A programme, which aired on RTÉ last night, has shone a spotlight on the working conditions of au pairs in Ireland and raised questions as to the validity of the vetting process.
Having monitored websites advertising vacancies for au pair positions over the course of a number of months, the RTÉ Investigates team established that some families only offered bed and board, but no fixed wages.
Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson for the Migrants Rights Centre Ireland confirmed that in some cases au pairs were working for up to 70 hours a week for an average of €100.
According to the centre, research has shown that one-third of its respondents work in excess of 40 hours a week while the same percentage asserted they worked while sick. Further to this, it was established that almost 80% of women working as au pairs in Ireland did not get a contract.
Echoing these claims, one au pair revealed that she worked between 12 and 14 hours a day and earned less than €1.50 an hour.
In an effort to examine elements of the hiring process, some members of the RTÉ Investigates team posed as a Dublin family with two children while another posed as a potential au pair.
It was quickly established that claims put forth by some au pair agencies that there exists a strict vetting process had little grounding in reality as no checks were made on either the family or the potential au pairs prior to being put in contact with each other.
In a statement commenting on the programme's startling findings, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation asserted: “A person is working under a contract of employment (written or verbal), on a full-time or part-time basis, that person has the same protection under employment law as other employee.”
Insisting that au pairs should be treated as employees, Kieran Mulvey, Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission, reminded families in search of domestic help that the role of au pair should not be open to interpretation or exploitation.
RTÉ Investigates – Ireland's Au Pairs aired on RTÉ One last night.
