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Mary Ann Benitez

Activists say employers pay the helpers less than Filipinos

Hong Kong's largest ethnic minority has shrunk in the past five years with its main rival in the domestic helpers market closing the population gap between them.

Latest figures show a difference of about 30,000.

By the end of last month,  there were 120,400 domestic helpers from the Philippines compared with 91,700 from Indonesia, according to the latest Immigration Department  figures.

The number of Philippine helpers reached a peak of 155,450 in 2001, while there were  68,880 Indonesians.

Many migrant activists attributed the trend to employers paying Indonesians lower wages, the poor economic situation in Indonesia and the declining number of Filipinos.

The Hong Kong government cut the minimum wage of foreign domestic helpers in April 2003 to $3,270 from $3,670, and imposed  a $400 monthly  levy on employers in October.  The levy in effect is passed on to the helper.

The total foreign domestic helpers' population declined from 235,280 in 2001 to 216,860 by December 2003 but reached 218,430 by December last year.

The number of Thais and other nationalities, including Sri Lankans, Indians and Pakistanis, have remained at 9,000 during the past five years.

The pay cut and levy  appears to mostly have affected Filipinos, rather than Indonesians, as shown in the Immigration Department figures.

But government officials have put a different spin on the decline.  'Employers have to pay  foreign domestic helpers, regardless of their nationalities, wages not lower than the prevailing minimum  wage at the time the standard employment contract is entered into,' a  Labour Department spokesman said.

'Foreign domestic helpers enjoy the same statutory and contractual labour protections and benefits.'

The Philippine Consul-General in Hong Kong  Corazon Belmonte-Jover  released a statement through her spokesman, Vice-Consul Noel Novicio.

'There are other emerging markets, like Taiwan, Singapore, even former Soviet republics such as Tajikistan  ... So the fluctuations are not necessarily because of competition but there are other factors  ... It is difficult to say  ... that there is a real trend of decline,'  Mr Novicio said.

Migrants rights advocates believe differently. Eman Villanueva,  spokesman for the Asian Migrants Co-ordinating Body, said  the minimum wage of $3,270 was the same pay  as in 1992. A survey by the Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers showed about 90 per cent of Indonesian helpers were  earning between $1,500 and $2,500 a month, he said.

'The Indonesian recruitment agencies are the ones facilitating the underpayment so that even before the helpers arrive in Hong Kong, they are not aware that there is  a minimum  wage. They only know how much salary they have agreed on when they were in Indonesia,' he said.

Cynthia Tellez,  director of the Mission for Filipino Migrant Workers,  said  the government had not been enforcing the minimum wage. 'Employers will look for the lowest pay that they can get away with, even if it is illegal.'



Indonesian maids increasing in popularity