As reported by Radio Prague, a few years ago attention was drawn to the problem following a survey by CERGE and Charles University, which first studied the phenomenon of delegating domestic work to paid employees. The public organization La Strada, known for fighting human trafficking, believes that the problem in the Czech Republic has not yet been eradicated.
As a rule, domestic staff (in addition to the mentioned Filipinas and Ukrainians, Moldovans and women from Central Asia are also hired) work without an official contract and without registration with state institutions, i.e., illegally. "Many of these maids have temporary residence permits, but lack permission to work for a specific employer," said Magda Faltová, director of the Association for Integration and Migration.
Domestic staff – nannies, maids, caregivers or cooks – are most often hired by wealthier families living in large cities of Central Bohemia or in Prague. Ukrainian women, mostly married or divorced, come to the Czech Republic to earn money; many of them support families in Ukraine, while unmarried Filipinas come to gain experience.
Many women, when finding work, do so without the services of recruitment agencies, so they do not know how to later legalize their work. Foreign women from so-called third countries are most often unwilling to inform state labor inspectors about violations of their rights, fearing loss of work or deportation, which complicates an already difficult situation.
According to Markéta Hronková, director of the public organization La Strada, women working as domestic helpers, in hotels and massage parlors are in particularly bad conditions. Employers often intimidate them and force them to work irregular hours – as it turned out in several cases, with a 24-hour schedule. At the same time, wages remain minimal.
"We are talking about migrant women who work in a closed environment, that is, as we say, behind closed doors. In such cases, it is difficult to get in touch with them and maintain contact, and it is difficult for them to find help. In the case of workers from the Philippines and Thailand, the main problem is that they often live with the family where they work, so they do not go out and cannot get information about who could really help them," says Markéta Hronková.
Many Czech families do not even perceive the work of maids as a real job for that woman. "Most often a family hires only one worker – thus, apart from her, there is no one else in the house who knows the true state of affairs in that particular family unit," notes Petra Ezzeddine, an employee of the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University and a social anthropologist.