We all know that household help is nothing less than modern-day slavery in Pakistan.
NIDDERAU, GERMANY: I enjoyed Wajahat Latif’s article ‘The horrid lives of domestic servants’ (November 11). We all know that household help is nothing less than modern-day slavery in Pakistan. Servants work long hours seven days a week and there is no limit really to what they are required to do. And even when they have nothing to do, they must remain at the master’s disposal. I have heard that sometimes the masters do not give them their salary or give reduced pay if a servant breaks something.
One sees liberal and open-minded middle class journalists talking about rights of the working classes and at home they are as bad as anyone else to their domestic servants. In my views, we need to have laws to limit work hours for servants — to no more than eight — and also to ensure that they get one day off in a week. They should have a written contract, just like in any proper job, and this must have the salary written in it, as well as any other agreed-upon benefits.
I spend my winter months in South Africa since my retirement and have seen that maids in that country have fixed working hours and do not work on Sundays or public holidays. On top of that their employers are legally bound to contribute towards their pension.
Sharif Lone
Published in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 210.
