No sick leave, $1 per hour for maid in U.S.-India row: court papers

[okaawhatever]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - An Indian diplomat accused of visa fraud and lying about underpaying her maid coached the nanny to mislead U.S. officials, confiscated her passport and made her work 100-hour, seven-day weeks, according to a U.S. grand jury indictment.

Devyani Khobragade, who was India's deputy consul-general in New York, was effectively expelled from the United States on Thursday as part of a deal in which she was granted diplomatic immunity from the charges.

U.S. court indictment papers, published on the website of the U.S. attorney's office of the Southern District of New York, painted a picture of a maid refused sick days and holidays while working for a salary of little over $1 an hour in New York, or about one-seventh the minimum wage. (link.reuters.com/jus85v)

SNIP

But on the evening of flying from India to the United States, Richard was called to Khobragade's house in Delhi.

She was told she needed to sign a second work contract, with a changed maximum salary, including overtime, of 30,000 Indian rupees ($480) a month, an illegally low amount under U.S. minimum-wage laws.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/10/us-india-usa-maid-idUSBREA090LE20140110

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It's important to note that many are commenting on how a live-in housekeeper/nanny can't really compare their hourly wage to someone who doesn't live-in. While that is true, and US minimum wage law often doesn't apply in those instances, it's the rules of the Vienna Convention of Consular Relations that governs the pay. The VCCR does state that live-in help must be paid minimum wage or prevailing wage for the area whichever is higher and also lists other rules that govern bringing help from the consul's home country. This isn't even about the maid not being paid by US laws, but about the consul lying to meet the requirements set forth in the VCCR agreements that the Indian government signed and agreed to.

[perdita9]

1. People who work at the UN...

...should be setting an example for human rights. This woman did the exact opposite. She has no place in the diplomatic core and, if India is smart, they'll kick her out of it.

[riqster]

2. On the contrary, they are backing her 100%

Even taking punitive retaliatory measures against US diplomatic posts in India.

[okaawhatever]

4. The rest of the story has quotes from a few in India talking about how the maid had

an Iphone and went to the beauty shop every two weeks. They act like she had it made. And maybe she did by Indian standards, but that's not what's important here. The law states one thing and the consul chose to ignore it and do something else. Sorry, that's breaking the law, the CONSULAR SPECIFIC law. The one that the GOV"T OF INDIA agreed to. They time for protest was when these laws were being passed. Why are they pissed at us for enforcing something they signed into law?

[Recursion]

10. If Khobagadre's father hadn't gotten a no-bail warrant against Richards and her family...

... she probably would have walked. As it is, he forced Bharara's hand.

On the other hand, at least it distracted the Indian press just before the report was released about how Khobagadre illegally got a condo in Mumbai that was supposed to be set aside for war widows.

[okaawhatever]

13. Oh, I didn't hear about that. I read the Indian papers early on but that was probably reported

after I stopped. Thanks for the info.

[Recursion]

14. It came out around Christmas or so

Just google "Adarsh scam"

She also got a guy who placed higher on the exams bumped for her language training and posting in Germany, and then sued him and got him fired when he complained. Quite a piece of work.

[okaawhatever]

17. No kidding. I just read up on the Adarsh scam. India's corruption is sickening. How sad. nt

[cosmicone]

3. Trial by media

Preet Bharara only asserts the maid side of the story, forgetting that the maid knowingly signed two contracts and agreed to work under the second one while lying about the first one in her visa interview to get passage to the US. At no point did the maid say "No, I won't come to the US under the second contract." No one forced the maid to get on the plane.

Thus, the maid also conspired to engage in fraud, all the while knowing that she would complain once in the US and gain an immigration visa for her and her family.

Now everyone is repeating what is in the indictment which will be she said she said.

Preet Bharara could have accused her of genocide in that indictment, knowing full well that the case was never coming to trial.

[anasv]

5. you don't know that

Apparently her family in India was threatened after she complained in the US. Maybe they were threatened to get her on the plane and to lie in the visa interview.

I have yet to see that her family has gotten a visa.

[cosmicone]

7. India is not a lawless country

where someone can be forced to work in another country.

Also, it is all one sided. The maid claimed that her family was threatened so they were whisked out of India at taxpayer expense. If the Indian government had wanted, their passports could have been cancelled and they could have been arrested at the airport.

The maid is evil and scheming -- she didn't have to take that employment but she had a bigger prize in mind -- US immigration STAT -- something for which thousands of people wait in line for years.

Maid got the immigration status and her family's fare was paid by we taxpayers. Now she is probably on public assistance on top of it.

[Recursion]

9. Oh don't be absurd. The judge called Richards' request for her wages "blackmail".

Is India "lawless" in a Somalia sense? No.

Is it absurdly, embarrassingly corrupt in every aspect of its government? Yes. Bharara was right to get them out of here.

[cosmicone]

19. Again,

the judge was privy to only one side of the story and wanted the maid to defend herself -- he didn't find her guilty -- just stated that there was an accusation and she needed to appear before the court.

Seems like you tend to make decisions of guilt and innocence without hearing both sides which goes against an adversarial system.

[msanthrope]

6. The indicment uses the false statements Khobrogade filed in the Delhi courts..she was hoist

on her own petard when the US attorney gave them to the grand jury here.

Like most criminals, she thought no one would check up on her. But she dammed herself.

[geek tragedy]

12. You're defending the practice of human trafficking.

This is how they operate.

[closeupready]

18. Why are you still allowed to post here on DU? Time after time,

you post such outrageously medieval, misanthropic, anti-liberal nonsense.

[JoeyT]

21. Defending human trafficking is illiberal?

Damnit, the definition is getting so narrow, you can hardly stay in the lines any more for all the purity tests.

[JI7]

23. and vile attacks against the maid for being an immigrant and attacking those who might get welfare

[Recursion]

8. As a reminder, Khobragade was not charged with underpaying Richards

The underlying crime was the fraudulant visa application, not the underpayment. A3 visa holders are not protected by US labor laws, in general, but lying about their terms of employment (particularly if you're then skimming the extra money for yourself) is very much a crime.

Even worse (and what forced Bharara's hand) is getting your father's judicial crony to issue a warrant for the maid and her family, on the absurd grounds that demanding wages to which one is legally entitled is "blackmail". (You may hear people talking about "blackmail"; just keep in mind, they're saying, with a straight face, that Richards demanding the wages to which she was legally entitled per the contract, was "blackmail".)

[okaawhatever]

15. The pay was determined by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. It's similar to the VC on

Diplomatic Relations. Clearly the difference being one is for diplomats the other consulars. Some Diplomats (the actual Ambassador being one) doesn't have any rules regarding pay. That's not the case for consuls and vice-consuls. I read the State Department publishes on their website what the "prevailing wage" is for a certain area since the VCCR and VCDR often require the higher of minimum wage or prevailing wage whichever is higher.
The need to lie on the application was due to the VCCR requirements and really have nothing to do with US law. The VCCR rules for pay are quite strict and they address the live-in care situation specifically.

[cosmicone]

20. I have never said that Khobragade was not-guilty

and it is likely that she was.

However, as a representative of over a billion people, she should have simply been declared PNG and forced to leave. I don't care if it was Mahatma Gandhi in her shoes or Laluprasad Yadav. The respect should be shown to the position.

We don't do this to Russian, Saudi, Qatari, British, French or German diplomats.

[westerebus]

22. As a representative of one billion people

she should have shown respect for the position.

there fixed it for you

[happyslug]

11. How did this come out?

The main reason you do NOT underpay your staff in a Diplomatic mission, is to make sure none of them are exposed to bribes. i.e. why would someone reveal a maid is underpaid, when they can pay her to information, knowing she will take the money for she has none?

Maids can get excess to information, tossed away notes, comments made in when their are present, etc. They can tell who is sleeping with who, and what they are eating. Thus when someone finds staff is underpaid, they do NOT reveal that fact, they exploit it.

There is something more about this dispute then a maid being underpaid. Did the employer received money from the Indian Government to pay for the maid (and thus the first Contract) and then decided to keep most of that money for herself (thus the second contract)? Worse, the Indian Government, may have a policy to pay such maids highly, but through the Diplomats themselves (so the diplomat can pick they own maids etc) and this has become a way for Indian Diplomats to make more money for themselves. i.e. Have a Servant sign a contract with a high wage number, then change the contract just before they go overseas with the Diplomat pocking the difference. The Indian Government may NOT want that known, let China or Pakistan decides to exploit similar situations (or has been exploited in the past, thus the US decision to attack this system with this Diplomat. Remember the US is working on better relations with India and worse relations with China thus the US may think it is better to take a small hit for exposing this, but is thinking long term, to cut out Chinese, Pakistan and others use of such under paid help).

Something is up, and it is more then India underpaying its help.

[Recursion]

16. Yes, that was the con

Did the employer received money from the Indian Government to pay for the maid (and thus the first Contract) and then decided to keep most of that money for herself (thus the second contract)?

Yes. She "deducted" things like, oh, her entire electricity bill, the maid's plane ticket, the maid's visa fees, and, well, really just deducted almost all of her paycheck and was shocked -- SHOCKED -- when Richards demanded the money she was legally entitled to.

Something is up, and it is more then India underpaying its help.

I don't know; I really think it may be just India underpaying its help. Khobragade is the 3rd Indian diplomat in two years in New York to run into this kind of trouble.

[JI7]

24. it's amazing how people are so outraged about this compared to the rape cases including the girl

that was burned to death and the fucking authorities claimed she did it herself and some politician claiming she was a prostitute.

this is why you see such poverty in india. there are too many who accept and excuse it and just say certain people deserve to be treated in horrible ways.