Government set to lift ban on maids to HK

The government will lift the suspension of the sending of Filipino domestic helpers to Hong Kong as soon as a complaint is filed there in court questioning a cut in foreign maids’ wages, President Arroyo said yesterday.

Last March 5, Mrs. Arroyo barred the sending of domestic helpers to Hong Kong until further notice after the special administrative region spurned her appeals and reduced the minimum wage for foreign maids.

Indonesia, which along with the Philippines provides the bulk of the domestic workers in the territory, also ordered labor suppliers to stop sending workers to a number of areas including Hong Kong.

Officials of both countries hope Manila’s and Jakarta’s actions would pressure Hong Kong to reconsider its decision.

Faced with a growing budget deficit, Hong Kong reduced the minimum allowable wage for foreign domestic helpers and imposed a levy on employers of foreign household help.

Mrs. Arroyo hoped the court action will put more pressure on Hong Kong to scrap the wage cut. "So once the case is filed in Hong Kong, we now have added to that pressure and we can now lift the suspension," she said.

The minimum wage for foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong is to be reduced by 400 Hong Kong dollars ($51) a month to 3,270 dollars a month ($420 dollars) for employment contracts signed on or after April 1.

The wage cut effectively offsets a levy of 400 dollars a month, which private employers of foreign household help in Hong Kong will have to pay from Oct. 1.

Mrs. Arroyo’s spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the court complaint will be filed by Filipina maid support groups in Hong Kong and the Philippine government will shoulder lawyers’ fees.

Mrs. Arroyo has already ordered the Department of Labor and Employment to set aside money for hiring lawyers.

Nearly 240,000 foreign domestics work in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China since 1997. Aside from the Filipinos and Indonesians, most of the others are from Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The 153,000 Filipino maids in Hong Kong are part of a seven-million strong army of Filipino migrant workers in several other countries who earn at least $7 billion for the Philippines every year.

Mrs. Arroyo earlier said the suspension would not be lifted until Hong Kong reconsiders the wage cut.

"This is one way of saying that the President will not allow our Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong to be treated shabbily," Bunye said in an earlier interview.