Posted by
tommytommy
12 yrs ago
It's been brought to our attention that a young helper is being miserably exploited by an expatriate Indian family. I'm hoping that information is forth coming on how to protect this ladies livelihood. We have friends aware of her predicament who are willing to take her on as their families domestic helper.
At present the family who have employed her have stolen her passport, stopped paying her, provided her with one loaf of bread per week as sustenance and given her five hours a day off to find part time work to sustain herself.
It's important to fight evil and this families ill treatment of a vulnerable foreign worker needs to be brought to the attention of the justice system. It would be a hollow victory if this poor lady is deported and the abusive family is rapped over the nuckles and exploits again.
We appreciate any ideas forthcoming and we are willing to spend money on somehow legally protecting the domestic helper.
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If this situation is as you say it is then the helper needs protection from these abusive employers. Perhaps if you speak to someone at Imm and at the Labour department and explain the situation, they will be able to help you.
Her employers could turn nasty, or they could say they never took her passport, and didn't stop paying her, all the helpers claims will have to be proved, for the labour dept to take action.
If she is being abused like this she should not be deported, she may be allowed by the Imm to stay in a place of safety,ie church refuge, while a case is being prepared against her employers, I am not sure whether Imm could process her new employers while there is a court case pending.
The best information you could get is hopefully from someone who has been through a similar experience, but looking at the Imm and labour department rules, these present employers are breaching quite a few.
There is a refuge, I think attached to St Johns church, perhaps if you find the contact details, they will be able to help you, as it won't be the first time this has happened to a helper.
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Be careful to ascertain that this is really true. For helpers to get a good job with an employer who is going to give them a good life as they percieve it, it is worth a bit of embellishment..especially for the ones who fall for it. I speak from experience, I had signed the papers of a sri lankan who had cited a tale much the same.. not been paid blah blah blah, all vouched by her friend, another friend's helper. I wouldn't have thought more of it, but there was weird explanation that came up regarding getting released from this employer and it rang alarm bells as I have a small child and I thought I need to make sure this person is really honest. Anyway cut a long story short, she gave me not one but two false references and I had a conversation with one of them who was clearly faking it, didn't know how many kids she had..was nervous..etc..etc. Now since I had already signed her papers, she had nothing to lose and I had said I just want to make sure she releases you on such and such as date. She was not even living with the employer she was hanging out in a boarding house with nothing to do but concoct clever stories with her friends. It really scared me, as I nearly hired her to look after my small child. These people have nothing to lose, a few white lies aren't seen as bad if they yield a great result but you may unwittingly hoard a crafty person to yourself. Be careful. There are plenty of helpers here and there is nothing stopping her from getting help from them through the right channels. HK has laws as the previous poster suggested.
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.maybe this helper is a drama queen.i know many indian families, and they are treating helpers very well,if her situation is like that why dont she go to the imm.or labour dept?what i knew abt indians they are very scared with law enforcement. try to ask this helper to go to the imm labour or police.....i am sure she is just creating a story
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i'm with the sceptics on this one. She gets 5 hours a day off, how come she's never gone to the police or labour department for help? I'm not saying that she's lying but if she isn't, the best thing you could do for her would be to tell her to go to the police to lodge a complaint. It is illegal for any employer to confiscate a helper's passport. The police will help her get all her belongings from the employers house, after which she is free to go stay with her friends/well wishers. The next day she should go to the labour department to file a complaint against the employers with specific details. They will guide her as to what she has legitimate claims for. After this they will get in touch with the employers to arrange a meeting between both employer and helper with a person from the labour department as an intermediary. She is legally entitled to stay in hong kong till the resolution of the case, but cannot work ( part time or otherwise ). She can look for a potential employer but can only file papers after the case is resolved.
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Hi Michael, you may well be correct, as lots of helpers are drama queens to get what they want, but if there is just one helper out there who is being treated badly, then if there is 100% proof, then mis treatment should be stopped, but it must be established first before reporting to the authorities.
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She may be a drama queen, but as long as we don't know for sure, she could use some help. Many people are in abusive relationships and the thing that keeps coming back is that it's hard to leave such a relationship. People who are going through abuse, may not think straight. She could be scared, threatened, "brain washed", etc.
I am not saying she isn't a drama queen, but just to say she's a drama queen because she gets 5 hours off and she doesn't go to the police or immigration, I simply don't agree. I give her the benefit of the doubt, because what IF it's true. I don't care whether her employers are Indian, Chinese, European, American ... you'll find many different people from different nationalities who treat their helper like crap.
I would point her in the right direction, as she may be unsure, insecure, etc. But she's the one who needs to take action.
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I would say her problem is solved, she has a new job where she will be well treated to walk into, so she should just process her papers in the 5 hours a day she gets off, and once it's in the system, serve notice to the employer and wait out her visa in her homeland.
I would however check that she doesn't ave some arrangement with her employers e.g. she's some distant relative ect that has been brought over on a DH contract but they need to support themselves, my helper tells me that plenty of Phillipinos who have become PR do this for their relatives...and perhaps the relationship has gone south?
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I know a family who have 3 helpers. A wife who is the real DH, the husband who is signed on as the 'gardener and handyman' and sometimes walks the dog or rakes some leaves but actually works for cash as a mechanic and a cousin who they have signed the contract for but they don't see her more than once a month if the regular helper needs a day off and she has to cover. The total they pay for having 3 helpers signed on is less than what we pay for 1 helper and the agreement with the trio is that they sort it out so that they can work their part time jobs. All parties are very happy with the arrangement as it means as a unit with part time jobs, they can actually make more money than if they worked individually. The cousin got some of her part time jobs with a similar sob story of her employers taking her passport and she needs to work because they don't pay her and make her sleep on the floor in a hallway. They rent a flat together and all live out. There's lots of this in HK.
I've learnt the hard way (twice) that helpers will lie their way into a job and get you to be soft on them with a pity story. Sorry to sound cynical. There are some great helpers out there but I've been burnt and now know better than to believe everything I hear.
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Hugie
12 yrs ago
bottom line, tell her to get as much evidence as she can and then come back to you. If she is not willing to do it then walk away! Imm and labour will not be able to do anything without evidence. Good luck!
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A high ranking officer at immigration actually told us that neither helpers nor employers get 'blacklisted' there. It's just an urban myth. The Phil consulate can blacklist and that's as far as it goes. So many helpers do part time out there...you only have to look on the part time help classified here to find them all. It's illegal, but it happens. So until they really 'crack down' on it...like they're doing on illegal structures on village houses, it will stay as it is ultimately a 'win-win' situation.
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jgl
12 yrs ago
@cara: it might be illegal, but besides the cousin lying about her situation for part time work, would you consider it immoral? Legality and morality sometimes being quite separate things.
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