Posted by
Josie Jump
17 yrs ago
There is a maid on my housing complex who is selling homemade food/snacks to the maids in the vicinity. My maid has been buying from her and I don't know whether that maid's employer knows about her activity or whether she's using her employer's food to make a few bucks for herself. Even if that maid is providing the food with her food allowance, is what she's doing wrong? Should I let my maid continue buying from her or put a stop?
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It's up to your maid if she buys food from the other person or not, you are not in a position to put a stop to it. Some maids do use their food allowance to make food for others, and the others enjoy a bit of their own food! So why not?
If the other maid is using her employers food to do this then that is an issue between the other employer and his / her maid.
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cc77
17 yrs ago
agreed with them! Does your maid use YOUR MONEY to buy that food? for sure NO. So leave them alone pls! Let them mind their own business.
Sorry if I sound impolite though(just can't help it)
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your maid might miss the food back home thats why she buys from her, or that girl makes nice food, leave them alone, they are just making a world of their own which they enjoy. As long as she is not giving you harm.
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Hmm!! Getting conflict advise elsewhere that I should put an immediate stop as she is helping that maid run an unauthorized part time business and the only place my maid should buy her food is from the supermarket and filipina outlets. Was even advised to report that maid's activity to the immigration.
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I don't see what the big deal is about this. So what a maid is selling some food, is that harming anyone????
Report her to immigration and she'll get thrown in jail and deported, for selling some food?
Rather than turn someones life into hell (and I sense racist overtones to this) why dont you instead try to get in touch with this women (or have your helper pass the message) if you are so concerned for her (or whatever you are concerned for as I am not sure) and let her know that the word is out and that some people in the world are vindictive/envious/small-minded, and they just might call the immigration authorities and report her. And if that happens there are serious consequences.
To read this thread one might think someone was committing a serious crime!
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I think this is very petty, why are you so concerned about where your domestic helper buys food for herself?
Report her to immigration for what, sharing some food with friend, how do you prove she is selling the food, and not just asking the other domestic helpers to contribute to the cost.
Different if she sets up an illegal restaurant, perhaps we should report all of the employers who ask their domestic helpers to clean their relative’s house or who sets a curfew on their day off.
These are people not private property or the latest fashion accessory.
I’m so tied of hearing plastic people talk about “oh my maid does this and my maid does that”.
Your lesson for the day “treat those as you would treat thyself” end of lesson.
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Well No.1 - no-one knows if it is a profit making business. She may just be making her food allowance back and be one of those people who enjoys making food and having others enjoy it.
I think pretty much everyone here has eaten in an unlicensed establishment somewhere in HK, you just didn't know it. 100's of restaurants are closed each year because of this, and of course 100's carry on. People buy and sell stuff everyday, legally and illegally. If we were to jail everyone who bought illegal good half the population would be gone, including those who uphold the law!
Funny how because it is a Filipino FDH people pass judgment but wouldn't bat an eyelid if it were a fellow Chinese or Westerner.
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Totally agree with the above. If it is woking out for all concerned, it should not be a problem. If this is the only 'problem' that you have with your helper, you are very lucky. Imagine if your boss had reprimanded you every time that you bought street food, tickets from a tout, 'designer' handbag from Shenzen or whatever!
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I think you'll find that it is very common for FDHs to provide services for a fee to other FDHs.
My helper sells phone cards - she buys them in bulk and retails for a small mark up to other FHDs. i can imagine that a FDH who has time on her hands (eg one looking after an elderly person) could well think to provide food for other FDHs.
A helper in our building used to sell food ($10 a container rice, veg and curry/sauce) some years ago. It never occurred to me to veto or condemn the practice. I was tempted to buy some on the nights I didn't feel like cooking (I'm responsible for meals in our household).
My helpers were both on a food allowance and on busy days when they couldn't be bothered cooking and would get"take-out".
I wouldn't worry about it - I doubt that a small scale operation would be illegal or attract attention of Food and Hygiene dept. Let it go I say - there are better things to worry about.
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Nuri
17 yrs ago
IT IS A BIG PROBLEM !!!
My maid was regularly buying food from a friend in our block. Last week she got admitted to the hospital with GASTRIC FLU. The next day my 9 month old baby was admitted to the hospital with the same thing. Yesterday she told me that 3 of her other friends were very sick too.
I can not believe that so many people actually support this illegal food business and don't see it's a problem when somebody without a license cooks and sells food.
I survived awful 3 days and 2 nights in the hospital with my baby vomiting and fainting. I hated the maid who was selling that food.
The doctors asked me in details about all family members and their activities and they insisted that I should warn my helper not to buy food from friends as you never know whether they wash their hands between bowel movement and cutting cabbage for a raw salad.
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Nuri, you take that risk every time you eat in a restaurant.
Many times I have witnessed kitchen staff leave the bathroom in a restaurant without even rinsing their hands never mind washing them properly with soap.
I do sympathize with your ordeal though and am glad to hear your baby recovered.
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Nuri
There is no connection between gastric flu and failing to wash hands after using the toilet. A flu is a virus and e. coli (found in the bowel motion) is a bacteria.
Your baby (and the other helpers) did not get the flu as a result of the home-cooked food. That is not the way that viruses are transmitted. Many people in HK have had gastric flu recently.
Certainly hygiene is important and if I were a helper using this type of service I would make sure that I approved of the cook-helper's general hygiene (I used to have a helper who regularly and unconsciously picked her nose!) but if people are getting regularly sick after eating this food they will soon make the connection.
I also agree with BumpyDog that poor hygiene is a problem in many restaurants. I read somewhere that a test of bar nuts showed traces of 11 different kinds of urine!
I don't agree that this is a big problem (unless Josie Jump makes it one). Glad to hear your baby is better, though!
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I agree with the nasty racist overtones here - what is this with helpers not washing their hands? Since when have HKers (and I include all HKers here, not any particular race) had the slightest concern about washing their own hands? Just watch people coming out of a public toilet, straight out of the cubicle and out of the door. These are the people who work in restaurants and food shops, licensed or not.
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Nuri
17 yrs ago
I am not a specialist. This is what the doctors in Queen Mary Hospital told me. You don't wash your hands after bowel movement, you touch the food, the bug from your bowel gets onto the food, you eat it, you get the gastric flu. And honestly, i don't care who has a habit of washing hands and who doesn't. If it anyhow this may affect your family, you have to prevent it.
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Well then the way to prevent it is: 1. Stop eating out, most food poisoning in HK is from restaurants. 2. Never eat at a friends house. 3. Never eat prepacked sandwiches or similarly prepared foods. 4. Make sure you thoroughly wash food prior to cooking. 5. Make sure all food is cooked throughly. 6. Make sure that those preparing the food have washed their hands properly. 7. Make sure those EATING the food have washed their hands thoroughly.
This is how you prevent it completely.
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Ed
17 yrs ago
Once again the monster of racism emerges for its lair...
You might want to have a word with your doctor and educate him to the fact that cleanliness is not a virtue of any race... while you are at it please pass this on because ignorance at this level is disturbing...
http://www.asiaxpat.com/racism/
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Thanks for the correction and clarification, Jane's Addiction.
I had a quick google of "gastric flu" and read that it is mainly transmitted by personal contact (followed by contaminated food and water) so it seems to me that zeroing on the food as the cause of this outbreak is convenient rather than likely - there is no mention that the provider of the food was sick - only some customers (and the baby - who presumably didn't eat the food).
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i prepare to eat at home or nieghbors that is very clean not like in the restaurant thats not clean you can check inside their kitchen .
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maxis
17 yrs ago
Well if FDH are so likely to be dirty and spread germs through food preparation and poor hygeine, then howcome 1/2 of HK isn't in hospital regularly, seeing how many people here have FDH eh?
QUESTION:
Should she be reported to police/imigration dept, and perhaps fined/jailed/deported, or could this be dealt with in another way, if it must be touched at all?
ANSWER:
If she is willfully and recklessly endangering other people, knocking out the local restraunt market with her competition, and putting the community at substantial risk, extorting huge amounts of money for her food, making children deliver it to strangers in the dark and across busy streets, then you certainly should report it.
If, however, she is making maybe a few bucks extra on top of a relatively low paid job (or likes cooking and does it pretty much at cost), provides the other FDH with a bit of "home cooking" (we all miss that don't we?), isn't really hurting anyone, then really live and let live.
If you saw a FDH jay-walk with your neighbour's children, would you call the police/immigration and lodge a formal statment, or would you make the neighbour aware? Well the jay-walker with the kids in tow is a much more serious crime in the circumstance, and if it can be rectified without intervention by law/immigration and losing your job, then why not check if the employer of the food-seller is aware of what is going on, if you feel you really must get involved?
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We had food dissappearing from our cupboards at a rather fast rate (our helper was eating our food) we went through honey and chicken stock and I kept wondering why so fast. Also helper made massive meals and kept all the leftovers in her own fridge. Also did spend her own money on cheap veg and bread. the upshot of it was some days I came home and found her leaving the flat with food. was it about the cost of the food - no but it was dishonest of her and she ended up stealing something significant from us. i asked her about the food at different times but felt a bit petty to care about honey and chicken stock but if i had found out she was bartering or selling our food I would have terminated her sooner - not because of the money but the fact that it is dishonest - providing food for her not for a profit making scheme. i would have welcomed someone alerting me to the fact that this was going on - it is the same as stealing so lets not get all high and mighty about minding others business - I usually take that stance but this really makes me angry.
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