Bihar woman’s win in UK discrimination case hailed

Campaigners against caste discrimination and the abuse of migrant domestic workers in the UK have hailed a recent judgment by an employment tribunal that awarded a woman from Bihar just under £184,000 in lost wages, and found evidence of wide-ranging mistreatment in “clear violation of her dignity”, significantly noting the relevance of her caste, “inherited position” and religion in their treatment of her.

However, they have warned that without decisive action from the government to introduce caste discrimination legislation and to strengthen the rights of migrant domestic workers, abuse was likely to continue.

In a judgment last week, an employment tribunal in Cambridge found that Permila Tirkey, a 39-year-old Christian Adivasi woman from a village in Bihar, had been paid wages far below the UK minimum wage by Pooja and Ajay Chandhok of Milton Keynes, and had been the victim of unlawful harassment on the grounds of her race, apart from facing indirect religious discrimination.

She had worked 18 hours a day, seven days a week for four and a half years, slept on the floor, had her passport confiscated, not been allowed to contact her family and paid 11 pence an hour — a fraction of the UK national minimum wage.

According to the judgment, the couple had specifically recruited Tirkey in India because she was someone they expected would be servile and not aware of her employment rights, and because “she was by birth, by virtue of her inherited position in society, and by virtue of her upbringing — because of her ethnic origins — a person whose expectations in life were no higher than to be a domestic servant.”

“It was because she was a low caste, Indian national who could not speak English and by upbringing and by her inherited position in Indian society expected and was expected by others to do nothing more than serve others,” said the ruling.

While campaigners have welcomed the judgment — and the remarkable legal battle embarked on by Tirkey, who was refused legal aid funding in the UK (her case was taken up by the Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit) they point to the lack of sufficient protections to prevent future caste discrimination from happening, as well as the abuse of migrant domestic workers, who were in a particularly vulnerable position because of their immigration status.

In 2010, the House of Lords voted to include caste discrimination as an aspect of “race” just like colour, nationality, and ethnic origin, in the Equality Act of 2010, but it is yet to be implemented by the government, which insists that further evidence is first needed.

“We knew that the UK government has been hanging on the judgment of this case to make a judgment on whether or not to implement the caste discrimination law. But this decision refers only to this case — and does not set a precedent. So future cases may not be covered,” says Meena Varma, of the Dalit Solidarity Network.

“We still need caste based discrimination legislation to protect potential victims of caste discrimination. Having to go through an employment tribunal every time is very expensive so cannot be relied upon,” she added.

“The government’s original rationale for refusing explicit prohibition of caste-based discrimination was that there was no evidence of its taking place in the UK. The damning findings of the Employment Tribunal render that stance untenable. Where discrimination exists its victims must be protected,” Chris Milson, the barrister who represented Tirkey, said in a statement.

Kate Roberts of Kalayaan, a London-based charity, which works to prevent the abuse of migrant domestic workers, also noted that the situation for domestic workers had worsened in recent years.

While Tirkey, who had arrived in the UK in 2008, would have had the right to switch employers, domestic workers who arrived in the UK after 2012 had their visa tied to a particular employer, greatly reducing their support and options when facing abuse.

“The numbers coming to us have fallen, though those who come to us are reporting a worsening of conditions, suggesting that fewer people are coming to us because there is less we can do for them in practice,” said Roberts.

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