IX. RECOMMENDATIONS

The U.S. government and international entities whose employees employ migrant domestic workers with special visas should adopt measures to protect the workers from the human rights abuses described in this report. Below, we identify first the general steps that they should take and then set out more detailed recommendations for achieving these ends.

General Recommendations

To International Organizations, Observer Offices and Missions to International Organizations, Embassies, and Consular Offices:
· International organizations, observer offices and missions to international organizations, embassies, and consular offices should develop and adopt codes of conduct governing employment of migrant domestic workers with special visas by their employees and ensure their effective implementation, including by establishing appropriate mechanisms to monitor compliance.

To Congress:
· Congress should amend the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to incorporate into the act the required and suggested employment contract provisions for migrant domestic workers with special visas that are currently set forth only in the State Department's Foreign Affairs Manual and State Department diplomatic circulars, and so make them mandatory terms and conditions of employment under U.S. law;

·Congress should amend the INA to empower the Department of Labor to ensure employer compliance with these mandatory terms and conditions of employment, including through imposing penalties, seeking injunctive relief, and requiring specific performance of these obligations, and provide the DOL with the resources necessary to monitor employer compliance.

To Congress and the State Department:
· Congress should pass legislation requiring the State Department to determine, prior to issuing a special domestic worker visa, whether the petitioning employer has previously violated mandatory terms and conditions of employment for domestic workers. The legislation should require that the petitioning employer be denied the right to employ domestic workers for at least two years for minor violations, such as wage and hour and breach of contract, and for life for more egregious violations, such as servitude, forced labor, and physical or sexual abuse. The State Department, pending the passage of such legislation by Congress, should adopt this as its official policy and amend the State Department Foreign Affairs Manual accordingly.

To the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service:
· Until Congress passes legislation allowing workers to transfer their visas to work as domestic workers for new qualified employers, as recommended above, the State Department and the INS should adopt official policies providing all migrant domestic workers with special visas with the right to change to new qualified employers-imposing a time of limit of six months to correspond with current immigration law inadmissibility provisions-and amend their internal operating manuals accordingly.

To the Immigration and Naturalization Service:
· Until Congress passes legislation creating temporary visas to allow all migrant domestic workers pursuing legal redress against former employers to remain in the United States for this purpose and to work during that time, as recommended above, the INS should adopt an official policy that it will exercise its discretion to guarantee workers these rights and should amend its Operations Instructions accordingly.

To the Department of Labor:
· The Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor should develop a Low-Wage Worker Initiative for live-in migrant domestic workers-including outreach, independently initiated investigations, and litigation-to monitor their employment relationships instead of relying on complaint-driven mechanisms to enforce labor laws on their behalf.

Detailed Recommendations

To International Organizations, Observer Offices and Missions to International Organizations, Embassies, and Consular Offices:

Codes of Conduct:
All international organizations, observer offices and missions to international organizations, embassies, and consular offices should adopt codes of conduct governing employment of domestic workers that include the "best practices" identified in Appendix I and, when not inconsistent with the "best practices," the FAM terms and the circular diplomatic notes requirements and recommendations, and require the following:

· That international entities' representatives conduct annual audits that include private interviews with employers and workers to verify compliance with codes of conduct provisions unverifiable through paper audits;

· That employers submit annually proof of compliance with codes of conduct provisions, including proof of wage payment and hours worked signed by both parties;

· That employers who fail to comply with codes of conduct provisions be disciplined appropriately;

· That orientation sessions be conducted for employers and domestic workers, with interpreters for those unable to understand English, and that information pamphlets distributed at the sessions include contact information for temporary shelters and direct service organizations that provide migrant domestic workers with legal, psychological, social, and other assistance; and

· That specific procedures and an established time frame for the resolution of domestic worker complaints alleging code of conduct violations be established and followed.

Enforcement of Judgments and Internal Determinations:
International entities should ensure that when a garnishment order is entered by a U.S. court against an employee on behalf of a migrant domestic worker, the worker receives redress despite the entities' immunity to the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. International entities also should ensure that when a determination is made internally, pursuant to internal complaint procedures, that an employee owes wages to a migrant domestic worker, the worker receives those wages. The international entities therefore should adopt the following policy:

· Give effect to any such garnishment order or internal determination by deducting the amount indicated therein from the employee's wages and paying that amount directly to the migrant domestic worker. In the case of a garnishment order, such a procedure would allow international entities to give effect to the order without submitting to the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.

To Congress:
· To ensure that live-in domestic workers are covered by Title VII sexual harassment protections, Congress should amend Title VII so that its protections are applicable to workplaces with fewer than fifteen employees.

The Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor, responsible for enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act, has gradually lost staff and resources while gaining increased responsibility over the past decade. Congress should:

· Authorize increased budgetary appropriations for the Wage and Hour Division.

A migrant domestic worker who has left an abusive labor relationship has not only lost her job but her housing and food source. To ensure that a domestic worker in these circumstances has food and appropriate alternative housing, Congress should:

· Create an exception to Title IV of the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996" to allow all migrant domestic workers who have lost legal immigration status by leaving their sponsoring employers to be eligible for federal public benefits for a specified period while pursuing legal redress against their former employers or searching for new qualified employers.

To the State Department:

Maintaining Records:

Maintaining records of domestic workers' contact information and employment contracts is critical for the effective monitoring of workers' employment relationships, and maintaining disaggregated data by sex is critical for evaluating the participation of women in the domestic worker special visa programs. The State Department should:

· Require U.S. citizens living abroad but temporarily visiting, rather than assigned to, the United States to submit employment contracts for their B-1 domestic workers;

· Keep data recording the total number of B-1 visas issued annually to domestic workers;

· Maintain copies of all A-3, G-5, and B-1 workers' employment contracts and contact information and establish a database of this information;

· Disaggregate by sex data kept on migrant domestic workers with special visas.

Terms and Conditions of Employment:
Amending the mandatory conditions for employment of domestic workers with special visas is a necessary step in preventing worker abuse. The State Department should:

· Incorporate the recommended employment contract terms of the circular diplomatic notes into the State Department Foreign Affairs Manual as mandatory contract provisions, including record keeping requirements, extend them to cover B-1 domestic workers, and issue regulations setting forth these requirements.

Visa Issuance Procedures:
Because the State Department claims no jurisdiction over domestic workers and their employers in the United States, the department's primary opportunity to inform domestic workers of their rights and protect them from abuse occurs during visa issuance. The State Department should take advantage of this opportunity to:

· Distribute the information brochure setting forth workers' rights under U.S. law and contact information for the Worker Exploitation Task Force Complaint Line, currently distributed at a few "high volume" consular posts, to all A-3 and G-5 visa applicants;

· Create and distribute at all consular posts a similar information brochure for B-1 domestic worker visa applicants;

· Require that the rights set forth in the information brochures also be explained verbally to domestic workers, in a language they can understand, by U.S. consular offices abroad;

· Once the above recommendations regarding workers' right to remain in the United States to pursue legal redress against abusive employers and to transfer employers are adopted, these new rights should be explained in the information brochures.

To the National Worker Exploitation Task Force:
This inter-agency governmental task force was formed to combat worker abuse but has been involved only in the most egregious violations of federal criminal civil rights statutes, such as servitude. The Task Force should:

· Investigate and prosecute cases arising under the criminal provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA);

· Refer all cases alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, including those that come to the attention of the Worker Exploitation Task Force Complaint Line, to the Wage and Hour Division for investigation.

To the President:
The United States should be a party to international instruments setting forth rights particularly relevant to migrant domestic workers. The President should:

· Urge the Senate to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; the American Convention on Human Rights; and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;

· Sign and urge the Senate to ratify ILO Convention No. 29, the Convention concerning Forced or Compulsory Labor; ILO Convention No. 87, the Convention concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize; ILO Convention No. 98, the Convention concerning the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining; and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.