This document discusses factors that can contribute to abuse of domestic workers and situations of forced labor. It notes that domestic work is often viewed as a personal relationship rather than a formal employment, leaving workers without clear contracts or rights. Employers may see foreign workers as "other" due to attributes like poverty or foreignness. Flat rate pay unrelated to hours worked, lack of limits on job demands, and location within a private home can also enable exploitation. Regional norms, pay systems like piece rates, and social attitudes toward certain groups may facilitate a decline from poor treatment to forced labor conditions.

1. Employers and forced labour
Nick Clark

2. Domestic workers:
contributory factors to abuse

3. Imprecise notions of
employment
“like a member of the family”; relationship
based on favours rather than contracts
and rights:
“I don’t have a contract. My present
employer, they accept me to work in their
house, they trust me that means.”
Filipina female 40-49 in Clark & Kumarappan (2011)

4. “Othering” of the
worker
Poverty, docility, lack of sophistication – foreignness
. . . they’re [Nepalese] so quiet and discreet. Filipinos
are brasher. They’re more social and they like to chat
and gossip. They are quite pushy. Some people would
say they were greedy.
(Employer interviewees, ‘Markets for Migrant Sex and Domestic
Workers’ cited by Anderson (2007))

5. Flat rate payments: pay unrelated to
work hours – two thirds of employers set
pay at round numbers, but hours of work
vary widely in jobs with same nominal rate
Nature of the work: lack of limits to
demand, emotional content & location in
the home

6. JRF Study: contributory
factors
(Clark 2013)

7. Sectional or regional norms: for example
textile workshops in Spain, construction in Italy,
agriculture in general.
Similar process noted for non payment of wages
in Russia during ’90s:
“a one-month increase in the average use of the
practice in a community increases the probability that a
firm will use wage arrears by 6 to 7 percent in the
following year” (Earle, Spicer & Peter 2010)

8. Pay systems: output-related in Swedish
berry picking, Romanian strawberry
pickers in Germany, Netherlands, flat rate
in Connors case(UK)
“Othering” can also be found – for
example seasonal workers in agriculture
in S. France

9. Employers & forced
labour: a preliminary
hypothesis
There is a tendency for certain labour
market practices and social relationships in
combination to facilitate a decline from
exploitative practice into forced labour

10. References
Anderson, B. (2007) A Very Private Business - Exploring the Demand
for Migrant Domestic Workers European Journal of Women’s Studies
14:3 pp 247-264
Clark, N. & Kumarappan, L (2011) Turning a Blind Eye - the British
state and domestic workers employment rights London: Working
Lives Research Institute
Clark, N. (2013) Detecting and tackling forced labour in Europe York:
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Earle, J., Spicer, A. & Sabrianova Peter, K. (2010)The Normalisation
of Deviant Organisational Practices: Wage Arrears in Russia 19911998 Academy of Management Journal 53:2 pp 218-237