Foreign domestic workers await new HK wage policy

MANILA, Philippines — Foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong should enjoy the same rights as local workers, the multi-nationality Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body (AMCB) said in a statement.

Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo), which is set to start its final deliberation this week, will determine whether live-in foreign domestic workers would be included in the proposed Statutory Minimum Wage and if the proposed HK$33 hourly wage would apply to them as well, said the AMCB, whose members include workers from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, and Filipinos.

“Very soon, we shall know whether the right of workers shall be held in highest priority. We shall know whether the LegCo will vote for justice and for what is right, or for slavery, discrimination, and poverty,” it said.

The Hong Kong LegCo consulted workers on the worker-related legislation, but AMCB said LegCo did not intend to include foreign domestic workers (FDWs_ because its members “totally disregarded the proposals” from organizations like AMCB.

“To skirt off charges of discrimination, the Executive Committee slyly exempted live-in domestic workers from its proposed SMW. But with the mandatory live-in arrangement in place, the exemption excluded almost all FDWs,” it said.

“Our exclusion totally negates the essence of an SMW. The law must apply to all and if FDWs are excluded, it only means that for the HK government, we are not workers. Our exclusion means that our wage will still be kept hostage through the process of the Minimum Allowable Wage or MAW. It means that our livelihood will always be kept insecure, vulnerable to arbitrary decisions, and close from more effective advocacy that migrants and advocates can mount,” it added. –Veronica Uy, INQUIRER.net