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Scouring furnace rooms. Cleaning rabbit cages. Catering posh dinner parties. Mowing lawns. Opening and closing the family cottage up north.

They are some of the more questionable - but unfortunately typical - tasks handed out to live-in caregivers, foreign workers hired to take care of children and elderly people in Canada.

The issue of nanny mistreatment entered the spotlight last week, as two caregivers lobbed allegations of abuse against Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla.

Hired to care for Ms. Dhalla's mother, the women allege that family members forced them to work 12 to 16 hours daily, washing the family's three cars, shovelling snow, shining shoes, de-linting suits and cleaning family-owned chiropractic clinics. The pay was a meagre $250 a week, the women have claimed.

Taking such liberties with caregivers isn't uncommon, those in the industry say.

"I've heard of girls giving manicures, haircuts. It just goes on and on," says Tova Rich, owner of Family Matters Caregivers in Toronto.

Experts say nanny exploitation is a result of the "grey areas" inherent in live-in care giving.

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, employers looking to hire foreign workers under the federal Live-In Caregiver Program must "make a job offer that has primary care-giving duties for a child or an elderly or disabled person" - a house-cleaning job offer is not acceptable.

But nanny advocates say caregivers will accept much more fluid terms, largely because they have just three years to work a total of 24 months if they hope to gain landed-immigrant status - and quitting means losing both time and a roof over their heads.

Marna Martin, who handles immigration and labour issues for the Canadian Coalition for In-Home Care, says she receives eight complaints a month from nannies in Toronto. Most are over "ridiculous hours" and unpaid overtime, but others concern egregious employer requests, including washing windows while perched on ladders outside, or scrubbing unfinished basements.

One woman was working at her employer's bridal shop and fast-food restaurant as well as doing the housekeeping.

Jean, an Oakville, Ont., caregiver who did not want her full name used, came to Ms. Martin because an employer was not paying her overtime: Jean was cooking for the family catering business, on top of the nine to 10 hours she was spending on care-giving duties with two children.

"I'm a shy person. I know that's my fault because I didn't ask him to pay me, but I expect that they know that I'm working over the eight hours," Jean said.

Cherry, a live-in caregiver in Toronto who did not want her full name used, turned down several potential employers during interviews after they mentioned they were expecting 12-hour days.

"I know they know rules," said Cherry, who arrived from the Philippines through Dubai.

Cherry said her friends' No. 1 complaint about their employers is the unannounced nights out, which leave the live-in nannies babysitting after they've put in their hours.

But employers say the live-in arrangement requires flexibility on both sides.

"Anybody who comes into a live-in nanny situation as an employee expecting that their life is going to be between 8 and 6 is unlikely to blend properly into a family environment," said Emily, a Toronto management consultant who did not want her full name used. "A family doesn't live 8 to 6. There's the early morning meetings. There's the sudden, last-minute changes in schedules."

Emily employs a caregiver for her three children aged 6, 8 and 10, and expects a large amount of house cleaning because they are in school all day. She keeps track of overtime and pays extra for emergency babysitting. She said her current nanny has not accepted the cash, but did take 10 weeks of vacation last year for all the overtime she put in.

But not all nannies are so lucky.

Former caregiver Lorina Serafico wasn't surprised by the Dhalla allegations: Ms. Serafico was charged with painting the house when her employers went on vacation.

"Abuse is relative to each and every nanny," said Ms. Serafico, who now works as a 7-Eleven clerk in Vancouver while volunteering with a nanny helpline, the Committee for Domestic Workers' and Caregivers' Rights.

Some caregivers turn to the agencies that hire them. Ms. Rich recently advised one of her nannies to leave her employer, a stay-at-home mom who wanted her to mow the lawn and shovel a four-car driveway.

"She's a tiny little thing, 5 feet maybe, 100 pounds. The neighbour used to come over and help her shovel because he felt so bad."

Ms. Rich got the nanny a job with another family, but said the employer insisted that the backbreaking work was fair, as do many mothers hiring caregivers for school-aged children.

"That's where people are abusing it, with school-age kids. [The caregivers] have all these hours and [the employers] go, 'I'm paying her anyway. She might as well do stuff.' That's not okay."

But saying no is complicated by the fact that caregivers are often exceedingly generous. Emily's caregiver would pro-actively clear the yard of apples, shovel snow and even helped the family move. In the last case, Emily paid her $300, but said all her caregiver wanted was to "be valued."

"Our nanny won't stop working and it's actually irritating. It's to the point that I want her to chill out," Emily said.

Ms. Rich has encountered a similar predicament with her nannies.

But to those thinking about taking advantage, Ms. Rich says: "These are people raising your children. Be good to them, and hopefully they'll be good to you."