Imagine having to work 24-hours a day, seven days a week and being totally reliant on your employer for food, transport and a roof over your head.

Imagine being a low-skilled worker, fulfilling a crucial community role without any overtime for your strenuous efforts and being prevented from crying foul out of a paralysing fear of losing your livelihood and having nowhere to live.

While the vast majority of Bermudian workers ply their trades under the protection of the Employment Act 2000, which stipulates minimum overtime requirements incumbent on all employers as well as holiday privileges, there exists a silent minority who are feel obligated to live through this nightmare day in, day out.

In conversation with this week, several caregivers to the elderly ? both local and foreign ? have revealed their sorry plight, trapped as they sometimes are in a cycle of hopeless dependency.

?I have been working as a caregiver for the past seven years now and have found myself in an impossible situation,? one local caregiver said yesterday.

?I signed a contract with the lady who I look after in her home and I have been living and working here ever since. But what started out as a good job with a pretty good balance between work and my overtime has now turned into a 24 hour chore.

?I was promised from the beginning that I would not have to clean the house ? but as my boss became older and frailer, I am now expected to run almost all aspects of her affairs.

?I look after her three dogs, I cook and clean, I drive her everywhere and I care for her when she is sick. I have not had a day off in two and a half years.

?I am not earning a cent more than I did when I started. But if I complain, I am petrified that I will lose my job and I haven?t got anywhere else to go.?

Another caregiver, a Filipino, said her white female employer, for whom she has been working for the past two years, has subsequently fallen very ill and is unable to take care of herself ? resulting in the need for non-stop supervision.

The woman said she is often required to perform dirty menial tasks, such as cleaning up the faeces of her boss who has now lost control of her bowel movements.

?I have to stay up all night to make sure she is OK,? she revealed. ?I go to the bank to do money, but my English is not very good so I sometimes do not understand. I am tired all the time and get no holiday or more money. But what can I do? I live here with her and my family at home need money. I have three children who need to eat and have clothes. I no complain because I need job.?

A third female caregiver revealed how she has fallen out with her employer over her ?ridiculous? hours of work and claimed she is now being held to ransom after being threatened with her job and possible deportation if she ?has a problem with it?.

?I do not know what to do,? she said tearfully. ?I would go to the Government but I know if I do that I will get fired and have no money and nowhere to live. I?ve been in Bermuda for six years. I like it here and I have gotten many friends. I cannot go back home because I have nothing to go back to. I feel depressed all the time because I am trapped.?

Age Concern executive director Claudette Fleming yesterday expressed concern at the revelations, agreeing that the overworking of caregivers poses a threat not only to their own health, but to the well-being of the elderly in their care.

?There is an inherent strain associated with caregiving as a profession,? she said.

?But it is certainly not healthy or advisable to have somebody working a large number of hours and under enormous stress looking after elderly people. Ideally we would like to have the best environment for caregivers as well as for those who are being cared for.

?And perhaps this would be something that could be better dealt with if we had an advocacy group or support group for caregivers in Bermuda. At the moment we do not have anything like this and caregivers are not even on the radar in terms of issues.?

When contacted by yesterday, Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Robert Horton urged all those who believe they are being abused by their employers to contact the Labour Relations office.

And an expert in employment law, who did not wish to be named, confirmed that those caregivers worried about losing their jobs as a result of their complaints need not worry, as that has also been rendered illegal by the Employment Act.

?If people do not come to us with a complaint or they do not want us to conciliate on their behalf then there is not a lot we can do,? the expert said.

?A (labour relations) inspector has a statutory duty to investigate the matter once it is brought to his attention and try to effect a settlement between the employer and employee. But in order to effect a settlement both parties have to know there is a problem.?