More Thoughts on Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong
Sometimes the most difficult problems are the least often mentioned. They play on minds but escape public attention because they’re too complex to grasp sufficiently. In a recent post on myopic perceptions of poverty I outlined some of the wage constraints placed on domestic helpers in Hong Kong. In other countries they’d be called the working poor – here they’re expected to be happy. But the problem runs deeper than money alone, with a lack of employee rights and an insufficient understanding of employer obligations marring Hong Kong’s participation in the international market for migrant labour.
The litany of abuses against domestic helpers in this city is long, with much of the evidence anecdotal and not entirely reliable. But in my building alone there are two cases of continual underpayment and one recent case of termination without any reason given. The employer not only failed to tell the helper why she was sacked, but also left the appropriate section blank on the termination notice submitted to the Immigration Department. When asked for a reference from an employment agency, the employer replied “no comment”.
James Rice, local academic and author of Take Your Rights Seriously, a legal handbook for domestic helpers, tells me that this practice is both common and within the law. Employers only need to give sufficient notice, with no reason for termination necessary.
Posted by Mike Poole 
