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Right to request working time adjustments
. Domestic workers are entitled to 
request changes in either the duration or arrangement of their working hours. 
These requests must be granted unless they conflict with an essential need on the 
part of the employer for the domestic worker‘s services. Various supportive 
requirements are outlined, including that the employer must provide a written 
response to working time adjustment requests, and that the worker must not be 
discriminated against on the grounds that he or she made such a request. There is a 
stronger obligation to grant the request where it has been made on the grounds 
identified in the Part-time Work Recommendation, 1994 (No. 182), to enable the 
worker to care for a young child or disabled or sick family member. 
6.2.3 Emergency family leave 
Finally, the flexibility standards provide for leave periods to enable domestic workers 
to address urgent family concerns, while recognizing that elements of their private lives 
may be situated in another country or region. Domestic workers are entitled to at least five 
days‘ paid leave per year to attend to family emergencies, reflecting the entitlement under 
the South African Sectoral Determination 7. A longer period of eight days is available to 
migrant workers who need to return to their country of origin. 
6.3 Monitoring standards 
6.3.1 Documentation 
Tracking the hours actually worked by domestic workers is frequently considered a 
substantial obstacle to the effective regulation of working hours. Indeed, this issue was 

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highlighted by a number of ILO member State governments in their response to the initial 
communications from the International Labour Office on the potential for international 
standards on domestic work (ILO, 2009). Keeping accurate records on working hours, rest 
periods and other dimensions of working time, however, is essential to effective regulation. 
Documentation assumes a prominent role under sophisticated regulatory models and is