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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why is this program slavery?

Au pair lives with the employee and is totally dependent on HF.

Employee decides about:
Time of sending pocket money. [b]Set by agency guidelines as once a week. Who has time for anything other than automatic bank transfer/check anyway?[/b]
Time of reimbursing money for education. [b]Set by agency guidelines[/b]
Time of vacations. [b]Supposed to be mutually agreed upon, but au pair can't randomly pick when employer needs them to work. Not different from any other job.[/b]

Schedule-long working hours  with long break in the middle of the day but Au pair can't really go anywhere it's too far away. Working 10h without  breakes. 
Sick days- mostly Au pair doesn't have . If the Au pair is sick she still works in a house. [b]Within guidelines and AP should have known/agreed prior to rematch about conditions[/b]

Access to:
Type of food [b]Are you timid about asking what you have access to? Should be able to ask once at the beginning what the rules are and how to express these things.  [/b]
Cellphone
TV 
Car/ transportation.
Au pair is forced asking humiliating things: [b]Seriously, why are you asking HF to charge your cell? Why can't you do it yourself?[/b]
Can I watch tv? Will you buy me x food? Could you charge my work cellphone so if I could call you in a case of emergency? Will you pick me up?

Employee can: [b]HF should give notice and AP agrees to these conditions when signing their contract. You also should have discussed whether HF had a curfew prior to matching.[/b]
Track the Au pair.
Give curfew.

Employees can put Au pair down:
Asking for caring for their pet for a week for free. [b]Have to ask/agree.[/b]
Discussing with the spouse next to the au pair. [b]Rude[/b]
Being late. [b]These are inconsiderate. Did you ask your LCC for help? [/b]
Ignoring.
Not keeping word.

Stipend is low and it's hard to save money staying away from HF. No wonder that au pairs are looking for guys/girls  with cars and an opportunity to spend a night in someones house. This might put them in danger. Stipend is not enough to rent a room. Not in the beginning when an au pair doesn't know what her situation is.

Stories with gifts or fancy trips those are exceptions. Having an Au pair is an attraction for HF. Au pair is for greedy families that are parents for weekends. Have you ever spend 3 weeks alone with your children except of its first 3months? This program creates social pathology.

Counselors don't visit houses and they are not talking with both sides -Au pairs and HF. No one knows what is going on in a house. Maybe neighbors see it. In many cases it would be word of the au pair against HF word.

This program gives endless examples of abusive behaviors because its not monitored. From my experience Au pair pays the the agency for visa and might participate in a couple of events.
Agency wants to keep the family and Au pair in a programme. HF might have a discount for positive reference. BTW look what are the the questions. Results of survey depends on how the question is constructed. Agency is not interested in anyone's problems. [b]Mostly it's an Au pair problem not the HF. [/b]

I stayed and stuck a bit because I was trying to understand what is going on. After coming back home I realized how sick that experience is from the Au pair side.

Im wondering did you experienced beating someone up as a HF or Au pair?

[/quote]

Yes, it is an au pair problem. When I match, I want an engaged candidate that asks questions about the above situations (cell phone, car access, etc.) and would have moved on from you if you didn't. YOU need to advocate for yourself or ask your LCC for help. And if you're the PP who au paired for multiple crappy families, then you're rather masochistic.

Really... don't apply to be an au pair and accept your contract/match, THEN start whining that it's too little money. [/quote]

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