Au pairs and nannies are celebrating a “historic victory” after the government announced it will eradicate the legal loophole which left live-in workers exempt from minimum wage laws.
Rules implemented in 1999 outlined a “family worker exemption” which stipulated employees needn’t be paid minimum wage if they are living in the home of their employer and are treated like they are part of the family.
The Nanny Solidarity Network, a grassroots campaign organisation, warned the UK’s laws on live-in workers have forged an “invisible, exploited group of migrant women, unable to report abuse” who are wholly reliant on the family housing them and earning just 1 per hour.
Live-in workers in the UK say they are forced to work long hours, which resulted in having no time to attend English classes, with some au pairs expected to sleep inside the same room as the children they are looking after.
Leticia Dias, who worked as an au pair near Luton for a year, told The Independent she was paid just 80 a week.
The 27-year-old, who is Brazilian and returned to the country last month, said it was difficult to calculate exactly how many hours a week she was working.
Ms Dias explained she would walk the dog twice a day, three times a week, as well as babysitting in the evenings on weekdays. She went to sleep knowing she “was in charge of the kids” as the mother came home late at night, she added.
“Sometimes at 11 or 12 or later,” Ms Dias said. “I didn’t have the freedom to go out in the...
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