By Athena Karsera
SERIOUS allegations were levelled at Cypriot employers of foreign workers during a meeting of parliament’s Human Rights Committee yesterday.
The meeting was called following a proposal by Akel deputy Takis Hadjigeorgiou for a re-examination of the current situation.
Introducing the issue, Hadjigeorgiou said the needs of legal foreign workers were often eclipsed because it was illegal immigrants that were grabbing the headlines.
Hadjigeorgiou said the Committee should in particular examine issues concerning foreign workers’ salaries, medical treatment and contracts.
He said foreign workers were regularly brought to the island, not because there were no Cypriots available to do the job, as required by law, but because foreign workers were usually paid less than locals.
“The term ‘equal work equal pay’ should apply,” Hadjigeorgiou said. “It might upset the so-called madams, but I don’t think it’s logical that a foreign person should be paid less.”
And he noted instances of foreign house maids who became ill and were fired, rather than receiving adequate medical treatment. “There was a foreign woman working permanently here who got cancer and was deported,” he said.
He went on to tell the committee of instances where workers had been made to sign contracts in a language they could not understand.
Hadjigeorgiou said contracts “should be in English or a language they understand. A representative from their embassy should be present and they should be given a card with a contact number on it.”
He added that this number could be used by workers who were mistreated. And the Akel deputy cited the example of an employer who threw a maid out onto the street the day she arrived, “because he did not like the way she looked.”
And he called for ideas from attendant representatives from the Labour, Interior and Justice Ministries, Foreigner Support Movement and Cyprus Association for the Promotion of Human Rights.
But a representative from the Labour Ministry told the committee that his Ministry was not responsible for domestic workers and artistes, only for other foreign workers.
These two groups, he said, fell under the jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry. This meant the regulations that governed their employment were different to those of other workers.
And the Interior Ministry man added that the problem of unfair treatment of legal foreign workers was not one of gaps in the law, but of a failure to implement it.
He said all complaints from foreign workers were submitted to the Attorney- general, who decides whether the workers’ rights have been violated.
If so, the employers are not allowed to employ foreign workers again and alternative work is found for the workers.
A police representative assured deputies that complaints by foreign workers were treated “exactly the same as those made by Cypriots.”
A representative of the Foreigner Support Movement, Doros Kakoullis, blamed much of the problem on the fact that foreign workers were divided into two categories and fell under the jurisdiction of separate ministries.
He said his movement received many complaints: “One this Saturday involved a Filipino woman. She told us that her employer made her withdraw her salary every month and re-deposit it so that it would appear he was paying her.” Kakoullis added that the woman had been fired on Sunday.
He said workers were often sacked just before the weekend as government services would then be closed.
But the Labour Ministry Representative said there was another side to the coin: he said that, as workers were allowed to stay on the island for only four years, they often made complaints against their employers just before having to leave.
They are then allowed to stay on the island until the court investigates their claim, sometimes giving them several extra years on the island.
The Committee decided to continue the discussion at its next meeting.
