US missions abroad paid some local staff less than $1 a day

[prasad1]

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For all the complaints about India and its diplomats underpaying domestic help on their postings abroad, a 2009 state department evaluation of practices in US embassies and missions abroad revealed that some local employees they hired earn less than $1 a day. In fact, some of them were so poorly paid they had to cut back to one meal a day or send their children to peddle on the streets, the report said.


The report from the state department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which has been dusted off for scrutiny by some Indian officials amid a flaming row between Washington and New Delhi over the l'affaire Devyani, looked at how the US pays more than 51,000 local, non-American employees in about 170 missions abroad. In addition to the hardship caused to the workers because of inadequate pay, the report found that the US pays in what in some cases amounts to universal below-poverty level wages.
US missions abroad paid some local staff less than $1 a day - The Times of India

 

[shastibrata]

If the U.S has done this in contravention of the local labor laws then shame on them and they should be exposed and humiliated. But it is unfortunate that India needs to get into this game of 'you do it too'. We should speak truth to power, and from what we have learn't so far about the case, we are on shaky terrain. I am suspicious of certain facts that the Government has put out, and thus there is a credibility issue with the GOI's position. We need to find a diplomatic solution, not necessarily find dirt on the other side.

 

[prasad1]

It is not only connected with the Devyani's case, but also with the American companies exploiting labor practices in China (Appel), Nike (Asia), Walmart(bangladesh) that gets trashed in American press. If the american government practices sub-minimum wages for their employees, American's should know it.