A Swiss court on Friday found several members of the Hinduja family guilty of exploiting domestic workers in a luxury villa in Geneva. At the same time, all family members were acquitted of the more serious charge of human trafficking.
The Hinduja family has major ownership interests in oil, gas, banking and healthcare and the Hinduja Group is present in over 38 countries and employs approximately 200,000 people. Their fortune of £492bn makes them Britain’s richest family, but despite their wealth they have paid their maids a pittance, reports The Guardian.
The employees are said to have been flown from their home country of India to work for the family as maids. Among the accusations were also claims that the employees allegedly had their passports confiscated and were given little freedom to leave the house, accusations that the family has denied.
The Hinduja family reached an out-of-court financial settlement with three of the former employees, but prosecutor Yves Bertossa nevertheless decided to proceed with the case due to the seriousness of the allegations.
In the closing statement, the prosecutor accused the family of having taken advantage of the “asymmetrical situation”, the dependent position, between employer and a vulnerable worker.
– They profit from the world’s misery, Bertossa said in court, writes the newspaper.
The staff received a daily wage of SEK 93 for working 18 hours a day, which is less than a tenth of a Swiss minimum wage, writes BBC. During the trial, the prosecutor also raised the fact that the family spent more money on their dog than on the staff.
However, the Hinduja family’s defense lawyer Nicolas Jeandin argued that the three plaintiffs received benefits in addition to their wages, that they were free to leave the villa and that they were not treated as slaves.
Another lawyer, Robert Assael, argued that the employees were “grateful to the Hinduja family for offering them a better life”
Prakash Hinduja and his wife Kamal Hinduja were sentenced to four years and six months in prison, and their son Ajay and his wife Namrata were sentenced to four years in prison.