bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Mary Ann Benitez

Foreign and local domestic helpers condemned as too little too late a HK$100-a-month pay increase that was announced by the government yesterday.
The 2.8 per cent increase takes the minimum monthly wage for maids from HK$3,480 to HK$3,580 on employment contracts signed on or after today.
'It is absolutely unfair for migrant workers,' Ip Pui-yu, spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Domestic Workers General Union, said.
'We contribute to society, but we do not get the same value.'
The union said the foreign helpers took a pay cut of HK$400 in 2003 - from HK$3,670 a month - after the outbreak of  severe acute respiratory syndrome devastated the economy.
'Now we have a better economy, but the wage hike is still too little,'  Ms Ip said.
Eman Villanueva, secretary- general of United Filipinos in Hong Kong and spokesman for the Asian Migrants Co-ordinating Body,  questioned why the increase was not announced until  now when, under previous practice, it would have been announced earlier in the year.
'Every day that announcement is delayed, hundreds of domestic helpers are processing their contracts. So those who have done so will be denied this increase for the next two years,' Mr Villanueva said.
Their salaries should be at least HK$4,000 a month based on the campaign by local workers for a legislated minimum wage of HK$30 an hour, Mr Villanueva said.
Eni Lestari, chairman of the Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers, said: 'You can see the growing crisis felt by Hong Kong people. This small increase is not even sufficient for us to cope with the economic  crisis.'
Bungon Tamasorn, chairman of the Thai Regional Alliance in Hong Kong,  said: 'A HK$100 increase is still too low compared with our long work hours.'
Ario Adidyo,  of the Asian Migrant Centre, said the rise was not 'a true wage increase. This is not showing the goodwill  of the Hong Kong government'.
Philippine consul general Alejandrino Vicente said he welcomed the Hong Kong government's decision. 'It is timely in view of the substantial increase in food and fuel prices, which have adversely affected everyone, but most of all the household workers in the territory.'
A Labour Department spokesman defended the HK$100 increase as 'evidence-based' and said it was  set after a review of all relevant economic indicators. He added that 'all concerned views in the community' were also taken into account.



HK$100 pay rise is too  little, too late, say maids