Data shows just 12% of Singapore's 200,000 domestic workers get a day off but rights groups fear new law contains loopholes and delays
It was a day many of them thought might never come: a day off.
Long denied what most consider a basic workplace right, domestic workers in Singapore will at last be guaranteed one day of rest each week.
Manpower minister Tan Chuan-Jin told parliament that the time off will give maids a "much needed emotional and mental break from work and time apart from their employers".
Many of Singapore's 206,000 domestic workers are hired as full-time, live-in nannies, cleaners and cooks, with the majority hailing from the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. Seven-day weeks and 14-hour days are common, a report last year found, with only 12% of domestic helpers currently getting a day off each week.
Runaways, violence, accidents and suicide are not uncommon, and physical and psychological abuse by Singaporean employers – who rate among the richest in the world – has been well documented.
The new legislation, which is still awaiting full approval from parliament but is expected to be passed, will come into force on 1 January 2013 and applies to domestic workers whose work permits are issued or renewed on that date, as well as to employers hiring for the first time, the local Straits Times reported.
"I'm happy about the new law, because right now we work 24 hours a day practically, morning to night," said 31-year-old Indonesian helper Meena Jilita, who works as a live-in nanny for two young children and is expected to cook and clean whenever the children are asleep.
"We need our own time, a day off, to meet our friends and unwind."
Domestic workers will be entitled to negotiate with their employers to forgo the break and receive additional compensation to work that day, although the new regulations will not affect the permits of those maids already under contract.
Human rights groups applauded the reform but said that it should apply to all domestic workers and take effect this year. Dr Noorashikin Abdul Rahman of Singapore-based Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), said: "Otherwise, there will be quite a significant population of domestic workers who will have to wait for a considerable amount of time before they have access to this basic labour right.
"It should also be made clear what the penalty would be if employers do not oblige by the new legislation, so that those who are inclined to take this new law lightly will be more aware of the consequences of doing so," she added.
Domestic helpers receive no minimum wage and instead negotiate contracts directly with their employers. Their salaries can range from £125 to £350 a month, but workers often go unpaid for the first six to 11 months of their contract due to agency placement fees.
Human Rights Watch cited a "significant risk of abuse" that employers may bully their help into forgoing a day off.
Singapore's move follows legislation that already exists in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as domestic laws requiring mandatory orientation programmes for workers and greater regulation of employment agencies.
The announcement on Monday has further stoked a fiery debate over workers' rights in Singapore, where an MP's suggestion in July last year that domestic workers be granted a day off was met with a flurry of criticism.