Embassy aid vowed for Pinay maids in HK

Full embassy assistance will be extended to Filipino domestic helpers who filed a case against the Hong Kong government for its imposition of a new wage policy that reduced their monthly wage from HK$3,670 to HK$3,270.

This was the order of President Arroyo to Philippine Consul General to Hong Kong Victoria Bataclan.

In behalf of more than 240,000 foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong, five Filipino maids filed before the Hong Kong High Court on Monday a legal case seeking to declare the territory’s new wage policy illegal and unconstitutional.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said that in the same complaint, the domestic helpers also sought damages for Hong Kong’s wrongly expropriating their money through the wage cut.

Lawyers of the domestic helpers argued that the levy was based on irrelevant consideration and was actually a tax imposed on the domestic workers, so it is illegal and unconstitutional.

They also said that the levy was imposed without a substantive law and thus without legal effect.

Bataclan disclosed that along with the five Filipino maids, two Indonesians, two migrant organizations and a Filipino lawyer residing in Hong Kong who employs a domestic worker, co-filed the case in court.

The case was being handled "pro bono" by Massie and Clement Solicitors, barristers Gerard Mccoy SC (Queens Counsel), Philip Ross and Neil Thomson.

Named respondents in the case were the HKSAR chief executive council, the director of immigration and the Employees Retraining Board.

With the case now lodged before the Hong Kong courts, Mrs. Arroyo told Bataclan that the government’s policy decision to suspend the processing of new applications for work contracts of domestic helpers in Hong Kong stays because of the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the territory.

Malacañang earlier said that once legal action has been taken against HKSAR, it will lift the ban on the deployment of Filipino maids to Hong Kong.

In a teleconference with Mrs. Arroyo, Bataclan said that she agrees with the government’s decision not to lift the ban on Filipino maids citing the cases of a number of Filipina workers infected with SARS that were now being treated in Hong Kong hospitals.

"I guess, we should give primary consideration to the health and safety of our OFWs here in Hong Kong," Bataclan said.