AU PAIR
SIR,—Pharos's condemnation of the intolerable conditions imposed on one German girl is of course completely justified. In other respects the paragraph is misleading. Pharos has con- fused two quite separate systems under which foreign girls enter this country for domestic work, the au pair system and entry by Mini- stry of Labour permit as a domestic worker.
Au pair requires only permission from the Home Office. In return for keen and pocket money (but not as implied £2 10s., which the Ministry of Labour considers the, minimum wage of a domestic worker) the girl has a position similar to that of daughter of the family living at home with corresponding duties.
The majority of girls now employed in this area do come under Ministry of Labour per- mits and do receive therefore at least the standard minimum wage and National Insur- ance benefits. I believe that Pharos's suggestion 'that too many of them land up as skivvies' is an exaggeration. In all cases I know of over a number of years, the girl receives two regular half-days per week, one regular evening extra for attendance at an English class and any other evenings when she is not required for baby-sitting; if she stays for a year it is usual for her to have two weeks' holiday with pay. The majority of those I know receive the assistance of a daily help, not to mention that of the housewife herself.
In defence of the wage, one might add that few of these girls have any experience of housework or cooking and usually have very little English when they arrive. Finally they are perfectly entitled to go to the Ministry of Labour and change their jobs, and do, as I am happy to suppose the girl in question did since she only stayed three weeks.—Yours faithfully, PAMELA MONKHOUSE 11 Belfield Road, Manchester, 20
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