Cleaning up: Work needs to pay for domestic workers.
Authors
Jamila Duncan-Bosu is an employment lawyer for ATLEU with two decades of experience of representing domestic work employment and compensation cases.
Kate Roberts works in immigration and employment policy for FLEX (Focus on Labour Exploitation). She has expertise in the intersection between immigration systems and access to rights, anti trafficking law and policy and was a caseworker working with migrant domestic workers for over 10 years.
Domestic work is widely recognised as a sector with a ‘high risk’ of exploitation. The fact that these workers are behind ‘closed doors’ places them particularly at risk of abuse and exploitation. Today on International Domestic Workers’ Day, we ask the UK government to listen to the voices of migrant domestic workers and reinstate their right to escape abuse by switching employers.
In our work assisting migrant domestic workers, we have both encountered workers (who are mainly women) with harrowing stories about the abuse they have suffered, from being required to work seven days a week for little or no salary, to being subjected to physical abuse, psychological abuse and sexual assault. A key feature in such cases is the abuse of power held by an employer who controls their immigration status, employment, living conditions and access to information.
In 1998, the UK took decisive and impactful action to recognise migrant domestic workers as workers. The Home Office introduced the original Overseas Domestic Worker visa, a visa that formally recognised migrant domestic workers as workers with employment rights. Migrant domestic workers could leave and find another domestic work for any reason, they could apply to renew their visa with a new employer and, key to the dignity and family life of workers who spent their days caring for others, they had a pathway to settlement and could apply, if they met the conditions, for their dependents to join them.
The clear rights flowing from the visa meant that workers suffering abuse could leave their employer, find new employment and importantly report their mistreatment and seek compensation in the employment tribunal. The visa was a powerful tool in protecting the rights of migrant domestic workers.
In 2012 the Government changed the immigration rules, dramatically limiting the rights of migrant domestic workers on the Overseas Domestic Worker visa. Under the 2012 visa, workers can only be employed for a period of up to six months, they are tied to their employer so cannot move to a new employer and there is no path to settlement. Further changes were made in 2016, in response to evidence of increased exploitation of domestic workers, significant disquiet on the issue raised by parliamentarians during the passage of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and a Government commissioned review of the visa.
These changes allowed workers to switch employers However, as there was no option to apply to extend the visa beyond six months without a finding of trafficking, domestic workers could not realistically find decent work if they only had a few months left on their visa. There is also a provision which enables domestic workers, who have been formally recognised as victims of trafficking, to apply to renew their visa, for up to a total of two and a half years in the UK. Unsurprisingly, as this change only applies to domestic workers whose exploitation has reached the threshold of trafficking or modern slavery, and are able to evidence trafficking to the Conclusive Grounds standard of proof, this provision has done little to prevent exploitation.
Data published by Kalayaan in 2024 found that:
14% of workers who were issued a visa prior to 6 April 2012 presented with what Kalayaan (a designated First Responder) assessed to be indicators of trafficking. This rose to 40% of the workers issued a visa after 6 April 2012 and 41% of the workers issued a visa after 6 April 2016.
52% of workers who were issued a visa prior to 6 April 2012 had no day off in the UK. This rose to 70% of workers issued a visa after 6 April 2012 and 66% of workers issued a visa after 6 April 2016.
47% of workers who were issued a visa prior to 6 April 2012 did not have access to their passport in the UK. This rose to 73% of workers issued a visa after 6 April 2012 and 6 April 2016 respectively.
Kalayaan’s 2024 report demonstrates that the restrictions to the Overseas Domestic Worker visa increases workers’ vulnerability to trafficking and modern slavery.
16 June 2025, (International Domestic Workers’ Day) commemorates the adoption of ILO Convention 189 on decent work for migrant domestic workers. This convention sets out the right of domestic workers to decent and safe employment. While the UK has not signed up to this convention, the government has stated a commitment to make work pay. If they are genuine about this commitment they must listen to and act on the recommendations and wealth of evidence from migrant domestic workers and their allies. Their recommendations would ensure that the UK provides a legal and policy structure which gives migrant domestic workers the options they need to challenge poor treatment early on, to leave and find better employment, and to seek justice.
Access to justice in the form of compensation for unpaid wages or other labour exploitation is key to driving up employment standards. Unless unscrupulous employers know there are serious risks to flouting employment law there is no real disincentive to underpaying workers. Workers who have experienced wage theft, sometimes for years, are unlikely to be in a strong position to rebuild their lives without compensation, increasing the likelihood they will be pushed into other exploitative work to survive or to support their families and pay off migration debts.
We are concerned that the draft Employment Rights Bill does not address the UK’s use of short term, restrictive visas such as the Overseas Domestic Worker visa, or the fact that these visas prevent access to rights. Visas which create multiple dependencies on employers compound the power imbalance between the worker and employer, and exacerbate issues such as migration debt. Unless it proactively addresses the immigration restrictions on certain migrant workers, the Employment Rights Bill will only compound the creation of a two tier workforce and drive down terms and conditions for all workers.
Despite a 2015 review of the Overseas Domestic Worker visa making a number of recommendations to assist with the protection of workers rights, 10 years on, no significant action has been taken. We remain unclear why this is given the overwhelming evidence of exploitation arising. Removal of the visa or further restrictions, serve only to give more power to exploitative employers, who will seek migrant domestic workers in any event.
Domestic workers with lived experience of navigating the UK on the Overseas Domestic Worker visa in its original and restrictive forms have spoken out, collected evidence and organised. What this large body of evidence shows is that action to ‘stop employers exploiting their staff’ will only be effective if it means giving workers rights to speak out, to withdraw their labour and find another job, and to access their rights. The government needs to reinstate the rights contained within the 1998 visa urgently, and then work with migrant domestic workers and other experts to ensure that workers rights are fully protected.