Film urges employers to give maids a weekly day off

SINGAPORE - A short film has been launched to urge employers to give their domestic workers a day off every week.

The two minute-long video Mums & Maids features interviews with mothers, children and their maids.

Through a series of questions and answers, the video shows that that domestic workers understand their employers' children better than their employers.

Marketing communications firm Ogilvy & Mather teamed up with migrant workers group Transient Workers' Count Two (TWC2) for the video to mark Labour Day on May 1.

TWC2 president Noorashikin Abdul Rahman said: "The film is provocative. Provocation sometimes helps to generate a buzz on this issue that domestic workers should have a weekly day off."

Since January 2013, domestic workers must get one day off a week or must be given a day's wages in lieu.

However, a recent survey of 670 maids by foreign worker group Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics found that only 40 per cent of the respondents had a weekly day off.

Mums & Maids can be viewed at http://igiveadayoff.org/

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