U.N. Economist Charged With Underpaying Household Worker From Bangladesh

"A United Nations economist was arrested on Tuesday on charges that he brought a household worker from Bangladesh to New York, where he underpaid and overworked her and also took steps to cover up his scheme.

The economist, Hamidur Rashid, a Bangladeshi, had obtained a special visa for the employee after submitting a signed contract to the United Nations stating that he would pay her $420 for a 40-hour workweek, or $10.50 an hour, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

The contract said Mr. Rashid, 50, would also pay the woman, who had once worked in his home in Dhaka, Bangladesh, for overtime hours and not charge her for food or lodging, the complaint added.

But Mr. Rashid then had her sign a second contract that said she would be paid only $290 a week, or $7.25 an hour, and that he could deduct up to $75 per week from her salary for food and lodging, the authorities said.

At various times, the complaint said, Mr. Rashid told the woman that if she worked for someone else, she would 'go to jail and then back to Bangladesh.'...

He is employed by the United Nations, which contends that diplomatic immunity does not absolve its employees from the need to obey United States laws...

Mr. Rashid once served as the coordinator of a program for the legal empowerment of the poor at the United Nations Development Program. In his current capacity as an economist for the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, he wrote papers warning of the economic slowdown in developing countries..."