Sixty-four percent take care of old people or sick/disabled persons while 18 percent take care of more than one person. The rest take care of children. All do other kinds of work in the household that makes them essentially work also as maids.

Seventy-five percent do more than one household chore, including cooking and cleaning plus taking care of dogs and even doing illegal work like being made to clean the office. In effect, even doing household work is illegal as the job description is just to take care of a person and nothing more.

That is why the majority of household workers are clamoring for a day off, because they are already on 24-hour call, with many rendering 12 or more hours a day of work and yet they are not given a rest day. It is also the reason why many of them are angry why they were not included in the increase of the minimum wage on July 1, 2007, given their working and living conditions.

Foreign caretakers and domestic workers also do not have religious freedom in Taiwan, by having no days off. Most religions require their believers to go to their religious services once a week. That is why in earlier times, the day off was even termed as Sabbath Day.

It would not look good on the international reputation of Taiwan, which wants to protect and promote human right worldwide and join the United Nations when the basic universal human right of its foreign caretakers and domestic workers to a day off is violated with impunity. On our part, we will continue to advocate for this right together with the migrant workers, both in and outside Taiwan.

The APMM is part of a regional advocacy network working for one day off for foreign domestic workers in the region, called the United for Foreign Domestic Workers Rights (UFDWR). We would like to reiterate our calls for:

Give Household Service Workers in Taiwan Mandatory and Regular Days Off!

Implement a Standard Employment Contract that would make void any side agreements!

Include household service workers in the protection of the Labor Standards Law!

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