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Dec. 26th Helper didn't show up for work!

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ORIGINAL POST
Posted by notyou 16 yrs ago
Today is Dec. 26th and my helper didn't show up and won't answer her phone. what would you do? she's new and it's possible she made a mistake, but i want her to work Jan. 1st, so do you think it's OK in exchange for her taking off today?

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COMMENTS
abitnaive 16 yrs ago
hi notyou

when i read your post my first thought was, "but helpers don't have to work 26 december". then i checked the asia xpat stat hols section and lo and behold, 26 dec is not a day off.


when you saw your helper last, did you say to her, "see you friday?" if not, it might be an honest mistake and she was under the impression that today was a day off, since today is a public holiday and very few "employers" are at work? i am grasping at straws. you know her character. good luck.



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cd 16 yrs ago
We always give xmas day and boxing day off, so maybe she just thought that it was a day off. We have given our helper sat off too, so he gets a nice 4 day break.

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optimistic 16 yrs ago
Yes we do too cd and we enjoy spending the time as a family, I think you can ask her to work on New Years day but cannot force her it is ultimately her choice. If you have a good relationship with your helper she may be happy to swap a day but remember it's not the same as a holiday day off as all her friends will be working so she will have little to do.

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xmauix 16 yrs ago
hi notyou, when you said she's new, does that mean she's only been with you 3 months or less? If she's been with you for less than 3 months, helpers are not entitled for holidays except for their Sunday offs.


Mine has just worked for us for 1 month but since we had a party on Christmas Eve, I told her she could have Dec 25 off and Dec 26 as well.


Regarding Dec 26 as not a statutory holiday, yes it isn't. When I was new in being an employer, my ex-helper who's been in HK for 12 years took all the red calendars as her off. I had no idea that she's not entitled for those until she's worked for 3 months for me.


Also that some holidays aren't statutory and still, she would leave the house early and come back really late. She knew everything about the holidays and I was not aware of that. When I found out, of course, I knew she wasn't being honest and I felt taken advantage. I confronted her about her offs and to my surprise, she just said, bad for you, you missed it! OMG!


I wasn't happy with her performance and her attitude so I let her go after a couple of months. So I made sure that I tell my helper clearly my expectations. The one i just hired is good, not very good but she's fine attitude and performance wise. Trust is very vital in our relationship.



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xmauix 16 yrs ago
You're right Cara, like what it says here Read More


Then the dh can still take the off but unpaid. However, my ex Dh took all the stat holidays and got paid. She could have told me that oh, the offs I took should have been unpaid. It's just the feeling of being taken advantage of is disappointing.


My new one though has taken the holidays off and paid. She's aware of how it goes and she told me that, which, I appreciate.


Thanks for the info Cara. I should have looked it up long time ago.

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cd 16 yrs ago
Sorry xmauix, she didn't take advantage of you, yes she tried it on and got away with it. As the employer you should know the rules and regulations before you hired her. You can't blame her for your mistakes.

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notmeok 16 yrs ago
I think helpers often know more than the employers, especially if they've worked in HK for a long time. I would've asked if there was an error in my paycheque. To me, it's like seeing a dime fall out of someone's pocket. If you don't give it back, I consider it stealing. You know who the money belongs to, but if the person tells you that he/she intended for you to 'find' it, then so be it.

Thanks for all of the comments. It turned out my helper thought all holidays were hers to take rather than just the statutory ones. She worked a half day on the 26th and will work half a day on the 1st, but I think I may just give her a bit of extra money ($50 or $100?) when she works days when some other people are off work, but which she's supposed to work.... or do you think that's just annoying?

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Angsana 16 yrs ago
I would give her a print out of the statutory days off she is entitled too so she knows in future. If you want to give her extra off then that's an additional bonus at your discretion.

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Snow Rose 16 yrs ago
OK, employers should know the rules and it is their responsibility, but I still think it's a bit nasty if an employee takes advantage of their boss who is new in HK and still finding their way around. No-one can be expected to know everything all at once, even if they are lucky enough to have had relocation consultants advising them (and many newcomers do not enjoy this service from their company). It's like taxi drivers taking the longer route to a tourist / newcomer's destination. - it's just nasty.


I think the most important thing here is for the OP to figure out whether her DH made an honest mistake, and genuinely thought she was entitled to Boxing Day off - or whether the helper was like xmauix's. If the latter I think she needs a bit of a talking to. If the boss is new in Hong Kong the DH should be a source of help to them finding their feet here, not trying to pull every trick in the book.


Also, as has been pointed out, if the helper has been working less than 3 months, she's not entitled to take off 01 Jan and get paid for it. If she wants to have the day off with no pay, you're still allowed to ask her to work that day and take another day off (unpaid) instead.



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bellamore 16 yrs ago
mine was even worse, i just recalled that she had been with us for 1 month during the national day holiday and she told me " could i not take the day off and work for u?" i said no problem as we had guests at home so would be nice to have her to help out. And I asked if I needed to pay her extra if she worked on "holiday", she said yes! And I end up paying her more money that she should not have entitled to it. She was in HK for 5 years so am sure she was trying to rip me off when I did not know the rule at that time!

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blessed 16 yrs ago
Sorry cara but do you mean we don't need to pay the maids on Stat hols? So do we deduct the daily wage from that month's wages?

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miao miao 16 yrs ago
when we first had our helper last year we had no idea about the no-paid-holiday-for-3-months rule so she got paid for all those holidays. in retrospect it's not a big deal. we also have never not given a statutory holiday, but there have been two occasions when we needed to swap her weekly rest day. the first time we asked whether she could take the following saturday off instead and she said yes. then on the following saturday she asked whether she could stay at home and work as all her friends were working and she would have little do to (plus the weather was bad). then we realized that an alternative rest day is not of much value to her. we then paid her DOUBLE overtime to work on that saturday. the second time we needed her on a sunday we asked her directly whether she would like another day off or just get paid double overtime; she of course preferred the $$. i'm actually not sure if this is all fine in terms of technical legality (guess yes, since strictly speaking she VOLUNTARILY worked on the alternative rest day instead of being compelled to), but i really don't care. just that i won't do it too often as if offered the opportunity she would probably want to work every sunday to earn extra $$.


we paid her double overtime for working on a rest day to show our appreciation, not because we are required to. for various concerns other people may want to do everything by the book, i think that's fine, too, as that's always the safest way to go especially at the beginning so that both parties are clear about what they are entitled to and expectation is managed.

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