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Following is a question by the Hon Paul Tse and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (July 3):
Question :
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) who requested, in the past three years, premature termination of their employment contracts with the employers within the first six months, first year, and contract period of their first employment contracts, after they started working in Hong Kong;
(b) of the respective numbers of cases in the past three years in which FDHs filed claims with the Labour Tribunal (LT) against their Hong Kong employers for wages in arrears and compensations for unreasonable dismissal; among such cases, the respective numbers of those in which before the cases were processed and adjudicated by LT, the claims were withdrawn by the FDHs concerned and those in which the same plaintiffs filed claims again on the same or other grounds subsequently; whether it has found situations in which FDHs tried to obtain permission to stay in Hong Kong by filing claims with LT repeatedly; if it has, of the number of such cases and their details;
(c) as some employers have pointed out that after the Philippine Government prohibited intermediaries in the country from charging Filipino domestic helpers placement fees, such fees have been passed on to Hong Kong employers, whether it has studied the amount of fees that Hong Kong employers have to pay as a result, and if Filipino domestic helpers treasure their jobs in Hong Kong less as they are not required to pay placement fees, and their work stability has thus been affected; if it has, of the details; and
(d) as it has been reported in the press that among the first batch of Bengal domestic helpers who came to work in Hong Kong in May this year, some of them had problems in communicating with their employers and had even been dismissed as a result, and that Indonesian and the Philippine Governments are considering stopping the export of domestic helpers from 2017 onward, whether the Government has reviewed and considered relaxing the current nationality restrictions on FDHs to allow the introduction of domestic helpers from Vietnam and other countries or the re-introduction of Nepalese domestic helpers; if it has, of the outcome; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My response to the Hon Tse's enquiry is set out below:
(a) The Immigration Department (ImmD) does not maintain such statistics.
(b) Under existing policy, foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) must leave Hong Kong upon completion of contracts or within two weeks from the date of termination of contracts, whichever is earlier.
Generally speaking, in the event that an FDH is involved in a labour dispute and has been arranged to attend the hearings of the Labour Tribunal (LT) or the Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board after the termination of his/her contract, the FDH may produce relevant documentary proof to ImmD to apply for extension of stay. The period of extension granted depends on the progress of the cases and individual circumstances. Normally, the FDH must leave Hong Kong before his/her extended stay expires after the hearing is completed.
In 2010, 2011 and 2012, LT received 556, 508 and 446 claims filed by FDHs respectively. LT does not keep statistical breakdown on the nature of claims filed by FDHs or claims withdrawn by FDHs. ImmD also does not have statistics on the number of FDHs seeking permission to stay in Hong Kong by filing claims with LT repeatedly.
(c) Based on the information gathered during the Labour Department (LD)'s regular inspections to employment agencies (EAs) and reported in the press, the level of service fees charged by EAs now is higher than those charged in previous years. For FDHs from the Philippines, the fees would be around $8,000 to $13,000 (including medical examination fees, compulsory insurance by the Philippine Government, medical insurance plan for FDHs, passage, visa application fees and service fees charged by EAs in the Philippines). However, it would be difficult to discern whether the increase was caused by the new policy of the Philippines Government or an increase in EAs' operating costs.
The Administration has not studied if there is any change in how FDHs value their jobs in Hong Kong.
(d) The existing entry arrangement for FDHs is applicable to applicants from most countries and regions. Owing to immigration and security considerations, the current arrangement does not apply to residents of the Mainland, Macao SAR and Taiwan as well as nationals from a few countries including Afghanistan, Cambodia, Cuba, Laos, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Nepal and Vietnam.
The Administration will regularly review the immigration policies, including those for importation of FDHs, to ensure that such policies suit the actual circumstances and needs of Hong Kong.
Ends/Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Issued at HKT 11:55
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