Manila to appeal cut in HK maids’ wages

Malacañang ordered yesterday the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to make another appeal to officials of Hong Kong’s Special Administrative Region (SAR) not to cut the wages of foreign domestic helpers.

Hong Kong’s maids, numbering nearly 240,000 with a majority of them Filipinos, are in a rage over the government’s plan to slash their monthly wages by as much as HK$400 starting April.

Connie Bragas-Regalado, a spokeswoman for the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, said her organization is planning to "take up the issue with the UN Committee on Human Rights and the International Labor Organization."

"It is unfair, making us the scapegoat for the government’s ballooning revenue deficit," she said.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Philippine officials have not been remiss in their duties to avert the wage cuts.

"It is our understanding that the government, through DOLE, will exert its best efforts to appeal the case of Hong Kong’s domestic helpers," he told Palace reporters in his daily briefing in Malacañang yesterday.

DOLE Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas affirmed this, saying that no less than top Philippine officials led by President Arroyo have strongly lobbied before the HKSAR not to impose the levy.

Aside from the President, Sto. Tomas said, Senate President Franklin Drilon, Speaker Jose de Venecia and Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople have sought top-level discussions on the issue with SAR officials.

Not losing hope, though, Labor Undersecretary Manuel Imson said the Philippine government and other countries deploying domestic helpers to Hong Kong will seek deferment and eventual junking of the new policy.

"We will appeal to the Hong Kong government to defer the implementation of its new wage policy and to appeal to employers’ sense of fairness to continue giving the existing minimum allowable wage or even more," Imson said.

Aside from seeking reconsideration of the new wage order, he added that they will also explore possible options that would allow Filipino maids to continue getting their current wages.

Exemptions

Filipino domestic helpers with existing contracts, however, will not be affected by the planned HK$400 cut on wages of foreign maids.

According to De Venecia, who recently arrived from a trip to the territory, the Hong Kong chief executive agreed to exempt from the levy about 150,000 Filipino maids with existing contracts.

The new tax measure, he said, will be applicable to new or renewed contracts starting April.

De Venecia met for almost two hours with Tung Che-Hwa, chief executive of the SAR, accompanied by Consul General to Hong Kong Victoria Bataclan.

Bataclan earlier complained that Hong Kong officials reneged on their promise to provide the Philippine government with advance notice of the new wage policy and instead leaked the information to journalists.

"There is no genuine dialogue or attempt to understand the arguments being put back and forth," Bataclan told the Associated Press.

Hong Kong‘s no. 2 official, Chief Secretary Donald Tsang, disputed this saying his government had been "very open to all Filipino officials."

Aside from granting exemptions to workers with existing contracts, De Venecia also received assurances from the chief executive that the Hong Kong government will not allow unscrupulous employers to terminate existing contracts of Filipino domestic helpers and later re-document them in order to impose the salary cut.

DOLE earlier warned Hong Kong employers against indiscriminate termination of Filipino domestic helpers without just cause so they can avail of the lower minimum wage rate.

Under Hong Kong’s new wage policy, a HK$9,600 levy will be imposed on every standard two-year contract for foreign maids, thus the HK$400 monthly deductions from their current monthly pay of HK$3,670.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Lauro Baja Jr. said that Manila will negotiate alternative means with Hong Kong authorities to offset the slash in their minimum wage.

Baja disclosed that Ople and Sto. Tomas have also met with the HKSAR chief to discuss possible alternative arrangements.

These, he said, can be in the form of health and other benefits to compensate for the wage cut.

An indignation rally by more than 500 foreign domestic workers in the territory is planned over the weekend. — With Mayen Jaymalin, Antonieta Lopez, Aurea Calica, Jess Diaz, Paolo Romero, AFP