Pinoy maids in HK to get salary increase

Filipino and other foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong are finally getting their much-awaited salary increase, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said yesterday.

Acting Labor Secretary Manuel Imson said the Hong Kong government finally gave in to the clamor to raise the minimum monthly salary of foreign domestic helpers there — effecting over 123,000 Filipino maids.

"Effective yesterday, the minimum monthly salary of Filipinos and all other foreign domestic helpers will be HK$3,320 or HK$50 higher than the previous rate," he said. One Hong Kong dollar is equivalent to nearly P7.

According to Imson, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government opted to adjust foreign maids’ monthly wages after completing its annual wage review.

A group of domestic helpers in Hong Kong, however, claimed the salary hike is only a "partial victory" and said they would continue to press for a higher minimum wage rate for foreign maids in the former British crown colony.

The Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, a group of maids from the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, said the wage hike is intended to stop their protests against the imposition of a levy on foreign domestic helpers.

"The increase bears no significant impact on the economic condition of migrant workers and it only gives us more reason to push our demand to (restore) the previous minimum wage rate of HK$3,670 and scrap the levy," the group said in a statement. — Mayen Jaymalin