Civil servant kept African woman in ‘servitude’ at home

A Government civil servant and her husband kept an African woman at their home in ‘servitude’ with ‘little or no basic freedom’, a judge has concluded.

Rashida Ajayi said she had been a domestic worker at the home of Teresa Abu and husband Joel for a decade.

She said she pocketed just £300 a year for her work and complained of being a victim of ‘labour exploitation’.

Mrs Abu, a civil servant involved in policy support at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and her husband disputed Ms Ajayi’s claims.

But Master Victoria McCloud has ruled in Ms Ajayi’s favour following a High Court hearing in London in July.

The judge said Ms Ajayi had been prevented from having a wage ‘sufficient to give her basic freedoms’.

She has made no ruling on what compensation Ms Ajayi should get.

‘The overall picture I have from the evidence is that Ms Ajayi was kept in economic servitude,’ said Master McCloud in a written ruling.

‘Her circumstances in the Abu household were oppressive servitude.’

She said they ‘fell short of the standards which the law of the land requires as a basic minimum for the dignity of the worker and their remuneration’.

Ms Ajayi said she had been a ‘domestic worker’ at the Abus’ home between 2005 and 2015 after being brought from Nigeria.

She said she had been subjected to ‘minimally paid domestic servitude’ and had ‘little or no personal freedom’.

Mrs Abu and her husband disagreed.

They said they ‘treated her as a member of their family, paid her appropriately or perhaps at times generously for the work she did’.

Master McCloud did not reveal Ms Ajayi’s age or say where the Abus lived in her ruling.