GMA appeals anew for freeze on HK wage cut

A day after Filipina maids led a protest march in Hong Kong, Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Domingo said the government has already requested the Hong Kong government not to implement a planned wage cut.

President Arroyo appealed in a letter to HK Special Administrative Region (SAR) chief executive Tung Chee-wah not to implement the cut on behalf of some 139,600 overseas Filipino workers who joined the march with maids from Thailand and Indonesia.

"The President has already sent a letter to the administrator of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong Tung Chee-wah," Sto. Tomas said.

Sto. Tomas said the President asked the Hong Kong government not to implement the wage cuts "because they have long been serving you very well."

The OFWs, along with other foreign workers, marched from Victoria Garden to Chater Garden in the Hong Kong central business district to protest the planned cuts for all foreign workers in the former British colony.

Sto. Tomas defended the workers and said the OFWs committed nothing illegal.

"I think it is right for our fellow workers to express what they feel. However, I think what they’re doing is still speculative and anticipatory," she said.

"When I was in Hong Kong, I told them it would be okay if they march so long as they don’t alienate the government we are trying to appeal to," Sto. Tomas added.

On the instruction of Mrs. Arroyo, Sto. Tomas flew to Hong Kong last month when the wage cuts were first announced, supposedly due to an economic slowdown, to meet with her counterpart in the Hong Kong government.

The HK government had announced it would slash wages by 20 percent from HK$3,670 (about P24,146) to between HK$3,120 (P20,528) and HK$2,876 (P18,922).

Sto. Tomas, however, clarified the Hong Kong government has assured the wage cuts will not apply to existing work contracts but only to contracts entered into after the cuts are finalized.

Sto. Tomas said she impressed upon the Hong Kong government that it would be their loss if OFWs opt to leave their employers because of diminished pay checks.

"This is what we should project: that we are excellent workers and if they lose us there (in Hong Kong), they will be the ones who will suffer," she added.

Meanwhile, Bayan Muna Rep. Crispin Beltran, apparently unaware that the government had already communicated with the Hong Kong government, urged the government to formally oppose the wage cuts.

Beltran’s representative to the OFWs consultation meeting last week also said that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) was "useless" in echoing the OFWs sentiments.

"They have expressed extreme disappointment with the Macapagal-Arroyo government and condemned the (DOLE’s) uselessness in echoing the sentiment of the migrant workers," lawyer Rachel Pastores said in a statement.

She said the OFWs are asking Congress to immediately implement legislative actions to block its implementation and pressure the Hong Kong government to drop its "anti-labor" policy but failed to specify what legislation they wanted or how they plan to implement it in Hong Kong. – Marichu Villanueva, Sandy Araneta