Hong Kong employer asked to pay HK$580,000 in compensation for ‘discriminatory’ treatment of late Filipino helper, court hears
- Employer Rita Choy allegedly ignored domestic helper Joan Sarmiento Guting after her cancer diagnosis and refused to provide her with sufficient food
- Guting was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2017 and died a year later after she returned to the Philippines
A Hong Kong employer has been sued for damages and is asked to pay more than HK$580,000 (US$74,155) in compensation for depriving her late Filipino domestic helper of food and firing her after her cancer diagnosis, a court has heard.
Domestic helper Joan Sarmiento Guting was diagnosed with cervical cancer, oedema and acute kidney failure in 2017. She died at the age of 41 after she returned to the Philippines the following year.
Carla Arangote Temporosa, Guting’s friend and executrix, on Wednesday testified at the District Court against the employer, Rita Choy Chiu-yee.
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Choy was accused of unlawfully discriminating against Guting in April 2017, when the latter was on sick leave at her home.
The employer allegedly ignored Guting, refused to provide her with sufficient food, installed a security camera and threw away utensils she used.
Five years after she filed the allegations to the Equal Opportunities Commission, Temporosa told the court that Guting said the employer had barred her from using the kitchen and left her with no option but to cook in her bedroom with a rice cooker she took from a friend.
“She only cooked once [after she was discharged]. And after that, the employer had controlled her use [of the kitchen] and then she was not allowed,” Temporosa said in the cross-examination.
“She had to ask for food from fellow church members.”
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Denise Souza, the lawyer representing the claimant, told the court that Guting had worked for Choy for two years and three months before she was diagnosed with the illness in March, 2017.
The lawyer said a series of discriminatory incidents against Guting started after she returned to the flat following her first hospital admission. Guting was on a month-long sick leave.
Video evidence presented by Choy’s lawyer, Chan Yip-hei, showed the employer had secretly filmed Guting while cooking rice in the kitchen. But Temporosa said this was the only occasion before her friend was prohibited from using the kitchen and even the fridge.
Guting’s employment was terminated with immediate effect on May 1, 2017, two days after she was discharged from her third hospital admission. Choy asked her to leave the house on the same day.
Temporosa, who received Guting’s call for help, said her friend brought dirty clothes with her because she was forbidden to use the washing machine due to her illness, which Choy thought was contagious.
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But Choy argued that the reason for the dismissal was the helper’s poor performance, which had dissatisfied her months before the diagnosis.
“The last straw was the fact that Choy found out Guting was taking pictures of her home,” Chan told the court, adding the employer and her husband deferred the official termination for months because they were away on trips.
Choy also denied that she barred Guting from entering the kitchen, adding those allegations were “easy to make” but difficult to prove, as the current case was built on the late helper’s words against hers.
Apart from the damage allegations, the claimant also demanded a court order requiring Choy to apologise to Guting and her family.
A five-day trial hearing is expected to be held before Deputy District Judge Grace Chow Chiu-man.
