DOLE: No planned cut in maids’ pay

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) allayed fears of a possible five percent cut in the monthly pay of the more than 150,000 Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong.

Acting Labor Secretary Manuel Imson said yesterday there is no truth to published reports that the Hong Kong government will opt to impose a salary cut in place of the proposed HK$500 levy.

"Reports of a possible wage cut is an old issue that some sectors in Hong Kong have thought of reviving because the planned levy seems to be a dying issue," Imson said in an interview.

Imson added that based on the information sent by Hong Kong-based labor attaché Bernardino Julve, Hong Kong authorities are likely to junk the proposal to impose a levy on the monthly pay of all foreign domestic helpers.

"There are indications that Hong Kong authorities are no longer keen on imposing a levy on the salary of foreign domestic helpers, specially after Amnesty International declared such a policy discriminatory," he said.

Imson noted that efforts of Philippine embassy and labor officials to avert the possible imposition of the levy still continue.

Philippine officials in Hong Kong are spearheading representatives of countries that send workers to the former Crown Colony in protesting the proposed levy.

Last year, Hong Kong legislators proposed the imposition of a levy on the monthly wage of foreign domestic helpers in a bid to curb the unprecedented seven percent unemployment rate in the country.

Most domestic helpers earn a minimum monthly salary of $3,670.

There are about 240,000 foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong. About 60 percent or 153,000 of them are overseas Filipino workers. There are about 75,000 Indonesians and 7,000 Thais also working as domestic helpers in Hong Kong, with smaller numbers from Nepal and Bangladesh.

Earlier, Julve said that the proposed levy is "discriminatory" and apparently singled out foreign domestic helpers, the lowest paid workers in the former British colony.

He added that the proposal is contrary to an existing law exempting Hong Kong nationals earning less than HK$9,000 a month from paying taxes to the government.

Julve said Philippine officials adopted a strategy they implemented in 2000 to stop the Hong Kong government from imposing cuts on the take-home pay of foreign domestic helpers.

Members of the House committee on labor met with their counterparts in Hong Kong and other Asian countries with workers deployed there to seek concerted action against the imposition of taxes on foreign workers.

Filipino domestic helpers, other foreign workers, and religious groups in Hong Kong mounted a protest action in mid-December last year to air their strong opposition against the proposal.

About 400 foreign maids mounted a rally to oppose proposals by several pro-business and pro-Beijing political parties urging the government to impose a levy of up to HK$750 on their minimum monthly wage of HK$3,670.

The maids accused the politicians of being unreasonable for suggesting that revenue from a levy could alleviate Hong Kong’s ballooning budget deficit, which stood at a record HK$70.8 billion at the end of September, halfway through the fiscal year.