Offer helpers permanent residency
The Labour and Welfare minister has said that Hong Kong will need a large number of domestic helpers to deal with the city’s ageing population, many of them acting as carers for elderly citizens.
However, as the mainland grows more prosperous, it will become more popular with helpers from the Philippines. So we will have to compete with employers from over the border and in other countries.
We will not get the numbers we need unless these workers are offered good employment packages. This must include allowing them right of abode when they have been here for seven years. Having worked as helpers for that period, as permanent residents they would then be free to apply for any job.
Also, the law must be changed so that helpers no longer have to live in their employers’ home. Flats in Hong Kong are often so cramped that there is nowhere decent for the helper to sleep. Prospective employees are more likely to come here if they can choose their own accommodation.
Benson Wong Tat-hin, Tseung Kwan O
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