‘Here at ATLEU, we’ve seen too many of our clients with claims drawn out for years by their traffickers and abusive employers who hide behind the family worker exemption. Despite overwhelming evidence of gross abuse and mistreatment, exploitative employers profit from this legal loophole, wasting public funds and years of tribunal time, while their victims face destitution and further exploitation. The solution is simple, remove the exemption from UK law. We urge the government to do so today.’
Victoria Marks, Director, ATLEU

Our joint public statement on the Family Worker Exemption:

One full year after the government pledged to remove a loophole for the exploitation of mainly female workers, the Family Worker Exemption remains in place. We urge the government to act without further delay to remove this exemption.

The exemption in the National Minimum Wage Regulations allows live-in domestic workers to be paid little or nothing at all, where they are treated as ‘a member of the family’. Over the years, it has been regularly used by abusive employers to exploit their workers and evade justice.

In October 2021, the Low Pay Commission found that the exemption was ‘not fit for purpose’ and recommended to the government it be removed.

On 10 March 2022, Paul Scully MP, then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, announced that the exemption would be removed ‘when parliamentary time allows.’

We welcomed this decision yet, one full year later, the exemption remains and continues to be used by abusive employers to deny vulnerable women a proper salary for their work.

We are calling for this egregious loophole to be closed now.

Yours sincerely,

Victoria Marks, Director, Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU)
Leticia Dias, Coordinator, Nanny Solidarity Network
Marissa Begonia, Director, Voice of Domestic Workers
Sara Mendes, Chair, IWGB Nannies & Au Pairs branch
Rita Gava, Director, Kalayaan
Susan Cueva, Kanlungan Filipino Consortium
Lucila Granada, CEO, Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX)
Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director, Womens Budget Group
Jasmine O’Connor, CEO, Anti-Slavery International
Joanna Ewart-James, Executive Director, Freedom United
Gisela Valle, Director, Latin American Women’s Rights Service - (LAWRS)
Brian Dikoff, Legal Organiser, Migrants Organise
Mariko Hayashi, Executive Director, Southeast and East Asian Centre (SEEAC)
Maya Linstrum Newman, Global Alliance against Traffic in Women (GAATW)
Tim Nelson, CEO, Hope for Justice
Suzanne Hoff, La Strada International

Kate Bell, Assistant General Secretary, Trades Union Congress (TUC)
Diana Holland, Assistant General Secretary, Unite
Sampson Low, Head of Policy, UNISON

Urmila Bhoola, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Slavery
Dame Sara Thornton, former UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner

Dr Natalie Sedacca, Assistant Professor in Employment Law, Durham University
Professor Virginia Mantouvalou, UCL Laws and Chair of Kalayaan
Professor Rosie Cox, Birkbeck, University of London
Tonia Novitz, Professor of Labour Law, University of Bristol
Dr Maayan Niezna, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Modern Slavery and Human Rights, University of Oxford
Dr Lisa Rodgers, Associate Professor of Labour Law, University of Leicester
Ruth Dukes, Professor of Labour Law, University of Glasgow
Dr Louisa Acciari, Senior Research Fellow in Gender and Disaster, UCL
Professor Hugh Collins, London School of Economics, personal capacity
Dr Vera Pavlou, Lecturer in Labour Law, University of Glasgow
Professor Lydia Hayes, Professor of Labour Rights, University of Liverpool
Dr Inga Thiemann, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Exeter
Dr Joyce Jiang, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management, University of York

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The Family Worker Exemption: Still in place and still driving exploitation

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