“A HKD4,500 wage hike for foreign domestic workers can no longer be deferred, especially as we asked for this a year ago. But the Hong Kong government refuses to listen to our collective demand.”
This was the statement of Dolores Balladares-Pelaez, spokesperson of the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body (AMCB), which rallied outside Hong Kong’s Labour Department in Wan Chai today along with dozens of foreign domestic workers (FDWs).
The alliance, representing Filipino, Indonesian, Thai, Sri Lankan and Nepali migrant workers in Hong Kong, is making renewed calls for FDWs’ wages to be raised to HKD4,500 from the current HKD4,110 under the Minimum Allowable Wage (MAW).
Balladares-Pelaez said that the AMCB is already firming up plans to campaign hard for this wage demand, which was started last year but was only met with a meagre HKD90 increase by the Hong Kong government.
This year’s campaign reboot will focus on the rising cost of living in the territory and its growing discrepancy with FDW wages, and will mobilise its entire grassroots member organisations to put pressure on the government.
For her part, Sringatin, also of the AMCB, argued that the original basis for the HKD4,500 hike remains valid this this year, and in fact, “even more so”.
“In asking for the increase last year, we declared that the HKD4,500 would represent only a HKD240 raise over the 15-year period from 1998, when the FDW monthly wage was at HKD3,680. The last HKD90 increase was practically an insult to the sector, as it only amounts to an additional HKD3 per day. Needless to say, this is woefully inadequate,” said Sringatin.
She also pointed out that the HKD964 food allowance, raised from HKD964 last year, is a far cry from the HKD1,600 monthly being asked by the AMCB from the Hong Kong government.
“This breaks down to just HKD32 per day, and it doesn’t take a three-digit IQ to figure out that this only buys you one simple meal in HK. It is statistically impossible for any FDW to get decently fed with this amount on a daily basis.”
Balladares-Pelaez also underscored the long-running discrimination of FDWs compared to local workers, which results in lower wages for the former despite having longer working hours.
“FDWs work an average of 16 hours a day as compared to 10 hours for local workers. And yet they only get roughly half the wages of the locals,” she said.
Sringatin believes that Hong Kong is losing its competitiveness in FDW hiring with its reluctance to give them a substantial wage increase.
A spokesman for the Labour Department said, “The HKSAR Government reviews the Minimum Allowable Wage (MAW) rate from time to time and will make announcement as and when appropriate.”
Words/Photos: Lory Jean Yungco
Reader Interactions