Live-in rule forces domestic workers to be on call 24 hours a day, court hears
Barrister representing Nancy Almorin Lubiano, a domestic worker from the Philippines, calls requirement ‘repugnant’
A barrister advocating for a choice to allow the 350,000 foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong to live apart from their employers argued in court on Monday that there must be a separation between work and rest for employees.
Otherwise, Paul Shieh Wing-tai SC said: “It cannot be called an employment.”
It is repugnant to any employment relationship to require somebody be on standby 24 hours a day
Shieh had argued that the rule is unlawful and unconstitutional, in terms of the prohibition against servitude in the Hong Kong Bill of Rights and the customary international rule against forced labour, because it heightened the risks of infringing helpers’ rights.
Citing government evidence, Shieh noted that officials had intended for foreign domestic helpers to be on standby 24 hours a day as they were expected to provide flexible and readily available services.
“In every employment relationship, there must be a segregation between work time and rest time,” he told Mr Justice Anderson Chow Ka-ming. “It is repugnant to any employment relationship to require somebody be on standby 24 hours a day.”