Labor Attaché: Hong Kong employers still prefer Pinoy workers

25Nov11

Hong Kong nationals still prefer hiring Filipino workers because they know how to speak the English language, the Philippine labor attaché there said.

Labor Attaché Manuel Roldan said Hong Kong couples particularly prefer Filipina workers because they can teach English to children.

“Young couples now demand for Filipino workers,” Roldan said in an interview posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news site.

The CBCP said a recruitment agency manager confirmed that the demand for Filipino domestic helpers in Hongkong has not waned.

Soraya Confubut, general manager of Nitscheke Employment Co., a recruitment firm she established in 1990, said Hong Kong professionals and businessmen still favor English-speaking Filipina domestic helpers.

Confubut, a frequent visitor in Manila and the provinces, said the parents’ priorities include giving their children the capability to comprehend and speak English.

“It is value-added found in Filipinas,” she said, adding Filipinos are “beyond compare” even with the possible entry of Malaysian and Indonesian workers.

She said she was able to recruit public school teachers from Baguio and Davao, and nurses from the Ilocos provinces to attend to elderly and sickly Hong Kong nationals.

Confubut, a Thai national, said most of these professionals worked only in Hong Kong for two years as they sought employment in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

She advised those who want to work in Hong Kong to develop their English skills. “English programs would help them a lot,” she added.

Hong Kong protection laws

Meanwhile, Roldan noted that Hong Kong’s laws protect migrant workers.

“All these are enforced by government from rest day to specific type of work to be done, limitations and the provision that workers should be accorded enough food or provided by a monthly food allowance,” he said.

Roldan also said he is amazed with Hong Kong’s judicial system because it is very efficient in calling opposing parties to the conciliation table.

He said workers have shelters run by employment agencies to stay in if they lose their work while their complaints have not been resolved.

The Philippine Overseas Labor Office also has a shelter for them and the Catholic Church and non-government organizations.

“Cancer-stricken workers prefer to stay in Hong Kong because medication is free,” Roldan noted. – VVP, GMA News