abuse of domestic workers to light and the PLP is calling for urgent action.
This ad seeks one person do “all aspects of general and heavy cleaning, ironing, windows, and polishing brass and silver for three separate households.” Further the worker will have to work at more than one house daily, supervise children, take care of pets and be prepared to work evenings and weekend.
It appears that this ad is designed to discourage any local applicant. It also appears that anyone hired in this position could likely face sustained abuse. This is tantamount to slavery and must be stopped. We call on the OBA government to cease issuing work permits for work in multiple households immediately.
Further, against a backdrop of numerous reports we have received of abusive working conditions for domestic employees and their fear of speaking out against their employer, we propose:
- 1. Immigration Officials to commence random and unannounced spot checks on domestic workers and their employers to assess working and living conditions.
- 2. Reviews of employee contracts to ensure the employer is acting fully within the law.
- 3. A determination that employees are in possession and control of their own passport.
- 4. The creation and publication of a minimum set of working conditions, including pay, for all domestic workers, which employers are required to adhere to.
The bigger issue at hand is that no government should allow these sorts of applications to be even submitted. It is seemingly designed to dissuade Bermudians from applying and apparently designed to encourage only non Bermudians to apply.
The OBA is a government that always speaks of how Bermudians should not mistreat guest workers. The OBA should now publicly demonstrate to these Bermudian applicants that they will not allow these sort of abusive work conditions on the guest workers that may get these types of jobs.
And the Immigration Department is staffed by.
How many workers have been added to the Immigration Department in the past year.
Talk about slavery is the pits.
Walters got his from both sides.
Aly akabah…………
Whatever terry!
But else thinks Bermuda is much better now that the PLP is opposition?
Those sort of job adds irritate the s*** out of me. Walter has a point, and I hope the govt does something to stop this bulls***. Generations ago, some housekeeper jobs in New York said “No Irish”. Some of the housekeeper adds in Bermuda are saying f**& off! Minister Fahy…you need to say “who the f*&* are you telling to f*^* off?”.
Where is this advert, I’ve looked and could find no reference to 3 families?
Your mind has completely gone into the realm of irrelevancy. You are completely off target on the subject at hand. I shan’t elaborate because it would be a waste of my time.
THANK YOU! My wife works in this field and they frequently get taken advantage of, used for cheap labor. These people go to college and get degrees, certifications, etc for this career, study medical practice to a degree, and when they come here they get paid like $9-$18 an hour? It is a sick joke and something and someone needs to do something about it!
THANK YOU AND THANK GOD THIS CAME TO LIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!
You are around often verbally or physically abusive people, or people who take advantage of you, too may unsavory conditions and demands, risk of infection is very high, and terrible hours that are disruptive to lives. All this for a terrible pay?
MINIMUM WAGES MUST BE SET IN BERMUDA!!!!!!!!!!
Risk of infection ??????? what are you on ?
Yes, risk of infection. Think about it.
Yeah, so why did Roban authorise all those work permits and fill Buzz with foreigners?
Completely different job description here buddy, try to keep up. The above job description is, in short, “we want a slave”. Taking care of children is a full time job in itself. In that job description where the f*** does a person have a chance to be happy in life? Is that too much to ask?
What if those children are in school? Whilst kids in school they clean the house and run errands. When school is out they pick up kids and give them dinner…..i have no clue where this advert actually is…could you find it? I looked and couldn’t see it.
That would be fine…if it were for 1 household. Try doing that for 3. That’s where the issue is.
It looks like the advert is gone now but it was up for at least 2 days last week.
Where was it?
Thanks “Onion”, you’ve taken the proverbial words out of my mouth. No other Govt. issued more work permits than the former P.L.P. Govt…
@ Onion – @ Raymond Ray
Your are spot on with that comment – that nobody issued more Foreign work permits than the PLP – infect
they loaded the Island with Foreign workers. – they allways seem to make an issue out of problems that
they created.
Before 1998 I was allways preached by the PLP that if they got into power that they would reduce Foreign workers.
I thought there was minimum wage in Bermuda but your average slave driver, excuse me, domestic employer just ignored that. So many foreign workers were willing to work for peanuts that these employers got used to taking advantage.
Yes is true that some families abuse of the housekeeping, and would be great that Government could stop this abuse. But also is very real that some Bermudian are expecting a mayor salary for a labor work, and that is the problem, in real life the payment for cleaners or child care it is no more than 20 per hour. is not like they got a civil degree or a layer degree. And this is when the problem is about, Bermudian are expecting more paid for a basic job, which is no real at all.
So if you want a job, assume that the salary will no be great.
Yes, some domestic staff do work very hard under difficult conditions , not all of the workers are angels.
Just read the paper.
also a lot of employers from many fields of work are purposely underpaying foreign workers, usually phillipino, paying them like $7 an hour. I have met so many of these poor victims who lament on how greedy Bermuda is, and how it is oppressing them when they fought so hard to earn money to get an education and plane tickets and permits to fly around the world just to earn a living.
when will the world change and make sense?
I made $8 an hour until I got my university degree and I am Bermudian. Business is business people need a job and employers are only able to pay X, if you need the job you take it and hope one day you will find something better.
Don’t forget that the employer of the domestic workers has to pay health insurance (which is at ludicrous levels on this island) and social insurance often while providing lodging. These are all benefits and would drive a monetary hourly wage down. Check out the average hourly wage for these workers in the US I am sure it is lower than what they will get here.
True but you should be willing to get what you pay for. If you are only able to pay $8 an hour, don’t ask the employee to do $150 an hour’s worth of work.
This is indeed slavery and it has been going on for years since UBP times.
What utter nonsense. Last I checked, there is at least one political party in the US fighting for a realistic minimum wage. Are you living in a cocoon? Telling words ” For These Workers”. Who are you?
cha,
All you are talking about is MONEY. What about how the workers are treated. Ask yourself, if you or those whom you love would like to be subjected to such ill-treatment and disrespect? It would be nice if the workers could save a ton of money and get out of hell. But it would take a long, long time for one to amass a lot of money, when making so little, to FREE themselves from the clutches of the evil ones.
@Grand Architect: How many have your reported, if you haven’t reported them , then you support the practice !!!!!!
Silence…just as I thought !
Presumably most of these people got their work permits before 2013 – so why did the PLP approve them!?
Also, report this to Immigration ASAP. You can submit an anonymous report at this website: https://www.doiapps.gov.bm/immigrationtips/
During DREB’s time there was a historical record of permits given. What’s ironic is just after this is when we had the highest record of unemployment. For someone who was supposedly anti foreigner he really helped a lot of them. though IMO people have it all wrong DREB wasn’t anti foreigner just anti IB so if you weren’t in that category you were welcomed. I wish the current government would do the math & see where the unbalance came in & reverse it.
“employers from many fields of work are purposely underpaying foreign workers, usually phillipino”
Is that why mostly every filipino worker on this island has the latest iPhone, a LV bag & can afford to fly back home every year. If the filipinos here were so oppressed their government would have dragged our island through the mud when they did the 40 countries they put a workers ban on.
“they fought so hard to earn money to get an education and plane tickets and permits to fly around the world just to earn a living.” OH GIVE IT A BREAK!
They’re country has one of the largest pool of natural resources there is. They’re GDP is 465.784 BILLION more than ours. They have more universities & colleges than the whole of the United States’ east coast & they are a heck of a lot cheaper then the east coast ones also. They’re unemployment rate is 7.6% while they’re population is over 99MILLION. They’re export of foreign workers to other countries numbers in the millions & their country profits more than any other from the money they gain through this export. They have the most H-1B visas issued by America then any other country even neighbouring Mexico. They’ve been supported & allied with America ever since WW2 & are the first asian country to attain a Mutual Defence Treaty with America. Even before WW2 America has come to their aid in the 1890s Spanish-American War.
As for the comment about Bermudian’s being greedy that’s the pot calling the kettle black. They’re the ones who specifically asked for monetary donations over canned goods & other supplies, they’re the ones who ridiculed China for only giving them 100,000 & they’re the ones who’s gift giving customs revolve around giving money instead of other gifts.
You need to do your research before you believe everything you hear. The nationalities who REALLY get the short end here are Indians, Shri Lankans, Thais, Indonesians, Dominicans, Peruvians, Panamanians, Ecuadorians, Brazilians & Guatemalans. These are the nationalities who get the BS work that no one else wants to do.
I guess we’d have to know exactly what was required…it sounds incredibly arduous at face for one person, but it could be the standard work week hours spread over three households. the weekends and evening could be occassional. We don’t know the reality in this case.
Roban, These abuses you refer to, why didn’t you deal with in in the last 14 years. Sounds like you knew of abuses going on when you were in power…what did you do about it then? Where were the PLP when you could do something about it ? have you reported all these cases to the appropriate authorities? Please provide dates.
Who gives a f*** when the plp were in power? The time is now the oba are and they promised change. I’m sick of the back and forth. Bermudian and foreign workers alike get treated like s*** at certain jobs or companies. This job description silently asks for someone with no kids or family, with no vision of kids or family and essentially 24 hours on duty…for 3 households.
The article doesn’t say that. Are you inventing things ? Wow.
He said against a backdrop of numerous reports revived…yet he hasn’t reported them to the authorities.
I think Roban made this up or exagerated…show us the evidence of your reporting it to the authorities Roban.
Come on
I have never seen that add , but then again , I was too busy working .
$15 an hour makes you roughly about $25,000 a year.
Health insurance is about $10,000 a year.
That is half your money gone.
Rent is AT LEAST $15,000 a year.
That leaves you with about $500 a month for: food, electricity, fuel, medicine, licenses and bills etc?
I guess if you have money it doesn’t matter to you, right?
Your math doesn’t add up.
First, if a housekeeper nanny is taking care of kids and a house, they will be working more than 32 hours a week. Likely it will be 50 hours as week (because if the employers work 9 to 5, assume housekeeper will be working 8 to 6). 50 hours * 15 = $750 per week * 52 weeks per year (vacation is 2 weeks paid under the employment act) = $39,000.
HIP medical insurance is currently $325.84 per month, of which the employer BY LAW pays 1/2. So maximum deduction for employee is less than $2,000 for the year. Social insurance is another $1,700 for the year (1/2 paid by employer) and payroll tax (employee share) roughly $2k. So now we are at $33,300. Let’s assume rent is $20,000 for the year. That leaves over $1100 per month for food/electricity etc. Not a lot, but then you’d have to factor in overtime for weekends/evening babysitting which probably nets a few hundred more per month.
I’m not saying it’s great, but I’ve lived on less in Bermuda.
By law pays my hairy a**hole.
they are def not making that much money. the employers make some employees pay back the money it cost to get here. trick them into bogus work conditions. HOLD THEIR PASSPORTS; THREATEN THEM WITH A RETURN TICKET IF THEY DON’T TOE THE LINE!!!
THEY TELL THEM THAT THEY ARE OBLIGED TO WORK 10 hours a day but then arbitrarily say that the 10 hour timw frame is on skates and can be moved like goal posts anywhere in the 24 hour period – tantamount to slavery is right!!
I would really be surprised if the employer is paying for medical insurance, social insurance and payroll tax. We’re not talking about companies, right? Aren’t we talking about ordinary wealthy, upper middle to middle class, who are advertising for maid service? I’m willing to bet that they are paying their workers “under the table” and so avoiding making those payment listed above.
Actually another great investigation: find out whether these would be employers are abiding by Bermuda’s labor laws.
Yes they do pay.
A few facts – if you hire a live in house keeper immigration stipulates the following Health Insurance (which is $390 not $325.84), Social insurance and payroll Tax be paid all at 100%. There is a minimum wage stipulated at $10 an hour but with the competition it is most of the workers get minimum $15 an hour. Tickets too and from Bermuda are usually covered by the employer and generous employers often provide a ticket home every other year as a perk. Anything over a 40 hour work week must be paid at time and half. If the employee is not receiving this then they should go to immigration and complain. As they are a live in all of there electricity, internet connection is typically is provided by the employer. The employer is allowed to take out (155 a week for there accommodation) They often will get a small grocery allowance, phone allowance and/or be allowed to eat the employers food/toilet paper etc . When you renew your work permit every year you are required to prove you have paid there social insurance and HIP. This means the bulk of their salary they take home with them. I do believe the majority of employers do treat their housekeepers fairly as they truly do become a member of your family. Try not to pass judgment on one bad employer..
Then don’t take these jobs?
And you pay half of your health insurance, not all of it – so $5,000 a year.
I’ve lived pretty well on that amount of money as a single person. It’s not great but it’s a lot better than nothing.
Also, before flying off the handle should we ask what that job that has Roban all fired up actually paid?
Really? I take you either weren’t renting or you were sharing your living acommodations.
Amazing how all these issues have now suddenly become ‘urgent’ lately as if they didn’t exist before.
Interesting indeed.
Woban, this is nothing new and went on when the PLP was in power. NOW you have something to say about it?
Why should Government interfere with the hiring process? The person who applies knows what the job entails — in fact, the ad is explicit. If they don’t like the job description, then don’t apply. If they don’t like the job conditions, then quit. If no one applies, or if the worker quits within a week, then employer will eventually get the hint.
More nanny-state meddling in Bermuda on the way.
I agree Government should not interfere with a lawful hiring process. It seams however that the goal of this ad was to purposely dissuade Bermudians from applying. Extrapolating this with known modern day slavery cases in Bermuda, it opens up the possibility of abuse.
Still amazes me how people dismiss the message & attack the messenger
There are people in this country, mistreating people from other countries and that doesn’t bother you?
It bothers me. To talk against the practice is one thing, but to talk against the practice, whilst not reporting the cases they know of is disgusting.
Your all talking about yourselves, family and friends with regards to all I have read here.
And you wonder why most hate my comments.
Days of our lives……………………
Shalom.
And; Mr Roban does what for a living and gets paid for being a member.
Slave?
Wonder who cuts his grass.
Yes attack the messenger! He had a chance and did nothing. But also find out who posted the ad….its unreal…I think it was planted. maybe someone up to mischief perhaps. its too exaggerated to be legit. Use your heads people, not your emotions.
Highly suspicious isn’t it? 3 houses? 3 familys to take care of? Who placed that add?
My point exactly Swing.
Young and the Wufflass.
sounds like the perfect job for the coq or JS.
Or ewart
Ewart Denny. always likes jobs like this. Let me call my mate. He loves to work for less. But he has a good heart.
What is so hard about saying “That’s it! No more permits for any housekeepers/nannies?
It’s tantamount to a job. If you were to do 8 hours of work during your 8 hour shift it would shock you. Yes you can actually multi task and fill an 8 hour workday with 8 hours of productive useful and even fulfilling work.
Rayban acts like he cares.
If one wanted to “dissuade Bermudians from applying” then all they would have to do is place the word “work” in their ad.
BINGO
Truth to be told, that also applies to the US, Canada, England et al.
Your comment is an insult to hard working Bermudians like myself. Your generalization is shameful and quite frankly disgusting!
Thanks for generalizing so broadly. Always helpful.
Why don’t you & ol mcdonald tell the tragedy you consider a joke to a bermudian kid packing your groceries or putting gas in your vehicle. Bet you rocky mountain canaries can’t name one place in North America where you see that many kids at that age willing to do that type of “work”.
Idiot!!!!
LMAO
Far too many complain about foreign workers “taking jobs from Bermudians” yet they aren’t willing to do the job that are being fulfilled by the foreign worker for the pay the foreign worker receives…
The Bermudian can get Govt. assistance to make up the difference they require “to make ends meet” but no, they just want to talk crap and do nothing to help anyone, themselves / families nor the Island. Foreign workers are sending U.S.A. dollars overseas to their families that are benefiting while “u’lot”are complaining
You allegiance has blinded you Raymond because there are some foreigners in your field of work who don’t want to do what their job entails either. They rather sit on their backsides at the desk yapping with their coworker while their clients go parch because they don’t fill up water jugs periodically. Also know of their clients having to defecate on themselves because these workers ignore the assistance button when pressed. To ad insult to injury we have to pay five star hotel prices for this poorly facilitated service.
Modern day Slavery…..
Who cares who was in power way back when…stop focusing on what “was”…focus on what “is”….
You might want to mention that to those who can’t lose focus on what “was” 200 years ago & can’t focus on what “is” today in living memory & current.
Unless these would be employers are living in a 50 room mansion and have eleven or thirteen children — what lazy so and so’s they are who cannot even clean up after themselves.
We do it all the time without breaking a sweat; work, come home, take care of babies, cook, clean house, keep the hubby in check — and do it all again tomorrow.
I guess we on the block must be superwomen who can cook, clean AND bring home the bacon.
JustAskin2,
You sound like a sista! Are you?
Wait, didn’t the OBA just implement a cleaner training program??
They already did they just prefer to dress up word cleaner with the title, “custodial technician”.
What they need now to follow suite is a child care technician, animal care technician & a garment pressing technician program.
I guess immigration will have to make sure a foreigner isn’t hired for that position. With OBA doing the same as PLP & following Bermudian Business employers new status quo they have set they will have to make sure permits are applied for separately. They would either need a Bermudian who is a trained custodial technician, child care technician, animal care technician & a garment pressing technician or apply for four permit workers.
Why would they “have to make sure a foreigner isn’t hired”?
Because the law doesn’t allow an employer to get work permits for multiple job positions for one foreigner. If you are a foreigner permitted to work as a house keeper or custodial technician as the new government prefer to call it then you can’t also be permitted to work as a child care provider or any other job title. It’s either hire a foreigner for each position or a Bermudian to do them all. My comment was slightly sarcastic because I know there are already many, many foreigners here working outside what there job permit entails without immigration budging to reprimand this. This is against the law & is easy to enforce by having one immigration employee look through the job postings for the week & make sure to note the ones that require the employee to have multiple positions in a company then follow up & make sure either a Bermudian is hired to work all positions or multiple permits for multiple foreigners are applied for.
Oh right. I forgot. In Bermuda you need a ‘garment pressing technician’ and a child care technician’. Heaven forbid you hire someone who does both.
F…in idiot.
WRONG!!! YOU FEEBLEMINDED HALFWIT!!!!
You only need someone to hold different positions if they are on a permit basis. Bermudians who have knowledge in multiple jobs can be hired for multiple positions. This type of immigration law exist worldwide not just in Bermuda to protect local jobs. How daft can you be to call me names because I mentioned a law when you sit on top of your dung heap crowing every time someone speaks out on reforming the cannabis laws.
Yeah. So someone has to hire a ‘floor vacuuming technician’, a ‘garment pressing technician’, a ‘food warming specialist’, a ‘bed maker’, and a ‘child minding specialist’.
Right. Makes a lot of sense. A foreigner will never master the art of making beds and ironing.
HEY NOW!! It’s not me who’s pulling job titles out of the clouds.
It’s the employers & our previous & present government who are making these petty distinctions for these general jobs. If they want to follow United States down the path that’s lead their own country into ruin, extreme debt & welfare states they will as they’ve already shown they will do whatever they want.
I’m not sure how you can relate this to foreign workers as it’s only the Bermudians employers & government are looking at to have these courses before being allowed employment. The majority of foreign workers in these general jobs have been employed without having previous training. Even a Bermudian who has past an accountants course must pay & go to certification training after to be hired while there are a number of foreign accountants here that were hired before they became certified & then once hired the company paid to get them certified & also paid them while they got certified.
You talk such rubbish at times Tommy.
The only rubbish here is your understanding of the subject at hand. Grotto Bay Hotel was fined $8,000 for employing foreign workers under a permit specified for that work type then allowing them to do other jobs that didn’t pertain to it. Home employers may get away with what Grotto Bay didn’t but they shouldn’t be able to. Home employers use the term housekeeper to loosely & immigration allows them to do so when they shouldn’t. There are somethings that can be lumped into housekeeping but childcare should never be. A house is an object while children are humans & there is a massive difference in the care taken between these. Parents who allow housekeepers to take care of their children should be ashamed of themselves. It’s baffling how someone who has become unemployed gets ridiculed for not being able to support their children but someone who is at the upper crust & could take care of their children but prefer to shove the responsibility off to someone else is hardly ever ridiculed for their choice.
I thought Woban was busy providing organisational expertise to the WIA in their fund raising efforts relating to the floods in the Caribbean? Could a WIA member comment on exactly what he has done thus far?
There are two things that will never go a way and they are Taxes and Death .
blacks need to wake up and relies that as long as they depend on the other side for jobs and support they will stay in the position they are in, create your own jobs and support each others businesses, stop shopping at their shops and supporting people that could care less about you, find solutions for your own problems or find yourselves back into slavery,,
Foreign domestic Workers have been bullied and abused since they became noticeable in the late 1980′s.
I can remember a Pilipino Lady telling me a several years ago that She feels like a slave at the home were she works
and how they want her up and working 24 hours a day doing, laundry, cleaning, Cooking, Dishes, driving the employers Children to
school,Grocery purchasing,Ironing Clothing,all for Peanuts.$ 150 a week – they told her most of her pay went on her rent for her accommodations, food,TV, but the madness didn’t stop there – She was told that none of her friends could come over or near the property,stay
away from Bermudians, Her life should be dedicated to her Job and was always threatened with deportation..
Several years ago She Married a good friend of mine.— for seeing him she was fired but it was to late for deportation – they got married.
I’m sure there is hundreds of horror story’s out there from Foreign Workers — took them a long time to speak up!
In the 1980s it was the Portuguese that went through this & look what they’ve achieved since. I haven’t met one Portuguese person who did go through this with a gripe about it they looked at it as better than anything they had back home & with appreciation for the opportunity to improve their families future. I even know some Portuguese who went through this who now have their own business & a lovely house back home.
Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people cant.
Here is where I do agree with you, “Tommy Chong”.”Sometimes one must go through hell in order to reach heaven”.
@ Tommy Chong
I remember in the 1960′s when the Portugese that lived down at Tiger Bay St.Georges were treated like trash.
- awful conditions down there.
Indeed the Portuguese were subjected horrible mistreatments in that era but by the 80s because of certain movements things got a lot better for them. At present the treatment of foreign workers has improved further from even what it was in the 80s & in some cases they are treated better than Bermudians now.
They are not perfect themselves.
Bermuda is still a slave owning society; should be reported to the United Nations; but than that would be a huge embarrassment for the British. I wonder if the governor has his share of cheap labour employed at government House?