Foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong

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Foreign domestic helpers meeting on their typical Sunday day of rest at Statue Square in Central.

Foreign domestic helpers or foreign domestic workers (Traditional Chinese: 外籍家庭傭工) in Hong Kong are domestic workers who work in Hong Kong but are from outside of Hong Kong. They make up approximately 3% of the population of Hong Kong and an overwhelming majority of them are women. In 2005, there were 223,394 foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong; 53.11% were from the Philippines, 43.15% from Indonesia, and 2.05% from Thailand.^[1] They live in their employers' places of residence and perform various household duties for their employers, such as cooking, cleaning, and child-minding.

1 Common terms
2 History
3 Employment regulations
4 Discrimination
5 Protests
6 Notable incident
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Common terms

Foreign domestic workers congregating by Hong Kong's Central MTR Station

In everyday Cantonese speech in Hong Kong, the term fei yung (菲傭) refers to foreign domestic helpers. This term literally translates as "Filipino servant" or "Filipino employee". While fei yung is considered politically correct, the derogatory slang term bun mui (賓妹) is also used.^[2] This derogatory term loosely translates as "Filipino girl". Both terms refer to Filipinas because when the term was coined, most foreign domestic helpers came from the Philippines.

In Chinese-language government documentation, foreign domestic helpers are usually referred to as ga ting yung gong (家庭傭工), translated as "domestic worker", that are either "foreign" or "recruited from abroad", as in 外籍家庭傭工^[3] or 外地區聘用家庭傭工,^[4] respectively. The government uses wording with the same meanings in English-language documentation, but it specifically uses the term "domestic helper" instead of "domestic worker".^[5]^[6]

[edit] History

Faced with a poor performing economy in the Philippines in the 1970s, the administration of Ferdinand Marcos implemented the Labor Code of 1974, beginning the Philippines' export of labour in the form of Overseas Filipino Workers. The Philippine government promoted and encouraged labour export as a way to solve the problem of rising unemployment rates and to enrich the government's finances with overseas workers' remittances home.^[7] In the few following years, the economy of the Philippines became increasingly dependent on labour export, and in 1978, recruiting agencies for labour export were privatised, making labour export a cornerstone of the Philippine national development strategy.^[8]

This trend of increasing labour export in the Philippines was to coincide with the economic rise of Hong Kong in the late 1970s and early 1980s. When the People's Republic of China implemented wide-reaching economic reforms in the late 1970s and initiated trade with other countries,^[9] Hong Kong became mainland China's biggest investor.^[10] Labour intensive industries in Hong Kong moved to the mainland, and high profit service industries such as design, marketing, and finance in Hong Kong expanded dramatically. To deal with the resulting labour shortage and increase in labour costs, the female labour force was mobilised. Consequently, families with both working husbands and working wives sought help to manage their households, and this created a demand for domestic workers. Hong Kong families began hiring foreign domestic helpers from the Philippines, with the number of them hired steadily increasing through the 1980s and the 1990s.^[10]

In the past, foreign domestic helpers had mostly came from the Philippines. Today, they also come from other countries, notably Indonesia and Thailand. In the 1990s, Indonesia and Thailand followed the Philippines' model of labour export in order to deal with an increasing economic crisis, and Hong Kong families began hiring foreign domestic helpers from these two countries as well.^[10]

[edit] Employment regulations

Foreign domestic helpers gather at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on their Sunday day of rest.

The Hong Kong government has drawn up rules and regulations specifically regarding the employment, labour, and condition of stay of foreign domestic helpers. An employer and an employee are required to enter into a contract specifically for the employment of foreign domestic helpers,^[6] with a standard contract effective for a term of two years. A few notable regulations regarding the employment of foreign domestic helpers include:^[11]

An employer must have a household income of at least HK$15,000 per month for each foreign domestic helper he or she employs. He or she must also pay a levy of HK$9,600 for employing a foreign domestic helper.^[11]
A foreign domestic helper is required to only perform the domestic duties outlined in the employment contract. She is also not allowed or required to take up any other employment with any other employer during the effective period of the employment contract.^[11]
An employer is to provide free medical treatment for the foreign domestic helper, and to pay her a monthly salary of no less than the amount of minimum allowable wage set by the government. The minimum allowable wage for contracts signed on or after 2006-03-31 is HK$3,400 per month.^[5]
A foreign domestic helper is to work and live in the employer's place of residence, and she is to be provided with suitable living accommodation with reasonable privacy.^[11]
A foreign domestic helper is entitled to one rest day every week, with the rest day being a continuous period of not less than 24 hours.^[11]

[edit] Discrimination

According to the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor (HKHRM), foreign domestic helpers face discrimination from both the Hong Kong government and their employers. The government requires a foreign domestic helper to leave Hong Kong within two weeks of the termination of her employment contract unless she finds employment with another employer.^[11] The HKHRM claims that this is a form of discrimination against foreign domestic helpers, who are almost all Southeast Asian, as the same limitation is not enforced for other foreign workers.^[12] The possibility of deportation may prevent foreign domestic helpers from reporting violations of their rights or instances of discrimination against them, and the two-week period may not be enough time for them to find new employment. Another issue that the HKHRM claims is discriminatory against foreign domestic helpers is their ineligibility to apply for permanent residency in Hong Kong.^[12] Under Hong Kong's Immigration Ordinance, a foreigner may be eligible to apply for permanent residency in Hong Kong after having been an "ordinary resident" in the city for seven continuous years,^[13] but the definition of "ordinary residency" excludes, amongst other groups, those who had resided in the city as foreign domestic helpers.^[14] This effectively denies them the rights that permanent residents enjoy, including the right to vote, even if they had resided in Hong Kong for many years.

The HKHRM also reports that a percentage of foreign domestic helpers had been mistreated by their employers. Out of 2,500 foreign domestic helpers that were interviewed, it was found that at least 25% had experienced violations of their contract, including being paid under the minimum allowable wage amount, not being allowed their mandatory weekly day of rest, and not being allowed to take their statutory holidays. Also, more than 25% had experienced physical and verbal abuse, including a "significant incidence" of sexual abuses.^[12]

See also: Right of abode issue, Hong Kong

[edit] Protests

Foreign domestic helpers and their supporters, including activists and employers alike, have organised protest marches to complain about what they view as unfair treatment by the Hong Kong government against foreign domestic helpers. The number of participants in some protests have been in the thousands, and some have numbered in the hundreds. The more notable issues that they've protested against have been the lowering of foreign domestic helpers' minimum allowable wage and the limit of a two-week period under which they must leave Hong Kong at the end of their employment contracts.^[15]

In recent years, thousands have organised protests specifically against the wage cut and levy that the government implemented in 2003. The government charges employers an equivalent of a HK$400 monthly levy for hiring a foreign domestic helper.^[11] At the same time, the minimum allowable wage for foreign domestic helpers was lowered for the same amount, and activists view this policy change as effectively having foreign domestic helpers shoulder the cost of the levy, despite the fact that they are already the lowest paid workers in Hong Kong.^[16] The Hong Kong government defended the measures as necessary to adjust to Hong Kong's recent economic woes, noting that it wants to use the levy to encourage employers to hire local workers, and that even with the measures, foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong were still better paid than foreign domestic helpers working in other Asian countries.^[17]

Filipino foreign domestic helpers, in particular, have also protested against policies of the Philippine government that targeted Filipino overseas workers. One notable protest in 1982 was held in opposition of Executive Order No. 857 (EO-857), implemented by then-President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos. EO-857 stipulated that overseas contract workers must remit 50% to 70% of their total earnings, and remittances were only allowed to be transfered through authorised government channels.^[18] Recently, Filipino foreign domestic helpers have protested against a proposal by the Philippine government that they be required to undergo a "competency training and assessment program" that would cost them P10,000 to P15,000 (US$215 to $320), whereas their monthly salary is typically about US$450. The Philippine Department of Labor and Employment defended the proposal, stating that it is to help protect domestic overseas workers from abuse by their employers.^[19]

[edit] Notable incident

In August 2006, in an incident that appeared on news media, Hong Kong singer and actor Jacky Cheung reported to the police that one of his foreign domestic helpers, Preslyn-saga Catacutan, had committed acts of theft. Reportedly tipped off by another foreign domestic helper about the theft, Cheung accused Catacutan of stealing photographs and a letter belonging to him. Catacutan maintained in court that, being a fan of Cheung, she took the photographs only to keep as souvenirs. Magistrate Winston Leung rejected this claim and stated that she had intended to sell them. Catacutan was subsequently found guilty on two charges of theft and was sentenced in December to six months in jail. However, in January of 2007, Catacutan was released on a HK$5000 bail to appeal the sentence.^[20]^[21]

After Catacutan was jailed, the media, considering the crime to be petty, criticised Cheung for pressing charges.^[22] Activists in Hong Kong called Catacutan's sentence unreasonable and too harsh. The director of the organisation Mission for Migrant Workers said that Cheung had deprived Catacutan of her and her family's livelihood, as foreign domestic helpers work in Hong Kong in order to support their families back home. A spokesman for Cheung stated that it was the government, not Cheung, who prosecuted Catacutan, and that they respected the court's ruling.^[23]