Posted by
zilin1712
14 yrs ago
Hi,
Just checking, my helper is going to defer her 2-week trip home until December.
She finishes contract with her previous employer in November and will start with me then.
She tells me that the 2-week trip home is paid leave.
Is this right? Also, is it legal to defer the leave home?
Please can someone confirm before I buy her ticket home?
Also - any advice whether its better to buy the tickets to Manila online myself or go through a travel agent?
Thanks ya'all!
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Helpers usually go home between contracts, with outward bound ticket from previous(old) employer, and inward bound ticket form the new employer (you),and at the end of her 2yr contract with you pay the outward bound ticket to her home. It is up to you whether you allow her to use deferred leave when she is on a new contract with you, you should certainly not be expected the pay her wages for the two weeks she will be away so soon after starting a contract, if you allow it, you don't have to. Plus the helper is only allowed 7 days for each year of the contract worked for you, some will save the hols till the end of contract-or break if you are signing them on again. If there are any home visit allowed by the employer during the contract, the employer does not have to pay the air fare-may do so if the helper has performed well as a type of bonus.
Start as you mean to go on, be firm but fair, and you should have less problems.
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It is not paid holiday. It is deferred unpaid leave between contracts. Who was she expecting would be paying her if she was going home between contracts?
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Hi,
Just checking, when the helper goes back between contracts (not renewal, but will be starting with new employer) - is it always for a 2 week period? Is that mandatory?
Thanks!
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bean curd and susie are both right
if she is referring to the holiday between contracts:
ticket to manila is paid for by previous employer
ticket from manila to hk is paid by you
this holiday is without pay since it is the 2 weeks between contracts. Even if she defers this 2 week break and started working for you, it is still without pay and you still are only responsible for her ticket back to hk from manila.
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Guys,
Is it compulsory for them to go back for 2 wks?
Also, we are submitting the forms and new contract to dept of immigration next week, her current visa expires 2 Nov... my understanding is that it takes 4-6 weeks for the new visa to be processed, so how will she stay on in HK if the new visa has not been granted and the old one has expired?
And when is the date that my contract with her begins? Does it follow the entry visa or the extension visa date?
Thanks!
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If you look at the first page of the contract that you are signing, it says that either (delete where inappropriate):
A. The Helper shall be employed by the employer.....for a period of two years from the date on which the helper arrives in Hong Kong; or
B. The helper shall be employed.......for two years commencing on xxxx the date following expiry of Contract xxxx (previous contract) with same employer; or
C. The helper shall be employed ...for two years commenicing on the date that Dir Immg grants permission for helper to remain in HK to begin this contract.
In your case it will either be A (the date she lands back in HK) if immigration make her go home between contracts or C (the date she is granted her new employment visa) if immigration allow her to stay in HK whilst her visa is processed.
If they allow her to stay in HK during processing you will need to clarify with her that her deferred "between contract" leave will not be paid, unless of course you wish to pay it anyway.
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Thanks, spurtio.
It is a lot clearer to me now.
My case will be C, so I hope that the immi will allow her to stay in HK whilst her visa is processed :)
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Be prepared that she must leave HK in order to have her new visa for your contract activated.
Immigration Dept does not take a happy view with girls who stay here for years without leaving or taking holidays. They are stricter than earlier years.
Many girls leave and go to Macau or China rather than go home.
I ask myself why would a woman who had kids but was working her tail off to give them everything she couldn't have plus an education not want to go home and see them at least once every 2 years? It's whacked......
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Even the Macau thing is much stricter now.
As for not going home, lots of helpers resist it since when they go home they are seen as the "rich" one and are expected to pay for "everything". So much for saving up.
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Well, it does state that the helper should go to their country of origin, so we'll be sending her back to Philippines.
My helper is actually very excited and looking forward to seeing her family again.. which I had assumed was the norm!!!
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The whole thing is so hard to get your head around, I find the human rights side of all this difficult. A generation, or repeated generations of women leaving their children to look after other families children and sweep their floors. But when I am being more rational, it is a job and as HKwatcher said they are able to give their children an education - or that is what our potential helper says. But i wonder about the truth back in Manila, I mean she says she isn't sleeping because of the debt she took on in order to 'make it' to HK. I am planning to treat her fairly and hope that as much of our goodwill and fortune will be able to be passed on to her children. There has to be some good in it all and she is a great support to me with my two very young children with whom i would be on my own without her.
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Yesterday I met a DH who was devestated because her sister in law whom she had loaned about HK13000 to get her to Hk (included passport and everything). she's only worked for one month and resigned. Her employer still paid her one extra months salary and instead of giving it back to her sister in law she flew home and now it's all gone. AND YET this lady STILL wants to bring over 2 more relatives to work here in HK because they want to give some extra therapy to 2 kids in the family who have cerebral palsy. I was asking her who would be taking care of these kids? She said the whole family is living in her house and she is supporting all of them now. So why not let the 2 women come and work here in HK? This opportunity that HK presents for a chance to get ahead is some sort of holy grail when compared to the reality of a country that is so into corruption and poor management. I place the blame squarely on the Philippine Government for not allowing their own people to work at home for a decent wage rather than in a far off country.
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mayo
14 yrs ago
"The whole thing is so hard to get your head around, I find the human rights side of all this difficult. A generation, or repeated generations of women leaving their children to look after other families children and sweep their floors."
I couldn't agree with you more. People often tout cheap domestic help as one of the pluses of living in Hong Kong but to me that's just another way of saying "aren't we lucky to be in close proximity to poverty" and while in may be the reality, to me, applauding it as advantage is crass to say the least. Reality it may be tragedy it still is.
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mayo, that is certainly one way of putting it, but think of it this way.
By being helpers, these ladies make more than they even could back home, and they support their families. Is that really such a tragedy? In a perfect world, the countries helpers came from would enable them to have jobs that paid decently, but they don't. At least they have the helper option.
If HK and Singapore sent home the half million helpers they have between them, the home countries of the helpers would become much poorer.
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mayo
14 yrs ago
I think it is a tragedy when a mother or wife has no better option than to leave their families on permanent basis to provide. I realise the reality is they may be worse off without it but I still don't think it should be applauded as positive in regards to HK lifestyle. I once met a women here in HK who had grown up in South Africa during apartheid she said that white people in Africa at the time used that same excuse, if we don't pay them to be domestic help they will go back their villages and starve and as turned out a lot of people were worse off at the end of apartheid, but a ceiling was lifted and many were able to thrive too. Sometimes you need to take a step back to take a step forward. Like I said I realise the reality but I still see it as a tragedy.
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As I said, in a perfect world... If The Philippines, just to take one example, became miraculously less corrupt overnight, things would change dramatically. But that's not going to happen. A bit different from the South Africa case because it's not like we can affect the Philippine situation that much. I see your point though.
Personally, I can't really see it as a tragedy when our helper saves for retirement, can afford to own her own home and sends her kids to private school. She weighs the pros and cons and finds that on the whole she is doing all right. Yes I asked.
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axpatguy,
You should have asked their kids, also how many husbands have gone looking for another woman and the whole family is split? The reality is this...there are few successful marriages of cverseas workers. I'll bet you won't find too many kids who are HAPPY their mom went off to work, but they understand it was a sacrifice required for them to get a good education or medical help etc.
The tragedy isn't always counted in terms of dollars.....
In fact, there are two sides to every story.
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Of course their own kids aren't happy. I'm not saying the situation is good, but it isn't exactly a "tragedy".
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In terms of dollars, it has just been announced by the World Bank that last year, overseas Filippinos remitted back to the Philippines US$21.3 bn through regulated channels. When you consider that the GDP of the Philippines is about US$85 to US$90 bn, that is of course why they are so proud of the "heroes" (as they are called in the Philippines) that work overseas.
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