With a fortune estimated at 37 billion pounds, or 44 billion euros, the Hindujas are, according to the Sunday Times, the richest family in Britain. And with good reason: the family runs a multinational concern, the so-called “Hinduja Group”, which is active in more than sixty countries. The Group has interests in a range of different industries, including car manufacturing, the financial market, oil, media and information technology. Financially, therefore, things could hardly be going better for the family of British-Indian billionaires. They can even afford a residence in Cologny, one of the most expensive municipalities in Switzerland. Despite this, they have now been sentenced by a court in Geneva for the exploitation of their domestic employees.
What actually were the accusations?
The family had already had to pay a fine of around 10,000 Swiss francs in 2007 for lacking permission to reside for their domestic employees. Things were then relatively quiet for the Hinduja clan for a while, but a few years later, serious accusations began emerging once again: numerous domestic employees were said to have worked and lived under conditions similar to slavery for decades on end. Three former employees sued the family as a result, accusing them of human trafficking.
Slaving away for starvation wages
The employees had supposedly been brought from India to Switzerland specifically to work there for the ultra-rich family. The moment the employees arrived in Switzerland, however, they were said to have had their passports taken away from them. Many of the domestic employees recruited could neither read nor write, and came from impoverished circumstances. The Hinduja family is said to have shamelessly exploited this situation.
Numerous employees reported having to work 16-hour days without receiving a penny of compensation for overtime. Although they did get two to four weeks’ holiday a year, this was only unpaid. Exactly when they were allowed to take that holiday also had to be decided by the family itself. According to their own statements, the workers had to be available continuously, and care for the children, household and general well-being of the family around the clock, for starvation wages of just seven francs a day. Just to give you an idea of what that is worth: in Switzerland, a single doner kebab costs between seven and twelve francs. As well as this, their wages were reportedly transferred into Indian bank accounts which they were unable to access.
Employees were also forbidden from having any contacts outside the family. They were reportedly never allowed to leave the Hinduja property without permission, and referred to a “climate of fear” created by the family. Staff were said only ever to get the bare minimum necessary to eat, and were housed together in an air-raid bunker beneath the villa without privacy or natural light.
The case was uncovered in 2017 when, rather than travelling to India on holiday as planned, one of these domestic employees contacted the Geneva Justice Authorities and revealed the working conditions to them. The law suit was submitted against the family immediately.
The judgement: exploitation yes, human trafficking no
The defendants in the law suit were 79-year-old Prakash Hinduja, patriarch of the family, his 75-year-old wife Kamal, their 56-year-old son Ajay and his 50-year-old wife Namrata. All four lived on the family property in the Swiss community of Cologny. As well as this, Najib Ziazi, who worked as the family accountant, was sued for complicity. He is said to have helped the family evade Swiss laws for years on end.
Public prosecutor Yves Bertossa demanded several years’ imprisonment and millions of francs in compensation. According to a report by the agency Bloomberg, he stated in court: “They spent more on a dog than on one of their employees.” According to reports, the family spent 8,584 francs in just one year on their dog. Just to clarify once again: to earn 8,584 francs, a domestic employee of the Hinduja family earning a daily wage of 7 francs would have needed to work for 1,226 days.
The final judgement was issued on 21 June 2024. The defendants were found innocent of the accusation of human trafficking. The court found that the Indian domestic employees who worked for the Hinduja family in Cologny had not been forced to come to Switzerland. Despite this, even if food and lodging are taken into account, they received laughably low wages.
Although the family had reached an out-of-court settlement with the employees, the trial continued due to the accusation of usury. In the end, the Hinduja family patriarch and his wife Kamal were sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for commercial usury. Their daughter-in-law Namrata and son Ajay were each given four years. The accountant was given 18 months on probation for complicity. The family was not present at the announcement of the judgement, as the health of the mother had deteriorated.
The judgement is not yet legally binding, and the family’s lawyers have announced they will be appealing.
A one-off case?
It is not known how many domestic employees are actually living in Switzerland, or how many of these are being exploited. According to estimates by Sociology Professor Claudine Burton-Jeangros, between 10,000 and 15,000 people are living “sans-papiers” (without proper residential status) in Geneva alone.
Social worker Rémy Kammermann, who works at Geneva’s Centre social protéstant, told national broadcaster Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF), however, that the Hinduja case is “more of an extreme case”.
According to Kammermann, domestic employees can be divided into two groups. The first group works for several families simultaneously. Members of this group are usually better paid, therefore, even if this is still below the minimum wage for Geneva.
The second group of domestic employees works for just one employer, presenting a significant risk. This is because if the employees live at the home of their employer, that employer then also becomes their landlord. The employees are then completely dependent upon the employer, both financially and in terms of how they live. This makes it practically impossible for them to escape an abusive working relationship.
Translated by Tim Lywood
#Sklaverei #Schweiz #ModerneSklaverei #Genf #Menschenhandel #GegenAusbeutung #GegenSklaverei #AgainstHumanTrafficking #GegenMenschenhandel #EndExploitation #EndTrafficking #HopeForTheFuture #Österreich