Indian employees are paid much below the minimum wage set by US: Sources
The US Embassy and its consulates may be in violation of their own laws concerning the wages paid to the Indian staff employed by these missions as well as by individual diplomats, informed sources said on Sunday.
Keeping up the pressure on the US, a special group set up in the External Affairs Ministry will meet here on Monday to scrutinise the available information regarding the wages being paid to their Indian staff amid indications that these may be violative of the their own laws.
The US Embassy and its consulates are still dragging their feet in furnishing to the Government the details it has sought about the number of Indian staff employed both in the diplomatic mission and also at the residences by their diplomats. The details sought include the wages paid as well as the tax details.
The deadline to provide such information was December 23 but according to the Ministry of External Affairs no information has been provided as yet. It is understood that the US Embassy has cited Christmas and New Year holidays as the reason for the delay.
While the Government is awaiting American response, information available indicates that Indian staff, like cooks and drivers, were being paid between `12,000-15,000 per month which is equivalent to $200-250, way below the minimum wage of USD 9.47 per hour applicable in New York or in any other US city.
Thus, American diplomats would be in violation of US law of minimum wages since their residences as well as the embassy and consulates are treated as American territory.
Even if they provide legal justifications and claim exemption from the US laws for the salaries being paid to Indian employees, the public disclosure of such payment practices by US Embassy and diplomats in their personal capacities is likely to deeply embarrass the US.
The Government’s action is a fallout of the arrest and strip-search of Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested in New York on visa fraud charges.
Enforcing strict reciprocity, the Indian Government has withdrawn extra privileges enjoyed by American Ambassador Nancy Powell and other diplomats, such as special access at Indian airports.
There are also reports that the commercial facilities run by American Community Support Association (ACSA), including a beauty salon and other full-scale commercial facilities hosted by the US Embassy within its compound which include the sale and service establishment, were open not only to US diplomats from third countries but to non-diplomatic personnel as well.
“This is a misuse of diplomatic privilege that is not extended by the US to others in their country,” sources said.
There is a view in the Government that the US diplomats at the Embassy in New Delhi and in their Consulates in other cities in India have always enjoyed a high degree of non-reciprocal privileges and facilitation.
These include tax-free treatment of their nationals working in the American Embassy School in New Delhi, extra privileges and immunities for their consulate officials at their consulates in Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad, approvals for extra staffing, including the deputation of short-term ‘extra staff’ for deployment in the embassy which are usually extended repeatedly and become regular one to two year postings effectively.
The sources also observed that the US has been ignoring the principle of reciprocity on privileges such as special traffic measures, including dedicated parking spaces and jersey barriers on roads adjacent to the Embassy.
The government is also unhappy with the unwillingness of the US to repatriate Devyani’s domestic help to India as required under the terms of employment contract as required by US laws which it terms as “inexplicable”.
The sources said, “The government repeatedly sought the help of the US authorities to locate and repatriate her (Sangeeta) to India; instead of fulfilling its obligations by repatriating her, the US Government on the contrary, ‘evacuated’ the entire Richard family from India by presumptively issuing them ‘T visas’ which are issued to next of kin of victims of human trafficking.”