OFWs seek inclusion in HK minimum wage rate

23May09

Overseas Filipino workers are demanding that they be included in the newly proposed minimum wage in Hong Kong.

The statement was made by Dolores Balladares, chairperson of the United Filipinos (Unifil) in Hong Kong, after the Labor Advisory Board came out with the recommendation to exclude foreign domestic workers from the planned Statutory Minimum Wage (SMW) last month.

Hong Kong’s Labor Department came out with the recommendation because of alleged difficulties in computing foreign domestic wage due to the condition of their work.

Hong Kong is host to an estimated 120,000 OFWs, mostly domestic workers.

Domestic helpers in Hong Kong are paid depending on their employers but they should be earning not less than US$470 or more than P22,000 a month.

Aside from that, they are also supposed to be entitled to one day off a week, food allowance worth HK$300 or more than P1,800, and a seven-day paid vacation a year, among others.

Moreover, the Hong Kong Immigration Department requires employers to be financially capable of employing a helper – with a household income of no less than HK$15,000 or more than P90,000 a month.

The two will also then be bound by a standard employment contract.

Balladares, however, still said that foreign domestic workers must be included in the SMW.

“Our inclusion to the SMW is one concrete way that we can cope with the ongoing economic crunch that is expected to even intensify in the coming,” she said.

Therefore, she said, Unifil, together with members of the Asia Migrant Coordinating Body, will lobby diplomatic posts in Hong Kong to support the demand.

“We are facing more severe hardships now. It is imperative for the Philippine government to speak up and take actions for the inclusion of foreign domestic helpers to the legislated minimum wage in Hong Kong,” she said.

The Hong Kong government is expected to come out with its SMW proposal for the legislative council sometime in July.