I worked for Microsoft and coded window 7, windows 8, windows server. I got $1500-$1600 when I left 2.5 yrs back. No free food, accommodation etc. I have an engineering degree.
My father is a teacher in Govt. school for 30+ yrs, his is a post-graduate. He gets $1050 per month.
Maid would have got $150 in India with no free food, accommodation etc. We will give her $500-$600 and free food, accommodation, insurance etc. Think that from the rest $900-$1000 of the public money, India is providing clean drinking water to 200 poor families. Can you think in this way?
No you don’t, else you’d have no issue with her being arrested and strip searched in accordance with American law. She had no right to be treated differently, and India’s insistence otherwise is to it’s discredit, and shows both that it cares more about the officer treated legally that the maid treated illegally, and that it has little respect for the US.
Oh, and I’m not American, but should a British consul be arrested for visa fraud and people trafficking, in the US, India or elsewhere, I’d not be complaining.
If she went into it knowing that would be her workload, then yes, I would consider her better off. If she didn’t know and was indeed being forced to work for 100 hours a week, then no she was not better off.
Now, would you tell me your opinion? In a house where her employers wouldn’t be around during the entire working day, and their kids wouldn’t be there for the school day, do you think the maid could possibly have been working 14+ hours every day?
Meh. As I’ve pointed out before, the ‘retaliation’ is simply revocation of those privileges granted by the Indian government to US staff which its own staff in the US do not enjoy. This is how things should be. It is a pity that the Indian government is doing it in the wake of an incident like this one, but they absolutely should do it.
I’ve never at any point said the consular staff in question was right. Had you bothered to read or attempt to understand what I’m saying, you would have understood this, but clearly you’re not interested.
Devyani Khobragade has two children, 4 and 7, and lived in a four bedroom, two floor apartment. It’s not difficult to imagine 14 hour days for somebody responsible for the children, cooking and cleaning up, and keeping the apartment clean.
If the visa they receive to enter the United States is conditioned on the diplomat receiving a certain wage, then yes. As far as I know that is not true for diplomats or consular officials, but is true for the visa type “household servant of a diplomat or consular official.”
Again, the maid would not have been permitted to enter the US if the consul had not committed fraud against the US government – not by making a mistake on a form, but lying directly in an interview and providing totally fictitious proof of her ability to do so. If the maid ends up with the better end of that criminal act, most Americans would say, good for her.
Do you agree with me or not? Please, explain to us:
Do you believe people should stick to illegal contracts?
Do you believe India’s fundamental rights to not apply to servants?
Is it wrong to report illegal behavior?
Did you live in New York City, or elsewhere in the US?
Did he work in NYC or elsewhere in the US?
If paying US wages for personal servants is an unwise use of money, then Indian officials don’t need servants. Most of the world gets along perfectly well without live-in maids.
And let me be clear: if you took an American maid from Youngstown, Ohio, and put that maid in Luanda, Angola, or Tokyo, Japan, (the most expensive cities in the world), I fully expect that this person would be paid the prevailing wages in those cities. I would not say that making $15 an hour in those cities makes the maid 70% better off than making $9 an hour in Youngstown.
The indictment contains specific information on the “real” contract and the “fake” contract, as well as the maid’s efforts to get time off in accordance with the contract that she signed. I encourage you to read the indictment.
But seriously, I thought India had rather decent labor protections, notwithstanding he low income of many workers, including minimum wages, overtime protections, and so on. Tell me straight: would 100 hour work contracts be allowed in India?
Yes, I can imagine that an asshole of a boss can find enough work to make someone’s life totally miserable. I don’t know why you think that is implausible.
Ravenman:
We will make a contract of $1500, will pay $600 in cash and charge $900 for free food, Free stay, Free medical expenses and free weekly trip to salon, market, churches or wherever.
Is that fine?
No, but I do not want to. Because the maid is a fraud and is an absconder from Indian law.
Ok fine. We will give them $1500 but they must pay back $900 for free food, Free stay, Free medical expenses and free weekly trip to salon, market, churches or wherever.
If they do not pay back $900 every month, we recall them to India and send replacement . Is this fine?
No. For better or for worse, countries don’t have the authority to compel private citizens to return home unless they are subject to an extradition treaty or something. I don’t think “leaving a job that is apparently awful” is an extraditable offense.
But serious question: you keep calling her an absconder. Is that an actual crime in India, and if so, could you explain it more? What does one have to do to be an absconder, and what are the legal penalties? Or are you just using the word absconder as an insult to the maid’s character?
I think this is complicated somewhat by the visa situation. My understanding is that the employer sponsoring the visa has to pay for the employee’s return after the contract expires as a condition of the visa, and the visa is valid only as long as the applicant is employed. In the absence other illegalities in the contract, I think the US would be fine with a clause that required the employee to return home (or at least to leave the US) at the conclusion of employment.
Ok fine. We will expel such people from the (govt.) job. You can keep them or resend back to India as per your wish.
Also, visa application will have $1500(say thats the minimum salary) mentioned. (But US govt. very well knows that $600 is the salary and the rest is for the free stuff. They may wanna remain oblivious to it or may wanna deny visa to the workers, thats their prerogative. In the same way, India can do whatever it sees fit towards US diplomats staff here)
She and her husband have fraud, blackmail case, arrest warrants against them, are declared absconders , have orders that they can’t file a court case.
Thats all I care.
You refuse to read the charges, preferring to ask repeated questions which would be answered by reading said document.
For someone seeking truth, you seem to prefer ignorance and then consider such ignorance morally superior.
Give it up
A conspiracy was engineered by a member of the Indian Consular staff. The US has laws which the conditions of the “maid”'s employment violated on no less than 6 points.
Because the perp was a Consular member, she could not be expected to hang around for trial and punishment. So we humiliate her as much as possible while we can hold her.
Is that so hard to comprehend?
Like the filthy rich (American) guy in the swank NY restaurant with his “date” who pulled out his dick and said something about “her dessert”. He was only going to be in custody long enough to book him; the cops did what they could in the line of punishment: by duck-walking him past his peers in the restaurant.
I generally don’t like NYC cops; every once in a while they do good.
Getting a diplomat who was keeping a servant as as a personal slave requires creative handling - this was as good as they could do.
So you are advising the Indian government to continue to violate US labor laws by lying on visa forms about wages? Sheesh, some people just won’t listen…
Does it matter that the “absconder” allegedly had her passport taken from her by her employer? How is she supposed to go answer those frivolous charges if she had her passport seized by an Indian official gone power-crazy, if that is indeed the case?
I still don’t know what you mean by absconder. That is not a legal term in the US. Please explain what you mean by it: I’m unclear if it means not responding to a court summons or if it means no longer showing up for work. The latter isn’t a crime at all here, by the way.
I am telling you what will most probably happen. my suggestion would be the same. say we save one million in an year , that money will be used even more noble purposes .
you expelled n indicted the officer thts fine. But arrest and strip search is unacceptable.
Say there are 100 Indian workers being paid 600 (plus the free stuff) -
For 1 year, we are saving 900X100X12 = 1.08 million.
India spends $21 billion on food security which benefits 800 million people.
It spends total of $50 billion on all subsidies (food, oil, fertilizer etc).
It successfully tested heavy satellite launch costing a staggeringly low $60 million which is supposed to bring good satellite launch business for future.
Few people in this thread want $1.08 million cut from this noble expenditure.
It seems that Indians have imbibed the ethos of American constitution better than these people.
What makes you think anyone had the right to tell someone where to live and force them to pay $900 for it? The maid may choose to pay that, or may choose to take the $900 and live somewhere else. If she is expected to live and eat in the house as a condition of employment, it is not compensation, and she must still be paid in full.