A 22-minute television program produced by TVB, Hong Kong’s largest free television channel by audience, showed how some families are suffering from a shortage of foreign domestic workers.
A young mother named Jo, who used to work as a secretary in a foreign firm, has been taking care of her family since her family moved away from her father-in-law a year ago. Every day she becomes exhausted from doing housework, and the family has been reduced to eating frozen foods every day.
She said she had been searching for a domestic helper for several months but no candidate had come forward.
In another case, a couple who operate their own religious-products shop lost their leisure time when their domestic helper, Wisini, returned to Indonesia in October after serving the family for 14 years. Although their children now are old enough not to be a burden, taking care of the housework has put a lot of pressure on their lifestyle.
After their maid left, they found that they did not even know how to use many of their home appliances. The couple searched for a domestic worker near a church attended by Filipinos but they got no response after sending out 50 leaflets.
A couple named Joe and Vivian, who worked as a secondary-school teacher and a human-resource officer respectively, went into a panic after their Indonesian maid decided not to return to Hong Kong six months ago.
To take care of their five-year-old son and household chores, the couple are now paying a Hongkonger HK$14,000 a month to work from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday.
The Hong Kong government has failed to support working couples in the city, Lai Yuk-king, a professional consultant at the department of social work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, was quoted as saying on the TV program, which was broadcast in Cantonese on December 10.
There are about 360,000 foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong, who mainly come from the Philippines and Indonesia.
LV-Adanza Credo Ramos tama.
14k nga sahod sa hk national, dpt taasan ang pinay
Tama….napakahirap sa kanila magbigay ng sapat na sahod at pagkain sa mga fdh…..Samantala pang kung pagbabasehan mo 14000 hkren at napakalaki….fdh pataypatayan sa or as at pagkain….
Korek
Used having helper around isn’t good anyway….Some employer if having helper they dont give and care enough rest..is not easy work all day no enough rest and food…if you have foriegn helper treat them good..hiring hongkong is so costly..while Indonesia and filipino Happy the minimum..
Thats true..as sayings..if you want yor horse win…feed with a good grass…
As we domestic helpers we are the one who say it first how good our employers are by our heart..so dear employers touch your heart too.
Your right most Hk employers are inconsiderate andI very suspicious too
Same here. Even Macau offer much lower salary than hk at least here in Macau they treat us as family and not only that,we have more freedom when it comes to hours of duty..they follow what was agreed upon.
im waiting for a job offer in japan..praying for it!
Jean Tabon Canubas correct even during offday they still oblige the helper to do the chores..
Correct just because they are paying us a higher salary u all treat us like slave..we are a helper..we are helping u all..so employers ne nice nd kind to us…
Not only salary,it also reduce the hour of dut,that mostly domestic helper now working almost 16 hours a day
This is eye opener employers should treat your helpers humanly….appreciate the good job well done instead of complaining the things that are beyond their control….this is like common ….see hows life without your stupid helper?
They should increase the salary of domestic helper
Correct that’s increase the salary
According to this report a Hong Konger domestic helper gets paid for $14,000 a month for a daily work from 8a.m. to 8pm. but foreign domestic helpers get much less and more working hours a day. Is HK government impartial to the foreign domestic helpers? Domestic helpers are the backbone of Hong Kongs economy…without them HK won’t be what it is today…
Waiting around for your employers to treat you better is not going to happen. HK domestic workers need to have an organized no-work protest day on a WORKING day to rattle these families into common sense. Just like unions do. Yep- a planned no-work protest giving notice weeks in advance to teach the impact it would have on their families. The rest of the world would be watching, too. You have no other currency (power) otherwise.
Be prepared for a mass exodus of DHs heading to Japan. Japan will NOT follow the HK model. http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2066508/japan-shuns-hong-kong-model-it-prepares-get-its-first-foreign
Yap see and realized how difficult our tasks being a helper..considering our minimum wage…be kind employers…be generous..to your helpers..do not treat them as slaves
madam employer maybe you’re just taking her for granted. just wait if your helper also proud of you.LOL