Poor service and dodgy practices blight Hong Kong’s domestic helper hiring agencies, says consumer watchdog as it urges authorities to crack down

The Labour Department should take more action to tackle domestic helper hiring agencies that provide a poor service to employers, Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has urged.

The Consumer Council received around 200 complaints on such agencies each year, chief executive Gilly Wong Fung-han said on Wednesday, in what was an “ongoing problem”. Employers typically paid fees of more than HK$10,000 (US$1,282) to about HK$20,000.

Last year, there were 193 cases – down 2 per cent from 2017 – with complaints ranging from poor sales tactics to unprofessional services.

“We hope the industry can have its own probity and strict gatekeeping. Second, for the Labour Department, we think there is a need to strengthen its law enforcement action,” Wong said.

“When there is rising demand, but when the supply and quality have a lot of discrepancies [with what was promised], it will cause many consumers to be unsatisfied.”

There are about 380,000 domestic helpers in the city, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia. They account for almost 10 per cent of Hong Kong’s working population.

In one case, an Indonesian helper said on her résumé she had experience in babysitting, could cook and had a good command of Cantonese. In a video interview, the helper appeared to be able to speak simple Cantonese and understood some English, which satisfied the employer who paid HK$10,980 on the spot to confirm the hiring.

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But after the helper started working, the employer found she could not understand basic instructions such as “laundry”, “cook” and “clean”.

The complainant later found out an off-camera translator had helped with questions and provided Cantonese phonetic transcriptions to the helper.

The company claimed it knew nothing about the video interview as it was arranged by its partner in Indonesia. It refused to give a refund but agreed to provide a discount for the complainant to hire a replacement.

After the complainant refused the discount offer, the council advised him to consider pursuing the case in the Small Claims Tribunal.

The council’s research and testing committee chairwoman Nora Tam Fung-yee said employers should pay attention to candidates’ eye movements during video interviews.

“[Interviewees could] be getting tips at the front or behind,” she said.

Employers could also ask different kinds of questions to test candidates’ abilities better, she added.

In another case, a complainant paid HK$11,456 to hire a Filipino helper using a company that claimed to offer a “100 per cent refund” scheme.

But during the hiring process, the employer learned that immigration authorities in the Philippines had barred the helper from leaving the country for failing to submit a training certificate.

The company then offered to provide the service for free again and verbally promised a 100 per cent refund if the second application failed. But after the second round failed, the staff used many excuses to decline the refund.

In a written reply to the council, the company said a full refund only applied when Hong Kong’s Immigration Department did not issue a visa and the two failed cases did not fall under the policy’s scope.

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The council advised consumers to read the terms carefully before signing any contracts and be sure they understood their rights.

“They should spend some time to ask around, ask relatives and friends about the reputation of the firms,” Wong said.

The Labour Department said it had boosted enforcement against employment agency abuses to protect the interest of jobseekers and employers, including stepping up inspections of firms and increasing manpower of the employment agencies administration.

It promised to continue to take stringent enforcement action against unscrupulous employment agencies.

“Upon receiving complaints against employment agencies, investigations will be initiated promptly. There will be prosecutions where there is sufficient evidence to substantiate an offence,” it said.

Sanctions would also be imposed on the companies if they fail to comply with the requirements stated in the code of practice for employment agencies.