A domestic worker in Nabatieh received $4,300 of $12,000 owed after five years of employment marked by repeated delays and broken promises.
Amida Kondo, a Togolese domestic worker employed in Nabatieh since January 2019, has received a partial settlement of her outstanding wages after five years of unpaid salaries accumulated amid Lebanon's political and economic crises and the ongoing conflict. The agreement, reached in October 2024 following mediation by an African community leader, provides her with immediate payment and a return home to Togo, with further installments to follow over the coming year.
Kondo arrived in Lebanon on a monthly salary of $200, which was regularly delayed. By February 2024, when she returned temporarily to Togo, her unpaid wages totalled $7,400. Her employers persuaded her to return in April 2024, promising to clear the debt and raise her salary to $250 once circumstances improved. The promised payments did not materialise, and her repeated requests for her earnings were met with explanations tied to Lebanon's economic collapse, political instability, and war.
By October 2024, when mediation began, Kondo was owed $5,600. Her employers had been displaced from their home in Nabatieh and were sheltering from Israeli bombardment. The negotiated settlement provided $1,500 in immediate payment, coverage of her airfare to Togo, and a commitment to pay the remaining $2,800 in monthly instalments over twelve months. Kondo accepted the terms despite receiving less than the full amount owed, given the circumstances surrounding her employers' displacement and financial constraints.
Under the agreed arrangement, her employers were to remit $2,800 across twelve consecutive monthly payments beginning in late 2024. The schedule required consistent adherence from both parties, with Kondo's return to Togo contingent on the initial $1,500 and travel costs being settled at the time of agreement. The remaining balance represented a compromise reflecting the employers' inability to meet the full outstanding obligation in a single payment.
The settlement brought to an end a relationship marked by systemic non-payment despite Kondo's consistent work through multiple crises. Her case reflects a broader pattern affecting migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, where economic collapse and displacement have rendered many employers unable or unwilling to honour wage commitments. The negotiated outcome, while partial, demonstrated the possibility of resolution through third-party intervention when direct appeals between worker and employer had failed.
By December 2025, Kondo's employers completed the final instalment of the payment plan, fulfilling their commitment to the agreed schedule. The successful completion of the arrangement meant that both parties honoured the terms to which they had committed, notwithstanding the reduction from the original debt. Because the employers maintained the payment plan without default, their identities have been withheld from this account.
The case underscores the vulnerability of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon during periods of sustained conflict and financial breakdown. Kondo's experience of repeated delays, broken assurances, and the eventual necessity of third-party negotiation mirrors challenges faced by thousands of workers employed in Lebanese households. Her employers' displacement during the conflict, while complicating payment, ultimately did not prevent them from honouring the restructured settlement.
Mediation by community leaders has emerged as a practical channel for resolving wage disputes when formal mechanisms prove ineffective. In Kondo's case, an African community leader's intervention initiated the process that culminated in a negotiated agreement neither party would likely have reached independently. The structured payment plan allowed her employers, displaced and financially constrained, to meet their obligations in manageable increments while providing Kondo with certainty of eventual recovery and a date for her departure.
Kondo's return to Togo marks the end of an employment relationship that had become untenable despite both parties' initial good faith. Her case demonstrates that resolution of wage disputes in Lebanon's current climate requires explicit restructuring of payment obligations and third-party oversight to ensure compliance. The settlement, though incomplete relative to her total earnings, provided her a means of exit and partial recompense after years of waiting and negotiation without progress.
