HK levy on hiring domestics abolished

The Hong Kong government will abolish the controversial Employees’ Retraining Levy on the employers of Filipino household workers in July this year, the Labor Department said Monday.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the abolition will ease the burden of thousands of employers in Hong Kong who pay more than P50,000 to retrain a Filipino domestic.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Cy Leung announced the levy’s abolition during his 2013 Policy Address entitled “Seek Change, Maintain Stability, Serve the People with Pragmatism.”

“To ease the burden on families employing foreign domestic helpers, I have decided to abolish the levy when the suspension of its collection expires on 31 July 2013,” Philippine Labor Attaché to Hong Kong Manuel Roldan quoted Leung as saying.

Hong Kong started collecting the HK$9,600 (P50,239) levy five years ago for every two-year contract of a foreign domestic helper. It allowed employers to pay the levy in four equal installments.

“The retraining levy was actually intended to support the training of Hong Kong nationals and not of foreign domestic workers,” Roldan said.

“It does not have any effect on our workers, but the amount affects the ability of employers to employ foreign household service workers.” –Vito Barcelo, Manila Standard Today