Hong Kong-bound maids to undergo personality development

MANILA, Philippines - Who says only aspiring beauty queens need training on social graces?

Household service workers (HSWs) seeking employment in Hong Kong will soon have to undergo personality development training before they will be allowed to depart.

The Society of Hong Kong Accredited Recruiters of the Philippines (SHARP) said yesterday that recruitment agencies are formulating an improved training program for Hong Kong-bound HSWs.     

The SHARP said the training program is meant not only to enhance the skills and job preparedness of HSWs, but also to improve their personality.

Earlier, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz ordered the drafting of a module on Filipino culture and values that would be used in the training of departing OFWs.

Baldoz said the module would help OFWs, including household service workers and seafarers, become professionals in the way they dress, talk, and conduct their selves in public.

SHARP officials said that recruitment agencies signed a covenant committing to provide training for the departing HSWs and ensuring that no placement fee would be collected from the workers.

“We fully support government policies and programs that will benefit HSWs bound for Hong Kong and their families,” the group said.

Last February, SHARP declared a moratorium in the deployment of HSWs to Hong Kong in order to persuade foreign employers to pay for the cost of recruitment and deployment of workers.

SHARP president Alfredo Palmiery presented a copy of the covenant to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

Palmiery said they would do their best in bringing reforms in the recruitment system for household service workers to Hong Kong. 

He said they would post the names of the 52 agencies that signed the covenant in the SHARP-POEA posters, and on the POEA website.