Author Archives : Meredith

Documentary to Follow Domestic Workers to Clockenflap Festival 1

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A new documentary on Hong Kong’s domestic workers has gotten off to a strong start, raising US $12,430 in the first few days of its Kickstarter campaign.

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The film’s makers hope to shed light on the “sacrifices and struggles of migrant domestic helpers working to create a better future”.

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The documentary will follow a choir of domestic workers in Hong Kong called the “Unsung Heroes” as they prepare to perform “I Wish I Could Kiss You Goodnight”, a song about leaving their children behind to provide them with a better life.

This is a preview. Read the full post here.

NEWS: Hong Kong Delegation Heads to Manila to Discuss Domestic Workers

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The Domestic Workers Roundtable (DWRT), a conglomeration of domestic workers NGOs and interest groups formed in 2014 (including Hong Kong Helpers Campaign), has announced a delegation to Manila to meet with counterparts to discuss illegal agency fees, loan sharks, and access to justice for abused domestic workers in Hong Kong.

Photo: DWRT.

The delegation, led by Legislative Councilwoman Emily Lau of the Democratic Party will arrive in Manila on August 2 for four days of talks. Supporting her are Allan Bell, Chairperson of the DWRT and David Bishop, co-founder of the Fair Employment Agency, an organisation for migrant workers in Hong Kong that charges them no fees for job placement.

This is a preview. Read the full post here.

NEWS – Domestic Workers Call For Boycott of Sunlight Employment Agency After Elis’s Death

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Following the death of Elis Kurniasih, 33-year-old mother of two from Indonesia, activists called for immediate action outside of the Sunlight Employment Agency in North Point midday Tuesday.

Sunlight Employment Agency

Protesters gather outside Sunlight Employment Agency

“This is a murder,” said Eni Lestari, who heads the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body. She told the crowd that Elis had been charged two months of her salary to change employers in Hong Kong, and that her death was not a normal accident, but the result of human neglect. Elis was residing at the agency because her employer had decided not to hire her for another two months.

This is a preview. Read the full post here.

NEWS – The NGO Training Hong Kong’s Helpers in Financial Literacy 2

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For most people, work ends after they leave the office, cram into the MTR to head home or to meet friends or family for dinner. For Hong Kong’s domestic workers, reprieve from work happens only on Sundays, when the women have 24 hours each week to be themselves. For most women, this involves relaxing, running errands, or chatting with friends in the park. Most people would not choose to spend four hours of their sole day off in a one-room office in Sheung Wan learning how to budget and plan their finances.

Yet that is exactly what dozens of women who attend Enrich’s financial literacy programs do. This particular Sunday, the women are attending a basic financial literacy course, which promises to teach the women the necessities of saving and making smart decisions with their money.

Domestic workers meet at Enrich on Sunday

Domestic workers meet at Enrich on Sunday

Enrich offers several programs, including business development, assertive communication, and asset building – to huge success. Of their participants, 93% express greater confidence in managing debt and 100% say they are in a better financial position than before the course.

Ping Bevan, a bubbly woman from Bangkok, points the women towards dozens of cards neatly laid out on a desk that describe goals such as “I’d like to be able to support my family/parents” and “I’d like to stop worrying about money every day.”

This is a preview. Read the full post here.

NEWS: A Break Through? Judge in Erwiana Case Calls for Review of Live-in Rule 2

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Friday morning Law Wan-tung, the 44-year-old housewife who was found guilty of abusing Erwiana Sulistyaningsih and Tutik Lestari Ningsih, was sentenced to 6 years in prison.

Speaking in the Wan Chai District Court early Friday, the Honourable Judge Amanda Woodcock made ground-breaking statements slamming the live-in rule and collection of illegal agency fees as having facilitated Erwiana’s abuse.

Judge Amanda Woodcock on the 'live in rule'

Judge Amanda Woodcock on the ‘live in rule’

“In my view, such conduct could be prevented if domestic workers were not forced to live in their employers’ homes,” Judge Woodcock said. “The choice would make all the difference.”

This is a preview. Read the full post here.

Hong Kong Agency that Placed Erwiana Still Allowed to Recruit Domestic Workers 1

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Chan’s Asia Employment Agency, which placed Erwiana with her employer Law Wan-tung, is still recruiting Indonesian helpers to place in Hong Kong homes. Erwiana was placed with her employer after two previous domestic workers left within six weeks and six months respectively. The Hong Kong Labour Department stated that it found “insufficient evidence” that Chan’s Asia had violated regulations under the Labour Department.

Ms. Lo Fung Chi was the manager of Chan’s Asia Recruitment Agency during the time in question and was a witness for the prosecution that helped find Law Wan-tung guilty of abusing Erwiana and another domestic worker. She left Chan’s Asia shortly after police took her statement in April of last year.

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On Erwiana’s contract, Chan’s Asia Employment Agency was named as her employer. Defence lawyers for Law told the court that the agency had kept both Erwiana’s passport and HKID, though the agency denied that it kept Erwiana’s documents. During the trial, the court heard that in order to send Erwiana home to Indonesia, Law lied to the agency, telling them she was taking Erwiana on a trip to China, in order to retrieve her documents from them.

The Honourable Judge Amanda Woodcock found that the testimony of two agents was “measured and deliberate” and served to avoid implicating themselves in any criminal wrong-doing.

This is a preview. Read the full post here.

INTERVIEW – ‘No One is Just a Worker’: Exclusive Interview with Author Nicole Constable on Hong Kong’s Domestic Workers

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Dr. Nicole Constable, the author of ‘Born out of Place’ and ‘Maid to Order in Hong Kong’, shares her research on Hong Kong’s domestic workers. She discusses their struggles to maintain a balance between family life and work, the decision some domestic workers make to work illegally in Hong Kong, and the social exclusion and discrimination they often face.  

Dr. Nicole Constable

Dr. Nicole Constable

HK Helpers: A premise of your book is how difficult it is for domestic workers to be both a good worker and a good wife/mother/daughter. How does the requirement that domestic workers ‘live-in’ affect the family life of domestic workers even when they are already far from home?

Nicole Constable: It depends a lot on the conditions of the live in situation. If the situation is good and the worker has time off and privacy and enough hours to sleep and the ability to keep in touch with a family back home, it sometimes isn’t too bad – especially if she is being paid her legal salary. If she has, in the worst situation, no privacy and is not allowed to use a phone or contact her children or spouse during the week, it can be a serious problem for them. It means they don’t have the same support network and they are not as happy as they would be as workers if they were able to live out or have more privacy and time to themselves.

If they were able to live out, it wouldn’t be as much of a problem because they can keep in touch with family members regularly on their own, without someone overhearing what they’re saying or misinterpreting their tone of voice. The contact with people back home is such an important source of support and pleasure and the well-being of workers that if they were able to have live out or have better conditions as live-in, they would better balance the life of being a worker and still being a family member at home.

The problem is, often they are expected to be workers 24-7 or be on call as workers 24-7 and the live in situation perpetuates that kind of set-up. If they were allowed to live out, I think potentially they would be much better and much happier workers that have more balanced lives.

HKH: Did the women you interviewed complain about their living conditions in Hong Kong?

NC: My earlier book, Maid to Order in Hong Kong, was based partly on interviews with them and speaking with women at the Mission for Migrant workers and I heard many, many, many complaints about work conditions and housing conditions and I saw many pictures of very unpleasant places where people were forced to sleep. I kept in touch with many different organizations and people in the wider domestic worker community that had a lot of access to what I would consider very inappropriate housing.

This is a preview. Read the full post here.

BLOG – ‘Live-in’ Rule Hurts Helpers & Employers 8

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This week, 20 immigration officers visited Ma Wan village on Park Island to arrest four domestic workers, whose crime was living under a different roof than their employers.

Two employers of one of the women were also arrested and later released on bail. The male employer told the South China Morning Post: “Some employers that have a live-in nanny make them work up to 18 hours a day and some I know don’t even get a day off.”

An immigration officer reported that the four women were arrested on suspicion of making false representations to an immigration officer. Under clause three of the standard employment contract, both parties agree that the domestic worker will live at the same premises as the employer.

According to the Hong Kong Labour Department, infringing clause three is akin to making a false representation to an immigration officer, and carries a maximum punishment of $150,000 in fines and 14 years in prison. Domestic workers accused of the same could be black-listed and deported. By contrast, in the recent trial against a local Hong Kong employer for grievous bodily harm with intent, the accused faces a maximum jail time of seven years if found guilty.

This is a preview. Read the full post here.

NEWS – “She Slept on the Floor”: Defendant’s Son Testifies at Erwiana Abuse Trial

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The son of Law Wan-tung, the woman who stands accused of abusing Erwiana Sulistyaningsih and two other Indonesian women who worked in her home, testified at the District Court yesterday that he did not see his mother be physically violent with the women.

The court heard 18-year-old Edward Tsui Wing-kit describe how the women, who worked for his mother at different periods between 2011 and 2014, would typically still be cleaning when he went to bed at midnight.

Tsui said that he could not recall if any of the women were working when he woke up at 7am to prepare for school. He did not know how many hours a day the women worked.

This is a preview. Read the full post here.

Accused Employer Was Allowed to Hire Erwiana Despite Earlier Complaints

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A previous employee of the woman on trial for allegedly torturing Indonesian helper Erwiana Sulistyaningsih has testified that Law Wan-tung was allowed to hire new domestic workers despite previous complaints of abuse.

A 'Justice for Erwiana' rally last March.

A ‘Justice for Erwiana’ rally last March.

Tutik Lestari Ningsih worked for Law in her Tai Kok Tsui home for almost a year in 2010. She told the court that she was repeatedly slapped and kicked in the thighs by the defendant and that she was not the first of Law’s employees to suffer physical assault.

“She had done such things to previous helpers,” she said.

Tutik claims her employment agency told her of Law’s reputation when she complained of the abuse. Tutik also said that the agent spoke of how Law would struggle to find another domestic worker because she changed them so frequently.

This is a preview. Read the full post here.