annual holiday

our helper will finish her contract in december this yr and im not sure if she will re sign or not. howver i wanted to gv her the annual holiday when we travel this summer in july. so i told her 2 days ago that this was my plan. and she said 'sorry m'am i dont want to tk my holiday in july' so i was like 'but i need to gv it to u when we are out of town cos thats what works for us.' and we will be gone a month and she can tk 3.5 weeks off and be back just 3-4 days b4 us to clean and stock up on food and get ready for us. thats more days off for her than if i sent her at a time when we were here.but she just stuck her ground saying 'i dont want to go now'. what should i do???

What you should do is find out what her reasons are for not wanting a summer holiday at home. I can think of 2 possibilities:


1. She hopes to renew her contract and she wants to take a holiday at Christmas time, she fears if you give her time off in the summer she'll be required to work the festive season.

2. She doesn't want to go home at all because her family members will ask her for money.


I have experienced both of the above with previous helpers. For the first situation, I explained that whether or not she gets time off at Xmas would depend on whether I could spare her at that time, and if I could she could have a week or 2 off, even if she'd been away for the summer. (And if I could not spare her at Xmas she wouldn't be able to go, even if she'd not been away for the summer ....)


For the second, if you don't want her to stay in your flat, you can pay for her to go to a boarding house and stay in HK while you're away. Or she may have a female friend / relative she can stay with. If you're feeling generous, you could give her some money to go home with to give to her family members, but I don't know how much would be appropriate.


BTW, I wonder if any other posters can answer this? - When DH go home & are asked for money by their family, how much are they asked for? I would really like to know that. I want to send my helper home for the summer (2-4 weeks, haven't decided yet).

I'm not sure if you can force her to take the time off, maybe she would like it at the end of December as pay not holiday if she doesn't renew the contract. I think that is common. Also some helpers find it very expensive to go home and I don't mean the flights. They are maybe under pressure to take money home for the family and clothes and gifts etc. I know of one story that a helper went home and came back with no clothes in her suitcase as all the family had taken them and said you can afford to get more back in Hong Kong!! Some families think that these helpers are rich and I suppose to them they are. 3.5 weeks is a long time if she hasn't got the money. I hope you come to a mutual solution.

Snow Rose I think they just ask for anything to a point that they bleed them dry! Of coarse not all of them but my helper doesn't really like going home as she has to pay out a lot of money to family. She saves money all year, then in one quick week she could loose it all. It must be very hard to say no to your children and as a mother myself you want to give them everything you can.

Joeuk, thanks for your reply. But if any posters can share experiences stating amounts paid out on these holidays I would be very interested.


Separately, what about the helpers who send all their money home anyway? - I think they could only save up less than HKD 1000 in a year, so is that what their families would ask for? Just $1000? Or would that helper be excused from giving any more money? I mean, some helpers send back $3000 per month, so there's not much potential for saving up like that, is there?

thanks everyone for yr replies. snow rose this is our 2nd contract with her and at the end of her first contract she gv me hell! drove me up the wall with 'maybe/not sure' and finally came back with saying she wanted to re new. to which i said not! and she begged and pleaded and cried and apologised saying she was brain washed by friends to find a new job with expat and get higher pay! mind u we paid her 4k for the first and raised it to 4.5k 2nd contract. although this time with economy and my husband tking pay cut from his job we wont be increasing further. i finally agreed to keep her out of convenience cos she is v good at her job and i didnt want to deal with the hassle of hving to train a new one. so not really expecting her to stay for a 3rd contract unless she wnts long service. she leads a v good life here....sends back a 1000 a month and saves/spends the rest on her which i think she shud cos shes the one working so hard. as for wanting a holiday in december she knows better that i can never gv her time off for cmas. my husbands family always visits for cmas and we always hv guests. plus she gets like half mth salary from me as bonus. plus all the guests we hv coming and going gv her 500 each. so maybe another 2000-2500. so its actually a good time for her.

my question is can i tell her she has to tk her holiday now cos thats what suits us. i dont want to cave in and her think that she can manipulate me.

Hyperactivebunny some of helper don't want to go home because tickets it's too expensive when it's on peak season specially if they are the one to buy so,they prefer to stay and give them the money instead. and some helper don't want to go home yearly. snow rose there is no much money left for them if they send it all that is why some of them look for part time to have extra and it doesn't mean the family is too greedy but when they are in need,i mean badly like one of them is in the hospital they won't let the patient to be release unless they pay the bills, so the poor helper( if she's the bread winner specially) have no choice but to help them. It's hard to tell the exact amount,depends on the circumstances if it's christmas and you buy something like toys almost double the price when they convert the Hk$ to peso so it's hard to say but if you only have 2000hk$ it's 10,000 pesos buying foods and gifts if you have big family is not enough,well maybe if you don't spend it for gifts,yes it sounds crazy,but of course if the money comes from you (gift to her) as i know most employer do it will be a great help for the helper..

tita, of course i am paying for her ticket. and no i will never gv money in lieu for ticket cos i did that once previously and made her sign for it and the helper complained to labour saying we didnt gv her tkt back home and made her sign forcibly!! ever since then i follow the rules. ticket is a ticket and no cash! and im the one paying for her tkt.

hi,hyperactive

sorry i didn't mean you give her money just like that,i am not too clear i guess,it's for snow rose when she asked how much do they spent or asked(helpers family)..

you 're the employer hyperactive so,whether she like it or not to take holiday when you asked her too,she have no choice, but you know what,if she's not sure that she want to renew her contract or didn't tell you right upfront that might be the reason why she doesn't like to go home. cause she still have to leave hk even when she finds a new employer.