Lai See | Post office comes to its senses on mail redirection

One of our readers has had an interesting encounter with Hongkong Post in trying to persuade it to redirect the mail of his Filipino helper. He is leaving Hong Kong and his helper is accompanying him. She has a daughter in the United States who is an American citizen, but to enter the US, she requires a certificate of non-conviction from every country she has worked in. Obtaining one for the 15 years she has worked in Hong Kong was no problem, but she worked in Qatar in 1986, when computers were barely used in government.

She sent off her application, giving the Qatari authorities her address in Hong Kong, before she realised the process could take 18 months. So unless she restarted the process, she would have to get her mail redirected. She went to the post office with her employer, who had proof of his address together with her employment contract.

A member of the counter staff at the post office asked for proof of her address, such as a phone bill, which she didn't have, being a phone-card user. She had no bank account, and she did not pay water, gas or electricity bills. And no, she wasn't the owner of the property or the tenant. Her employer offered her contract as proof of address. But this was deemed unacceptable. The staff member spoke to his supervisor, who in turn spoke to his superior, and all were in agreement that nothing could be done.

Unsurprisingly, our reader formed the conclusion that this was another example of discrimination against domestic helpers. After he spoke to Lai See, we spoke to Teresa Lip Lai-sheung, a public-relations manager with the post office, who fortunately was more helpful. A day later, our reader received a message to say that the postmaster general, no less, had reconsidered the matter and would redirect his helper's mail. Following this incident, counter staff have been told that an employment contract can be used as proof of address.

One wonders how many other helpers have been unable to get their mail redirected as a result of the inflexible and unhelpful attitude of counter staff at the post office. It is hard to fathom why this should have been so difficult to resolve.