Enforcement of laws eyed to protect FDHs

THE working conditions of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong could be vastly improved not with new laws or bills, but with the effective enforcement of existing measures, an analyst said.

Reginald Frection, a PhD candidate at the University of York in the United Kingdom and founder of US-based ARES Human Rights, also said that from the time he was living in Hong Kong in 2010, he observed that there are a lot more discussions now on ensuring the welfare of foreign domestic workers in the city.

Frection came to Hong Kong again to interview authorities and various stakeholders about his dissertation on the plight of migrant domestic workers here as a requirement for his doctorate degree of Human Rights Law at the University of York.

He said he hopes to present his research as a support to argue for better working conditions for foreign domestic workers.

Although the Labour Department is presently holding public consultations for a proposed “Code of Practice” for employment agencies in the city, Frection said the loophole lies in the enforcement
of existing laws.

“Again if you develop a Code of Practice, how do you enforce it? There’s a labour ordinance that should be implemented under the EAA (Employment Agencies Administration) and they say no employment agency should charge more than 10 percent of foreign domestic helper’s wages for the first month,” Frection said.

“But I see people paying $14,000 to $15,000 so there’s a [measure] already in place, [but] what do you do when people don’t adhere to it? That is the issue. The current laws that are there could be successful if implemented properly,” he added.

Cases of abuse, Frection said, would continue if existing laws are not applied properly.

“You have the police force, the justice system, and the legislature as a form of prevention or to prohibit certain behavior, if you have these in place, but you don’t follow up, what is the point?” he said.

For his dissertation, Frection said he had been meeting with Hong Kong authorities, and Philippine officials.

He said he hopes that his research could be used to make a stronger argument for the advocacy of his NGO.

In a nutshell, his research seeks to determine whether the way that labor complaints of migrant domestic workers here in Hong Kong meet the international standard for “effective remedy”.

If a jurisdiction such as Hong Kong is unable to make a proper or correct classification of an offense, such as human trafficking or placing a person in forced labor, then it would be difficult to properly “apply the correct redress method”.

“If we look at some domestic workers and say ‘well they may be victims of forced labor’, but they go to the Labour Department and nobody assesses the complaint and they only get a classification of a labor dispute, then the only method of resolving it is to ensure that they get at least some of their final compensation.

“Now if it’s classified as a forced labor case, then the method of redress has to be different because now you’re talking about a human right violation and so there should be some investigation, and if need be, prosecution,” he said.