Maids caring for elderly work average of 14.5 hours daily: study
SINGAPORE — A joint study by non-profit organisations AWARE and HOME which interviewed 25 foreign domestic workers providing eldercare in Singapore found that they worked an average of 14.5 hours.
The vast majority of those interviewed, 21, did not have a weekly rest day. And when they were granted time off from work, it never spanned a full 24 hours.
Moreover, with no standard practice for assessing the caregiving needs of elderly persons or the caregiving abilities of these maids, 20 per cent of those interviewed said they were providing a level of care different from which they were informed before starting work.
These maids caring for the elderly lack sufficient support in dealing with their wards’ needs, said the joint report, which was released on Wednesday (11 November) and titled ‘Neither Family Nor Employee: the Caregiver Burden of Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore’.
For example, of those interviewed who looked after persons with dementia, 55 per cent faced verbal abuse while 36 per cent received physical abuse.
Apart from the 25 maids, the study also interviewed four employment agencies, seven employers of eldercare maids, and five providers of formal eldercare training.
Shailey Hingorani, AWARE’s head of research and advocacy, said, “As we rapidly age as a society, our reliance on MDWs (migrant domestic workers) is likely to increase. Unless we pay specific attention to the consequences of caregiving to the mental and physical health of MDWs, we run the risk of compromising the quality of care given to our elders—a lose-lose scenario,”
Jaya Anil Kumar, a case manager at HOME, said, “Domestic workers are workers like anyone else in Singapore, and it does not make any sense to treat them differently. The lack of regulation of domestic workers’ working hours leads to complaints of overwork from many domestic workers, and adversely affects their well-being.”
To better match maids to eldercare jobs, the joint study recommended, among others, an accreditation system to certify maids’ skills and train them adequately.
Meanwhile, to deal with overwork, the study recommended strengthening laws to protect maids such as by regulating their work and rest hours, and mandating written contracts to cover all the terms and conditions of their employment.
It also recommended that employment agencies provide caregiving-related information to maids.
“We hope to see a national long-term care plan that explicitly discusses how MDWs fit into Singapore’s strategy in dealing with the ageing population, and what proportion of the nation’s care load is expected to be shouldered by MDWs, family caregivers and formal services, respectively,” said the study.
Case studies of interviewees
Wani, a 40-year-old Indonesian, cares for an elderly woman who had her leg amputated and has high blood pressure. Her ward requires help with most activities of daily living. Wani is paid $650 a month with no days off, although her employer lets her go out for a couple of hours instead.
Prior to her employment, Wani was told that she would have to take care of her ward and the household. She received three months of eldercare training in Indonesia and a two-day training in Singapore.
She wakes up at 5.30am each day to help her ward use the toilet, take her medicine and eat breakfast. They go out for a stroll before returning and Wani does household chores until lunch. At night, Wani gets to rest and watch TV before her bedtime at 10pm.
But the maid has to wake up more than twice at night to help her ward use the toilet. She is unable to make up for her lost sleep during the day as she has to juggle caregiving and housework. Her ward is also verbally abusive and scolds her constantly, leaving Wani with mental stress and feeling “dumbfounded” from the scoldings. She lacks a social support network with no friends here and wishes that she could talk with her family back home more.
Cho, a 31-year-old Myanmar national, cares for an elderly woman with dementia who requires help with all activities of daily living. Cho is paid $700 a month with one day off per month.
Like Wani, she was also informed before she was hired that she would have to take care of her ward as well as do household chores, such as cooking and cleaning. Cho underwent nurse training at a hospital and old folks’ home in Myanmar.
Cho wakes up at 6.40am to prepare breakfast for her employer’s family. After feeding her ward, she does laundry and cleans the house. She then cooks lunch and eats her meal at the same time as she feeds her ward. In the afternoons, she folds and irons clothes, before preparing dinner. They have their meal at 6pm and her work is done at around 7pm or 8pm when her ward’s family take over. Cho goes to bed around 9pm to 10pm. On her days off, Cho still bathes her ward, feeds her breakfast and washes the dishes before leaving home. She returns at 7pm.
Cho gets about seven hours of sleep every night, but she has to wake up occasionally because of her ward and has to gently coax her back to bed. Their language barrier and her ward’s dementia cause Cho to feel constrained. She video calls her young son daily.
Similarly, Kala, a 48-year-old Indian national, cares for an elderly woman with dementia. She is paid $550 a month with two days off. However, she never received any formal eldercare training.
Kala wakes up at 6am daily to prepare breakfast for the household, feed her ward and give her medicine. She bathes her ward, then prepares lunch and continues with housework. Kala is able to take a short nap in the afternoon with her ward, before they go to the park. In the evening, she bathes her ward and prepares dinner. Kala only has her dinner at 9.30pm, after which she tidies up the house and kitchen. At 10.30pm, she watches over her ward until she falls asleep. On her days off, she still has to finish her housework before leaving home at noon and rushes back at 6.30pm to feed her ward.
As Kala has to wake up several times at night, Kala has little sleep every day. Her ward also wanders around the house at night, causing Kala to chase after her as she is prone to falling.
On a daily basis, Kala talks with her family in India. She has a support network of friends in Singapore.
The joint study said there is a temptation to rely on maids “as a source of relatively cheap labour for middle-class households in Singapore” and no consideration given to the care crisis created by these workers’ migration to Singapore.
“There is thus an imperative to...shift towards redistributing care labour in a more equal fashion among all members of society. This cannot be achieved without ramping up government support in developing Singapore’s care infrastructure, and a radical shift in societal and gender norms around caregiving,” it added.
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