The tribunal upheld a claim by Ms Tirkey for race discrimination, treating caste as an aspect of Tirkey’s race – her inherited status. Tirkey belonged to the Adivasi caste, described as the lowest rung of the “caste pyramid”. She self-identified as belonging to the “servant class”. Tirkey, who could not speak English, was recruited from India to work as a domestic servant for the Chandhoks. She worked 18 hour days, seven days a week for four and a half years for 11p an hour, cooking, cleaning and looking after their children, sleeping on a foam mattress on the floor. Her passport was seized and she was prevented from having her Bible, attending church or calling her family. The tribunal ruled that these conditions were a violation of her dignity and that she suffered both racial harassment and religious discrimination. Nobody based in the UK would have accepted these conditions of work, it concluded. Her employers were ordered to pay £183,773, which was the amount Tirkey would have earned had she been paid the national minimum wage.



Tirkey v Chandhok, 2015, unreported (source: BBC website, 2 September 2015)