MPs’ domestics speak out

By Ofentse Mokae
05 July 20009

Domestic workers to the country’s top employers, MPs, have revealed shocking allegations about their working conditions.

It has been reported that workers are subject to long working hours and receiving poor wages.

A worker employed for an MP living at the Acacia Park parliamentary village in Goodwood, says her employer instructed to work over weekends and give him massages which are out of her job description.

She says the employers are big named politicians, resulting in them being quiet about their situations, fearing to be fired.

Apart from their low rent MPs receive an annual pay cheque of more than R700 000 while their domestics earn as little as R45 a day.

They often do not have to prepare meals as they eat well cooked food a parliament’s dinning halls.

It is reported that the domestic workers union has raised these issues with the Labour department, but nothing has been done so far.