Mariaam Bhatti: Tales of a Domestic Worker
As I was watching Oscar-winning movie The Help for the third time (I really like it) I started noticing and thinking of things I never thought of before, triggered by a scene where Constantine, an elderly domestic worker, was expelled on the spot from the job she held for more than two decades because her loud daughter had come to visit unannounced when her employer had ‘important’ guests over for dinner. Constantine was fired right there and then, in front of the dinner guests, without any hesitation or consideration of the kind of a person or worker she had been the entire time she had worked for the family.
You might think such a thing could only happen in the movies, but the reality is that sudden dismissal for even the smallest mistake – or perceived mistake – is commonplace in domestic work.
In my own experience, I was constantly reminded by my former employer that I could be fired any minute if something went wrong, so much that the eldest girl of the two I cared for, who was eight at the time, even childishly reminded me that her mom would fire me if I didn’t do this or that. Many times I would just let it pass, but deep inside I was hurt at such threats that always hung over my head.
Ten years ago, one of my close friends in South Africa would repeatedly tell me stories about people close to her, such that sometimes she would forget she had told me the story before and tell it again. One of her many stories was that of her aunt, who was a domestic worker for a South African Indian family from the time their two children were very little until these ‘kids’ were adults and at university (they are now well established and settled in their professions as a lawyer and a doctor respectively and have families of their own).
I remembered that story, and last week asked my friend about her aunt; I couldn’t believe it when told she is still working for that same family, now on 37 years. Apparently her roles changed when the children grew up from being a childminder and housekeeper to a carer for her ageing employers, and she’s due to retire age the age of 60 in three years’ time.
My friend is so proud of her aunt for staying in one job so long. And it made me think of how her aunt must have been such a good worker to ‘keep’ her job for nearly four decades. I also thought her employers seemed good as they offered her assistance with her children’s education and helped her build a home in her rural village. Even so, I was also told she fears that from the day she retires she won’t have any more earnings, so she has to make most of it while it lasts.
Of course in this case she would rely on her children’s financial support – as is the tradition in African culture – or rely on the government’s elderly pension, but it seems a shame for her 40 years of dedication to just end, like that. It makes me wonder if there are any domestic workers in Ireland who have gone on proper retirement like more ‘regular’ employees.
Mariaam Bhatti is a member of the Domestic Workers Action Group and Forced Labour Action Group of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland.
