The COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of the National Lockdown on 26 March 2020, and its repeated extension at varying levels with differing regulations, have had an enormous impact on employers and employees alike. This has of course included domestic workers, the majority of whom live from paycheque to paycheque and simply cannot afford to go unpaid.

Many employers were initially unsure whether their domestic workers were allowed to work during the period of hard lockdown, whether they were required to pay their domestic workers if they didn’t work and what the occupational health and safety requirements were for domestic workers who returned to work. We address these and other queries below.