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.
Alaina Danae-lody Villanueva hi.she’s just saying it literally.i hope you got her meaning in "stupid" word.please read carefully.
I understand completely how some ladies here feel. I know I’m very lucky to have my DH & I do show my appreciation for her. She’s like a family member, eats what she wants, sits at the table with us. I give her proper time off & gifts on her birthday & Christmas etc. She in return looks after my family & my dog with great love & care. Its not easy being away from yr own family to look after another’s. They too are someone’s duaghter, wife, mother.There r many employers who r good to their helpers but unfortunately far too many who think of them as sub human. Its all about mutual respect but soe ppl just don’t get it. No compassion! Stay strong ladies, hope there will be changes soon.
You’ve missed the point Hong Kong – the rest of the world work just as hard and manage their chores , children and full time jobs with out a live in helper, or pay the going minimum wage and above for the services of cleaners and childminders.
I hope my employer know about this
We at Tuen Mun Filipino Baptist Churc always welcome your endosees (Filipinas who you refer to us) But it still is their choice if to stay, which mostly prefers to enjoy time somwhere else. New ones sppecially wants to see around first, have their kind of fun, but not church.In church they are tamed but more prefers to be wild.
now you realized our value and importance in your famly but many employers are so abusive treat thier helper like a slave..
Hope they may understand the stand of the maid sometimes .
To all employer hope you realized how defecult without helper.you can pay your hongkong so helper for 14.thousand a month?how come you cannot pay your forign wokers even 7 or 8 thousand a month.?
They dont appreciate us becoz they were thinking that we are juz only a helper and they can afford to pay us without realizing the importance of having a helper and most of the time they are taking advantage for us working telling that you need to clean the house before and after you take the holiday, and also about the meal allowance.
they are not good employer thats why nobody replied to them maybe they demand many things during interviews..
Amazing. Most people in the US do not have domestic helpers and would find this situation of helpless HKers totally laughable. I cannot imagine not knowing how to use all my household appliances, for example.
See the difference locals work 8am-8pm only and their salary is doubled compare to us Filipino and Indo. But we, dh our salary is only 4410hkd and work from 5am to 12,1 til 2am????????????
How come the Hongkonger earn 14k and work only 12 hrs but the foreign domestic helper treat them slave and they earn small salary then work 18hrs..could hongkong government give some law for domestic helper to be stay out so that they have time to rest…
The hongkong goverment is unfair to the foreign domestic helper because mostly all the Chinese they treat domestic helper slave and we work 18hrs then our salary is too small than to the Hongkongers helper
Lilibeth Ladao …..true ang alam lng nila na english word ay stupid…sila naman ang. Totoong stupid
Alaina Danae Villanueva
You dont get the message? I said see hows life without your stupid helper…..means …im referring to them because …….they alwsays call their helper studip…….gets mo?….mahina pick up mo…..
Lilibeth Ladao ,,,,your amaizing very strong personality…yes!!dapat lng lumaban kung hindi ikaw ang tatapakan. fight lng ng fight
Anyone who is not satisfied the way the employer treat you always be prefered. Save enough money and sacrifice to work for a while ; after having enough money go home in the Philippines. Send them a GOOD BYE LETTER , even thier angry keep calm, relax and think something different that one day you will no longer be a slave by other people. Be wise in terms of recieving your salary. Always remember the DO’S and DON’T. BUY only whaty ou need . Savemore for the future. Avoid sending to much balikbayan box kung kung ayaw pon inyo babalik kayo sa pagiging ofw. It takes time to build your wealth. Hindi ganun kadali ang trabaho natin dito sa abroad. Try to save more. Remember this is only for a short term not a forever term.
now the do Realise this,so to every Employe out there who still hv indonesia/Philippines maid
pleaseeee be nice and be kind to them…bc now day there still a lot of Employee who treat them like garbage
So they know how difficult without maid so please increase our salary since we must available almost 24 hours