The Hong Kong Asian Migrant Coordinating Body (AMCB) has called on the government to provide a living wage, standardized working hours, better living conditions and the removal of living arrangements for the local foreign workers of the city.
With Tuesday marking International Domestic Workers’ Day, the NGO also called for the removal of the two-week rule, which forces domestic workers to leave the territory within two weeks if a contract ends.
“Remove the mandatory residency agreement, the restrictive two-week visa rule, and malicious ‘job hunting’ charges that trap workers in unsafe environments and escalate violence. These restrictive and discriminatory policies leave workers highly vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse,” AMCB said.
‘Equal, fair and decent treatment’
The current minimum allowable salary for foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong is HK$5,100 per month. By law, they must live with their employers, who are also obliged to provide food or a food allowance.
The NGO urged the government to raise the wage to HK$6,172: “Under the economic and political crisis migrant domestic workers have to survive on living wages and food allowances that fail to cover basic living costs in Hong Kong and support families back home.”
In a press release on Wednesday, they said the law only stipulates “adequate” accommodation and a food allowance, but “some workers are forced to sleep on kitchen floors, in corridors or in converted closets, severely aggravating mental fatigue and lack of privacy and developing physical illness or psychological distress”.
The group said domestic workers are often “denied dignity, equal, fair and dignified treatment as workers and human beings”, as they warned of “modern-day slavery hiding behind closed doors”.
AMCB is a coalition of a dozen domestic worker groups and is a member of the International Migrant Alliance.
Last month, a spokesman for the Department of Labor HKFP said that “the government is firmly committed to protecting the rights and benefits of domestic foreign workers in Hong Kong”. They added that there is a 24-hour hotline available to domestic workers and that they can seek free advice from the department’s branches across the city.
Hong Kong hosts over 360,000 migrant domestic workers from the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, Sri Lanka and other countries.
