Domestic helpers want 11 hours rest and for you to stop treating them like ‘slaves’ Hongkongers told

Unions target 35,000 signatures as they launch new petition asking for 11 hours uninterrupted rest and an end to sleeping in toilets, kitchens, and store rooms

Reading Time:2 minutes

The Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body launched a campaign on Sunday demanding the government make it compulsory for employers to give their workers 11 hours of uninterrupted rest. Photo. Handout

Published: 8:20pm, 10 Jun 2018Updated: 10:57pm, 10 Jun 2018

Domestic helpers’ unions in Hong Kong launched a petition on Sunday demanding the government make it compulsory for employers to give their workers 11 hours of uninterrupted rest.

Organisers of the campaign hope to get 35,000 signatures, roughly 10 per cent of the city’s domestic helpers, a number they believe should prompt the government to take notice.

They have also called for helpers to be given decent accommodation, so sleeping in kitchens, store rooms, and toilets would become a thing of the past.

Domestic Helpers gather in Exchange Square, Central, on one of their weekly days off. Photo: Handout

All of these issues should be stated clearly in the government’s standard employment contract – the only contract the government accepts for people hiring domestic helpers – so they will no longer live like “slaves” in the city, campaigners added.

“The Hong Kong government must start treating us as workers, not slaves. It is high time that the Hong Kong government ensure we have proper rest,” said Sringatin, spokeswoman of the Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body, an umbrella group of migrant workers’ unions.