Caste case: 'I worked all day and all night'

A woman recruited from India to be a domestic servant for a family in the UK, and who was awarded almost £184,000 in unpaid wages after being paid 11p an hour, has told the Victoria Derbyshire programme she worked "all day and all night".

Last month a groundbreaking employment tribunal found Permila Tirkey, 39, had been discriminated against because of her "low caste."

It heard she had been recruited by Pooja and Ajay Chandhok because they wanted someone "servile".

"I worked all day and all night, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's because the children often woke up at night; they wanted milk, food, a drink of water, so I had to get up and make that for them," she said.

"I was told to stay with the children all of the time.

"On a normal day I would get up at six o'clock in the morning, go to the bathroom, get the children's milk ready, I would feed them, then I would clean up, I would make dinner, I would help with dinner for the children.

"Then I would do other domestic chores like washing the clothes, cleaning up, hoovering, polishing and mopping up."

Ms Tirkey said she did not have a bed, sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the little boy's room.

'No friends'

The family, who lived in Milton Keynes, had said they would pay her 5,000 rupees a month (£50), which was what she would have earned in Delhi. She said she did not question it as she did not know what level pay should be in the UK.

The tribunal, which her lawyers said was the first successful case of its kind, found the conditions in which she was forced to live and work were a "clear violation of her dignity", adding "it created an atmosphere of degradation which was offensive".

It upheld several claims, including that she was harassed on the grounds of her race, subjected to unacceptable working conditions and was the victim of indirect religious discrimination.

It ordered the couple to pay £183,773, to make up the total she should have been paid if she had received the national minimum wage.

Ms Tirkey said while she mainly stayed at home, she accompanied the family to social gatherings and days out to places like London Zoo.

"But they told me the rules were not to speak to anyone. I could say, 'hello, how are you?' but on the whole I would avoid situations where I would talk to people, I had no friends," she said.

'No phone calls'

She once tried to call her family in India using the phone, but the couple stopped her, saying the bills would be too high. They said they would give her money to top up her mobile phone, but did not.

"In the four-and-a-half years I spent with the Chandhoks I spoke to my family about twice," she explained.

"My family accepted that, as they had the memory of those phone calls and they knew I didn't have the money to call them.

"I used to think about the phone calls I'd made to my family and that kept me going. I wanted to cry but I controlled myself."

In fact, she says, the worst moment of her life concerned something as simple as a phone call - she wanted money to top up her phone and when she did not get it she wanted to end her life.

"What, over £5? It's a part of my life I can't talk about now, I get upset about this £5. If they had given it to me, I had been able to top up my mobile phone, and been able to make calls, things would have been different. This £5 changed my life," she explained.

The couple also stopped her from bringing her Bible to England.

"I wanted to put it in my suitcase but they took it away from me. I accepted it because I didn't question anything they asked me to do," she said.

'Basic rights'

Mr and Mrs Chandhok have said they provided everything for her, and that she was well paid and part of their family.

"Although I lived with them and they gave me shelter, they gave me food, they didn't give me my rights. They wouldn't let me speak to anyone, like my family, and they wouldn't let me have any friends," Ms Tirkey said.

"When I asked for an increase in wages they wouldn't give me any extra money, they just kept saying they would give it to me in India, so they didn't give me my basic rights."

Ms Tirkey said she wanted her story to help others.

"All I want in life is to smile and be happy, I want to live well. I've looked at my life and I want to educate myself, as I want to live well, I want to work, I want to laugh," she said.

"My life was completely gone, but I am now trying to slowly rebuild it and I want to tell my story to stop it happening to anybody else. I don't want them to suffer how I did."

The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays between 09:15-11:00 BST on BBC Two and BBC News Channel.