Domestic employees are just one group of lower level employees who many times are not paid the minimum wage. Some of these employees actually work for as little as $7 an hour. Ida Le Blanc, secretary general of the National Union of Domestic Employees (Nude) and a member of the new Minimum Wage Board, gave the Business Guardian an insight into some of the complex problems confronted in trying to assist these workers. She said a lot of work has to be done before domestic employees start feeling the benefits of the new increase. She said that according to official statistics, there are 10,000 domestic employees in T&T although she said the actual number is higher than this.
These statistics simply reflect domestic employees who are registered with the National Insurance Board (NIB). She said that there are many problems in trying to protect domestic employees. "One of the main problems we have is that domestic workers are not defined as 'workers' under the Industrial Relations Act (IRA). Anyone who works around a house and is paid by the owner is not legally considered a 'worker.' Of course, all this has to change when they amending the IRA," she said. Another major problem they encounter is the Labour Inspectorate monitoring how domestic employees are paid.
"The Labour Inspectorate can go into workplaces, but can they go into people's private home to see the working conditions of domestic employees. These are very difficult circumstances we have to get around," she said. Le Blanc said work is right now being done at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to come up with conventions that protect domestic workers. "Once this is done by next June in Geneva, the next step will be for the Government of this country to ratify these conventions and then we will have a legal basis for dealing with employers who disregard the terms and conditions of workers," she said.
She said many domestic consciously work for as low as $7 an hour because that is all they think they are worth, they do not have skills to get other jobs and employers exploit this. "T&T is supposed to be oil-and-gas-rich, but there is a lot of poverty in this country. People come to us with stories that they work for as little as $7 an hour because they don't think they can get other jobs and you have employers taking advantage of this. These are instances of human rights abuses." Now that Le Blanc is on the Minimum Wage Board, she hopes to continue her work and push for amendments to the IRA and also continue her work with the ILO to ensure that people who earn the minimum wage, including domestic employees, are paid according to the law and their terms and conditions are respected.
