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The proposal was presented by the Labor Department, which believes that female workers change jobs “too easily.” The activists explain that quitting a job is a right and that it often poses a series of difficulties. The female workers represent 5% of the city’s population and come mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines.
Hong Kong ( / Agencies) – “Changing jobs is a human right”. Domestic workers from Southeast Asia living in Hong Kong are opposing the city government, which accuses them of changing jobs too easily and for this reason wants to impose stricter laws.
On March 20, during a protest outside the Labor Department, activists from the Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body (AMCB) displayed signs reading “enough discrimination” and “we are workers, not slaves.” The organization’s spokesperson, Dolores Balladares, explained that changing employers is “one of the last things” a carer would want to do: domestic workers – whose rights union activist Elizabeth Tang has also long fought for – are forced to pay large sums to employment agencies; and then to wait for a new work permit. “If we don’t feel good or aren’t treated well, we all have the right to find a better employer,” Balladares said. The president of the Indonesian migrant workers’ union said she hoped the government would meet with domestic workers.
Under the Labor Department’s proposal, employment agencies would be required to “clearly explain” to workers that applications to find a new employer before the end of the contract (which usually lasts two years) “will not be approved” except in “exceptional circumstances,” such as “relocation, death, or financial reasons” related to the original employer, or when “there is evidence that the foreign domestic worker has been abused or exploited.”
Domestic workers in Hong Kong are mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines, and are required by law to live with their employers. There are about 400,000 and they are women in more than 98% of cases, which represents 5% of the city’s population. Once they enter the employee category, they only have two weeks to find another job.
In the past, human rights groups have compared the work to a form of modern day slavery. A survey conducted in 2021 revealed that reports of sexual harassment and abuse of foreign domestic workers in the workplace tripled during 2020.
