Mimi Lau
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Indonesian maids working in Hong Kong are losing out on HK$36 million each month, according to a report prepared by a migrant workers rights group.
In addition, three in every five maids have to pay their entire salaries for the first seven or eight months to the agents who got them their jobs.
Asian Migrant Center executive director Rex Varona said on Friday that the reason employers and agents can get away with this systematic extortion was because of the ineffective monitoring of Hong Kong's labor laws.
In releasing the report "Underpayment 2: The Continuing Systematic Extortion of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Hong Kong," the center and the Coalition of Indonesian Migrants Workers Organization said a total of 2,097 Indonesian maids in Hong Kong were interviewed from September to December 2006 when the minimum wage for domestic helpers was HK$3,270.
Of these, 22 percent or 454 maids said they were being underpaid, with 253 getting between HK$2,000 and HK$2,499 and 130 getting less than HK$2,000 a month.
A total of 1,971 of those interviewed said they had signed receipts for their wages each month but 26 percent (512) did not receive the amount stated on the receipt.
The difference between the actual amount received and the amount printed on receipts ranged from HK$80 to HK$2,370 every month.
Varona said on average, each of these workers was missing out on HK$1,390 every month, making a total of HK$36 million each month.
The survey also found 59 percent of the maids interviewed paid their agents an average of HK$21,000 each, which means the first seven or eight months of hard-earned money went straight to agents.
One maid in every four also said she missed out on the four holidays each month.
Varona said while Hong Kong does have a minimum wage for maids and better regulations, the implementation of these laws and the penalties meted out to offenders are not as harsh as those in Singapore.
He also complained of the lack of migrant workers' representatives in formulating labor policies.
Varona said former permanent secretary for labor Matthew Cheung Kin- chung had not followed up on his 2005 promise to set up a task force to check on underpayment.
Speaking after the presentation of the report, a maid from East Java, Surati, said her employer had deducted HK$10 a day from her salary to pay for the dim sum she ate while accompanying an elderly family member.
Another migrant worker from East Java, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "I asked my employer why I have to sign a receipt for HK$3,270 when you only give me HK$1,800? My employer said it was because I am new to Hong Kong and cannot speak Cantonese well." As of February the number of Indonesian domestic helpers stood at 105,320, nearly 47 percent of the 225,000 foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong.
About 1,000 Indonesian domestic workers plan to march to the Indonesian Consulate on Sunday, Indonesia's Independence Day, to air their views.
In response, a government spokeswoman said Cheung only agreed to consider holding meetings with the nongovernmental organizations for migrant workers from time to time.
In a statement to The Standard, a spokesman said two employers of foreign domestic workers had recently been fined HK$45,000 and HK$34,000 for violating the Employment Ordinance.
It stressed these foreign domestic workers enjoyed the same rights and benefits as local employees.
It also urged them to notify the Labour Department if they felt they were being exploited.
