Filipino OWWA fees, Who pays, employer or employee?

Hi

Just wondering, does anyone know about an OWWA membership fee that the Philippines consulate is now charging the employer, which is 200 Hong Kong dollars? I think it’s a coverage thing for the helper and her family if I’m right. (like a medical insurance ). If this needs to be paid by the employer, why must we burden a separate coverage for her and the family back home as well? This doesn’t sound fair to us , when we’ve already purchased a full insurance coverage for her here in HK in accordance with our contract.


I know its not much but I’m not clear on this because I’ve employed this same helper few years ago plus others and we didn't have to pay this separate medical coverage for her family. And

A friend of my helper just went back to the Philippines and she didn't have to pay this fee either so I'm a bit puzzled by this. Can someone shed a little light on this extra fee business for me and I will be more than happy to pay if it’s required of me?


thanks!

in hk gov give every thing to only dh nothing for us every law is in dh favour nothing for us

sunita26,

This is a general comment (as is your own comment) rather than specifically on the rights/wrongs of who should pay that new $200 fee imposed by the PH government. The way some helpers are abused (physically, emotionally, loss of rights etc etc) I think they deserve every bit of protection from the employers that the government can afford. Of course many employers also need protection from their helpers and they have a remedy - terminate them in accordance with the law (just the same as in any employer/employee relationship).

Well, I'm not sure where you are from sunita26, but if I compare Hong Kong to the UK, which is where I am from, then I often feel very fortunate to be living here. The HK Government lets me employ someone to (ideally) do everything that I don't want to/haven't got time to do in the house and permits me to pay them a relatively small sum of money do all this. If I were to pay the legal going rate for a full-time person to clean, cook, shop, act as my children's nanny and do everything else for me 6+ days a week in the UK it would probably cost me the equivalent of my salary.


We've got it pretty good here (and I certainly wouldn't want to swap my life for a FDH's).


Sorry Applea, gone off the subject here...

good response, thames!!!

I agree with sunita26 to some extent. There is very little in place to protect employers from awful DH. Yes we can fire them, but it would leave you severely out of pocket. If a helper decides to leave, we are still left out of pocket by several thousands. Re an earlier thread, if a helper announces she's pregnant 2 weeks after starting a contract, we're not allowed to fire her even though she obviously knew she was pregnant before she signed the contract. If our previous helper had got pregnant we would not have been able to fire her, even though she would have been physically unable to do the job we had employed her do to. You hear so many stories for DH sueing employers after they have left, usually because it gets them extra time in HK, and they have the backing of various fillipino groups, the Consulate etc, whereas the employers have no one, except a massive bill for a lawyer. Yes its true that some helpers are badly treated, underpaid etc and its right that they should have lots of protection, but it would be good if as employers we had a bit more too.