Exploitation and discrimination alert (?)

I am a medium in Dakar (Senegal), I used to work for the French clairvoyance account (audiotel services). I come to you in relation to a clairvoyance office “Lauriana clairvoyance” of Mr. and Mrs. M…, which for three months has not paid me normally. Last month, they took 450 euros from me for no reason and this month, they tell me that the bill is 975 euros because I had 817 alerts which cost me 1.5 euros each. Mr. and Mrs. M…. therefore do not want to pay me back the sums they owe me. They know that I have a whole staff who work 8 hours a day including weekends and who need their salary because I am declared.

At the beginning, they paid 5 euros per hour now it is only 4.80 euros which makes it difficult for me to pay the full salaries of my staff.

In addition, Mr. and Mrs. M. allow themselves to blackmail me by telling me: “We’ll let you have the connection and you tell INAD that everything is back to normal because in Africa, there is no work!…”. From these words I was able to understand that it is more than exploitation!… I wish to assert my rights, I am using your services…

Ms. Maria (Dakar)*

Testimony 2

Blackmail and threats under conditions

I have been in the field of parapsychology for 25 years. 5 years ago I started working in an audiotel firm by pure chance. I recognize that this makes it possible to make ends meet, but it does not sustain a household, but I was content with it because I could not do anything else. In October 2009, I decided to change offices because I did not have enough hours.

So I called the Lauriana firm, for more information: charming people who wanted to have a firm with “a family spirit”, very understanding and above all very persuasive, ready to do anything to have new “psychics”. What Mr. M. didn’t tell me was that he had few “psychics”, that the “psychics” didn’t stay at his house or answer the phone……..and for good reason! I found myself overnight working 16h/20h and 22h/2h shifts non-stop….not a single day off! I even replaced this gentleman when he was sick, I worked from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. from Monday to Sunday without complaint.

I have not, despite all these hours, earned a living. I spoke about it to this gentleman who gave me an advance (financial) so that I wouldn’t leave. This advance was not a bonus or a gift, it was withheld from what I earned very painfully. At Christmas 2009, I fell ill: Mr. M. called me to make me feel guilty for not working during the holidays. I defended my rights and obtained one day off per week and my hours had changed (4 hours per day). But at what cost? When it wasn’t him who called me, was it his wife (or his daughter)? , either to issue credit cards (at any time of the day), or to replace a person who did not respond. If I didn’t respond I was entitled to reprimands. In August, I called to ask for my dues.

Mr. M.’s wife told me that I would not be paid, that I still owed them a large sum of money (450 euros) and that she was keeping everything I had earned (almost €300) for the month of July, that I would not have any fees but that we could talk, that I did not know how to manage my money, that I had to work even more and that I was not diligent enough

I am afraid of verbal threats made to someone close to me “to report me for undeclared work”, I am afraid because he lives not far from me and because he has often allowed himself to say that he knows people”!! I have a contract which was sent to me more than 6 months after I started in this firm and which I neither signed nor returned. I have never had invoices for the payment of my fees.

Ms. Roger* * Names have been deliberately changed.