Opinion | It’s every Hongkonger’s responsibility to stop mistreatment of our domestic workers

The law and employment contracts that supposedly protect foreign domestic workers only go so far, as shown by the recent sacking of a cancer-stricken helper. Hongkongers should demand decent treatment for these invaluable workers

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Baby Jane Allas (left) and her sister. A month after Allas was diagnosed with cervical cancer, her employer dismissed her. Photo: Handout

Published: 7:03am, 10 Mar 2019Updated: 7:03am, 10 Mar 2019

A month after Baby Jane Allas was diagnosed with cervical cancer, her employer dismissed her, allegedly because of her illness. The Filipina, who came to Hong Kong in 2017 to work as a domestic helper, not only had to bear the hardships of living with a terminal illness, but also became the victim of a deeply unsympathetic legal structure and social system.

She is not alone. Scroll through the headlines of local media reports and you will find many stories of domestic helpers getting the short end of the stick in Hong Kong. These include wages that fall short of expectations, unfair, even inhumane working conditions and, worst of all, emotional and physical abuse by their employers, some of which can be difficult to prove.

Thankfully, most of the 380,000 or so foreign domestic workers here do not suffer the heart-rending abuse we read about in the worst cases. Nevertheless, they are being treated far too poorly in an advanced society such as ours, particularly in light of the contribution they make to Hong Kong’s economic development.

Just why are they so downtrodden? For one thing, we can blame their demanding working environment. Many helpers put in long hours and, because of a law that requires them to live with the family they work for, they are often provided with substandard living quarters. For some, this can mean having little more than a corner of the kitchen, a space in the storeroom, or even the bathroom.

Under Hong Kong’s labour rules, employers must provide helpers with free, suitable accommodation with “reasonable privacy”. Such minimal standards, coupled with the high density and cramped conditions of Hong Kong households, mean that many helpers have to make do with accommodation that could barely be described as decent.

In addition, employers who try to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of their paid help – so as to get their money’s worth of work – also add to helpers’ misery. This mindset leads employers to dismiss workers with physical or mental ailments, impose strict curfews, and/or require their helpers to work even on their days of rest.

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