Domestic workers gather in Central, Hong Kong, on a Sunday. Photo: Asia Times
Domestic workers gather on their rest day in Central, Hong Kong. Photo: Asia Times

A Hong Kong woman was slammed by netizens for expecting her domestic worker to work 16 hours a day.

The woman posted a question on a Facebook group named “Messages that maid’s employer must read”, asking for suggestions on how to handle her domestic worker’s attitude, Headline Daily reported.

The employer said her domestic employee, who had been working for the family for one month, was not happy with her daily work schedule. She said that her maid worked 16 hours, from 6:30 in the morning until 10:30 at night.

Seemingly the domestic worker requested that she could rest from 9:30pm so as not to affect her work performance during the day.

The female employer explained that as she needs to work at night and her husband works shifts, the earliest she can return home is at 9:30pm.

She pointed out that her domestic worker could have eight hours to sleep.

Readers of the Facebook posting slammed the employer as inhuman, telling her that the domestic worker’s schedule was unreasonable.

They told the employer to put herself in the shoes of her employee, and argued that no one could stand such working hours for a long period of time.

Some responses suggested that she should hire one more worker, or at the very least allow her domestic worker to wake up an hour later. They advised her to think carefully about the situation, as the long working hours without adequate rest would only make the worker tired and unable to perform, or even force her to resign.

According to existing law, local employers should provide domestic workers with at least one rest day in every period of seven days; a rest day is defined as a continuous period of not less than 24 hours.

However, domestic workers in Hong Kong are not covered by legislation related to standard working hours.

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