Long working hours is top FDH woe

Pahinga siya pag day off

FOR three years in a row, long working hours, the lack of private room and denial of a 24-hour day off topped the woes of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong, a migrant rights group said.

According to the Annual Case Work Report of the Mission for Migrant Workers (MFMW), long working hours remained the top concern of FDWs in this city.

“This year’s report indicated an alarming trend of same problems experienced by FDWs for the past years,” the MFMW said in a statement.

“Long working hours topped the labor problem of migrants in 2015 at 83 percent. In 2014, it was 82 percent and it was at 86.6 percent in 2013. This year, 2 out of every 5 domestic workers reported working for more than 16 hours each while 3 out of 5 work for 11 to 16 hours daily,” it added.

The yearly report analyses the nature and content of cases that the MFMW receives and highlights the concrete condition and problems that FDWs face in Hong Kong.

“In 2013, 43 percent of FDWs were not provided with private accommodation. This increased to 47 percent in 2014 and again slightly went up to 48 percent last year,” the MFMW said.

“Making FDWs work before taking a day off had been very common for the past years at 39 percent in 2013, 41 percent in 2014, and 38 percent in 2015,” it added.

The group said other labor-related problems included unpaid wages and benefits stipulated in the Employment Ordinance. In 2015, total claims of MFMW clients amounted to $3.3 million with 70 percent or $2.2 million recovered through conciliation, negotiations and court cases.

Agency malpractices remained prevalent, the MFMW said.

“The Annual Case Work Report 2015 also revealed that 97 percent of FDWs with agency-related problems were charged by recruiters with more than the legally-mandated fees,” the group said.

“Only 3 percent were charged with the legal amount of HK$421, the equivalent of 10 percent of the minimum allowable wage for FDWs allowed to be collected from workers,” it added.

The group said cases related to fee collection by recruitment agencies was at 41 percent of the total number of cases it handled. Though a reduction of cases of FDWs charged with over $15,000 was seen – 38 percent in 2014 and 12 percent in 2015 – overcharging at an average of $5,000 to $10,000 remained common at a high 51 percent.

“The said cases included malpractices of agencies such as illegal fee collection, overcharging and fraudulent loans either in Hong Kong or the counterpart agency in the sending country,” the group said.

It said FDWs are charged with registration fees or training fees, and are forced to take out loans in order to evade the legally mandated cap on agency charges “Of the agency-related problems, 85 agencies in Hong Kong were involved with 17 charging FDWs with HK$15,000 or more. Meanwhile, 83 counterpart agencies in sending countries were also involved,” the group said.

It added that the “qualitative condition of FDWs remains unchanged”.

“The continuing prevalence of labor and agency problems, and the high case count of the MFMW show that the qualitative condition of FDWs has remained unchanged,” the group said.

It added that the “very slight variations”in the incidence reports on these issues faced by FDW are indicators that “should alarm policymakers.”

“While there has been no recorded extreme cases of abuse like the celebrated case of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, the problems in the working and living condition of FDWs persist largely due to the fact that reforms have not been made to policies such as the Two-Week Rule and the mandatory live-in employment arrangement that have been shown to expose FDWs to unacceptable treatment,” the group said.

The MFMW noted that there was also no indication that FDWs are being seriously considered for inclusion in the anticipated legislation of working hours regulation.

“Meanwhile, the reduction in incidences of collection of very high fees by recruiters may mean that agencies are getting more careful following the constant exposition of agency malpractices in the past,” the group said.