A FORMER "madam" has publicly apologised in Parliament for ill-treating her domestic workers.

Author Emmaleen Kriel apologised to Parliament's labour portfolio committee yesterday during a discussion about abuse of domestic workers.

"With so much in the news about reconciliation, I ask myself what role I can play to help reconstruct a nation torn apart by misunderstanding and hurt. I cast my mind back over the years when I was a typical white liberal South African 'madam'," Kriel told the committee.

"We lived in Constantia, and it is there where we reared our large brood with the help of numerous 'maids'. Now that the children have all grown up and left home, I reflect on the deep sense of guilt and concern I have for those who worked for me. I feel very strongly about how badly I treated them," she said.

Kriel told the committee that apartheid affected her decision to treat her domestic workers badly, saying that at the time, it was not normal to pay servants much money.

Andiswa Makasi of the University of the Western Cape's Social Law Project said dignity and fair labour practices are still not available to domestic workers.

"A lot of people do not see themselves as employers just because a domestic worker only comes once a week," she said.

Committee chairperson Lumka Yengeni of the ANC said more work needed to be done to protect the rights of domestic workers.