HK recruiters seek higher pay to lure back Pinay maids

To lure Filipina maids back to work in Hong Kong, recruitment agencies in the former British colony are pushing for an increase  in the monthly pay of foreign domestic helpers.

Alfredo Palmiery, of the Society of Hong Kong Agencies accredited to the Philippines (SHARP), yesterday said their counterparts in Hong Kong are pushing for better financial benefits for foreign domestic helpers.

“The General Chamber of Hong Kong Manpower Agencies is urging the government there to raise the minimum wage for foreign domestic helpers to curb the drop in the number of Filipina domestic helpers,” Palmiery said, adding that the decline has alarmed recruitment agencies.

According to Palmiery, more Filipina domestic helpers now prefer to work in Taiwan because of higher monthly pay compared to the prevailing minimum wage in Hong Kong.

Currently, there are 242,162 foreign domestic helpers working in Hong Kong. Of this, 122,613 are Filipinos while 148,666 are Indonesians.

The Filipina domestic helpers receive higher monthly pay than other nationalities and they used to comprise the biggest number of foreign workers there.

“Employers are willing to pay higher fees for Filipina workers because they are more efficient and can fluently speak the English language unlike other nationalities,” Palmiery said.

He also called on the Philippine government to speed up the processing of employment contracts.

Local recruiters, meanwhile, are asking the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to bring back the “no placement fee policy” for domestic helpers which has reportedly discouraged many licensed agencies from sending Filipina workers to Hong Kong.