DOLE chief goes to HK to tackle $750 levy on Filipino workers

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said yesterday she will travel to Hong Kong next week to urge officials not to tax Filipino workers there.

Several pro-business and pro-Beijing political parties in Hong Kong have urged their government to impose a levy of up to HK$750 (US$96) per month on domestic workers who earn a minimum monthly wage of HK$3,670 (US$471).

The move is aimed at boosting opportunities for local workers.

In the former Crown Colony, some 3,000 foreign workers including overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will hold a protest rally today to oppose the proposed levy on foreign maids.

The protesters will march from Victoria Court to the Central government office.

Julie Escalona, a member of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong, said that the government’s best Christmas gift for OFWs is a guarantee that the Hong Kong government will not push through with the salary cuts for domestic helpers.

"This is unfair because workers in Hong Kong cannot afford to pay such," Escalona said.

Sto. Tomas said she will hand over a letter from President Arroyo to Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa on Wednesday, and discuss the proposed domestic worker levy with Stephen Ip, Hong Kong’s secretary for economic development and labor.

"It is clear to me that this is a suggestion to increase the number of workers from mainland China," Sto. Tomas said, noting that Chinese workers are willing to receive lower wages in Hong Kong.

She said Hong Kong’s reputation as an international business center might suffer because part of the city’s attraction lies in the quality of life provided by foreign workers.

"It is discriminatory to impose a levy on the lowest-paid workers in Hong Kong," she said.

She also said that Filipino workers spend about 55 percent of their earnings in Hong Kong.

The South China Morning Post reported Thursday that Mrs. Arroyo would send a hand-carried letter to Tung next week outlining reasons why the government should not impose the monthly levy on foreign helpers.

This move was welcomed by the United Filipinos in Hong Kong. However, they cautioned that the government should be firm in its stand and called on Mrs. Arroyo not to betray them.

"Be consistent. No compromise, no dealing, no bargaining and no preconditions," the group’s spokeswoman Connie Bragas-Regalado said.

But Regalado said the experience of Filipino maids in Taiwan and Saudi Arabia, who had suffered recent salary cuts agreed by the government, made them "wary about the resoluteness of the government to carry out our demand to the end."

"If Arroyo, (Foreign Secretary Blas) Ople and (Labor Secretary Patricia) Sto. Tomas support the campaign, then support it all the way ... do not betray us in the middle of the fight," she said.

In the Senate, opposition Sen. Teresa Aquino-Oreta welcomed Malacañang’s initiative to respond swiftly to the concerns of overseas Filipino workers.

"The Palace deserves public support behind this decision," she said. – Jose Rodel Clapano, AFP