Domestic workers complained of being treated like 'slaves' yesterday as they protested against a ban on living outside their employers' homes, and demanded that rules protecting their rights are enforced properly.
A group of about 40 women from the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, along with half a dozen male workers and about 20 supporters chanted 'we are workers, we are not slaves' as they gathered outside Immigration Tower in Wan Chai.
The issue of workers' living conditions shot to prominence after a magazine published a picture purporting to show a helper's bed perched on top of a toilet in a tiny bathroom at the home of singer Purple Lee.
'When the government made live-in arrangements mandatory, they forced workers to put up with whatever conditions their employers offered them,' said Eni Lestari, a domestic worker and spokeswoman for the Asian Migrants Co-ordinating Body, which organised the protest.
Moving out of an employer's home is banned under a rule introduced in 2003 and designed to stop domestic workers taking on illegal work in the evenings. Last week, 25 domestic workers were arrested in Pok Fu Lam because they were not living with their employers.
'It is time to stop pretending that just because a worker does not speak out, that she doesn't mind,' said Doris Lee, 43, an employer of a domestic worker who took part in the protest. 'Toilets, the top of laundry machines and cupboards are not suitable places to sleep.'