THE Labour Department is reviewing the minimum wage paid to Hong Kong's 120,000 foreign maids, but workers' groups say they fear their claim for a pay rise will be rejected for the second successive year.
The Asian Domestic Workers Union (ADWU) has planned a rally and march in Central next Sunday to pressure the Government into granting a 20 per cent claim, which will see their minimum monthly wage rise by $600 to $3,800.
It will be the second march this year to press for better pay and working conditions by foreign maids, who also want more protection built into their contracts and the abolition of the so-called two-week rule.
In confirming the review yesterday, a department spokesman said the level of wages paid to local domestic helpers or Chinese amahs - who have no minimum rate of pay - would be a key consideration.
Though neither the department nor the Census and Statistics Department could provide figures on earnings for local amahs, the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) said they were much lower than for foreign maids.
''It's only an excuse for not increasing the salary for [foreign] domestic helpers,'' HKCTU executive secretary Winnie Tam Pik-yan said.
The HKCTU and the ADWU have urged the Government to make inflation its sole consideration in the review, and say a comparison between foreign maids and local amahs would be unfair.
