MANILA – The 190,000 overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong deserve more than minimum wage, a party-list representative said.
Aniceto Bertiz III of ACTS-OFW pushed for a 25-percent increase in the workers’ statutory minimum wage.
Advocates for domestic workers’ rights in Hong Kong asked to raise the pay to 5,500 Hong Kong dollars.
Foreign domestic workers there currently receive the “minimum allowable wage” of 4,410 Hong Kong dollars per month, Bertiz claimed.
They get an additional 1,053-Hong Kong dollar food allowance if their employers do not provide them meals.
“If Hong Kong wants to stay competitive and keep on attracting dependable and educated Filipino household staff, it has to bump up at a faster rate their minimum pay,” said Bertiz.
There is “pent-up” demand for Filipino maids in mainland China, primarily from Chinese employers with a second child and the expatriates, said the party-list congressman.
“This is why they are willing to offer higher pay for English-speaking Filipino staffers to help around the house,” he added.
Fifty-three percent of the 360,000 foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong are Filipinos, government data showed.
Bertiza said Hong Kong could lose up to 50 percent of its Filipino domestic workers due to superior pay in the mainland ranging from the Chinese yuan equivalent of 8,600 to 15,500 Hong Kong dollars./PN
This is really a good news for all ofw in hongkong and for all the person they want to work in hong kong like me.. if this going to be happen this very helful for all the family of all ofw in hong kong..