A Hong Kong court’s decision to uphold a compulsory rule for migrant domestic workers to live with their employers drew criticism on Tuesday from labor rights advocates, who said it exposed the foreign workers to conditions akin to modern slavery.
The live-in rule for Hong Kong’s 370,000 domestic workers, mostly women from Indonesia and the Philippines, has long been denounced as discriminatory and inhumane — essentially putting employees on call 24 hours a day.
Monday’s ruling responded to a challenge to the requirement that was filed three years ago by Philippine worker Nancy Lubiano. She argued that the rule was unconstitutional and violated her labor rights.
The Hong Kong Court of Appeal rejected her argument and upheld a previous ruling by a lower court that found that the live-in arrangement did not directly lead to exploitation.
“This is really outrageous and unacceptable,” said Dolores Balladares, chairwoman of United Filipinos in Hong Kong, which represents domestic workers from the Philippines.
“The decision is discriminatory to migrant domestic workers. It shows that we are treated like second-class citizen, as modern-day slaves,” she said.
Labor groups have warned that the rule could deter the reporting of forced labor, which one in six migrant domestic workers in the territory has experienced, a 2016 study by campaign group Justice Centre Hong Kong found.
The Hong Kong government said that it was “pleased” with the ruling reaffirming the live-in requirement as lawful.
The migrant domestic workers are aware of the accommodation arrangement before they accept jobs in the territory, a government spokesman said in a statement, adding that authorities spare “no effort in safeguarding the rights and benefits” of the group.
Mission for Migrant Workers general manager Cynthia Abdon-Tellez said that the live-in rule was discriminatory because it only applies to foreign domestic workers — pushing some into appalling living conditions.
A 2017 survey by her organization found that nearly half of foreign domestic workers did not have their own room, with some forced to sleep in kitchens or on balconies in cramped apartments.
“They live in cupboards, toilets or in cubbyholes above the refrigerator or oven — whatever they can fit in. In some extreme cases, they live in what look like dog houses,” Abdon-Tellez said.
Domestic workers have better protection in Hong Kong than elsewhere in Asia, with a legal minimum wage and one mandatory rest day per week.
The mistreatment of domestic workers in the territory has come under scrutiny since the 2014 case of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, an Indonesian maid beaten by her employer and burned with boiling water.
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
HELP DENIED? The US Department of State said that the Cuban leadership refuses to allow the US to provide aid to Cubans, ‘who are in desperate need of assistance’ US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said that Cuba’s leadership must change, as Washington renewed an offer of US$100 million in aid if the communist nation agrees to cooperate. Cuba has been suffering severe economic tumult led by an energy shortage that plunged 65 percent of the country into darkness on Tuesday. Cuba’s leaders have blamed US sanctions, but Rubio, a Cuban American and critic of the government established by Fidel Castro, said the system was to blame, including corruption by the military. “It’s a broken, nonfunctional economy, and it’s impossible to change it. I wish it were different,” he told
Nauru said it would hold a referendum to change its official name, described as a colonial relic from a time when “foreign tongues” mangled the native language. Nauru would change its name to Naoero to “more faithfully honor our nation’s heritage, our language and our identity,” Nauruan President David Adeang said in a statement on Tuesday. The Pacific island nation’s native language is Dorerin Naoero, which is spoken by the vast majority of its approximately 10,000 inhabitants. “Nauru emerged because Naoero could not be properly pronounced by foreign tongues, and was changed not by our choice, but for convenience,” the government said in
RSS