Hiring a Maid in Hong Kong

[WestCove]

Hi All,

Need some tips and advice here on hiring a maid in HK. We are moving from Singapore where we have a Philippino maid working out pretty good. However, too much trouble to bring her along and perhaps we are better off to hire a new one when arriving in HK.

Questions:
I heard maid in HK by law have a day off each week in addition to regular holidays. Anyone who lived and worked in Singapore before can share some insight regarding the difference in having a maid between HK and Singapore will be highly appreciated.

I saw a new early this year that maids in HK went to street protesting some kind of HK Government regulation, sound they are pretty aggressive. Never heard of such a thing in Singapore...

And, of course, suggestions, lessons are needed:-)

Happy holiday.

WestCove

[Paul]

Originally posted by WestCove
Questions:
I heard maid in HK by law have a day off each week in addition to regular holidays.
[...]
I saw a new early this year that maids in HK went to street protesting some kind of HK Government regulation, sound they are pretty aggressive. Never heard of such a thing in Singapore...

Yes - don't you expect days off each week too? It seems pretty normal for a civilised country.

And the reason we had a demonstration is that the government cut the minimum wage for a domestic helper from HKD3670 per month to HKD3270. (It doesn't save you any money, by the way - at the same time the government imposed a HKD400 per month tax on people who employ domestic helpers.) Since, unlike Singapore, Hong Kong is a reasonably free "country" not a dictatorship, the people were able to show their dislike of this wage cut. Would you be happy with an imposed wage cut of over 10%?

You may also have noticed that 500,000 people took to the streets of HK on 1 July to protest againt another gowvernment proposal, which was then dropped. Can you conceive of such a thing happening in Singapore?

If you see such things as bad rather than a sign of a healthy society then maybe you should stay in your nice little cosy life with Mr Lee telling you what to do and think.

All you need to know about hiring a DH is on the Immigration Department website here by the way:

http://www.immd.gov.hk/ehtml/faq.htm

Qs14-50 and the associated pages for the forms.

[Max]

Whoa! Calm down, bro!.........Let's not get political here.

If you have to direct your anger at the idea of a pay cut for the domestic helpers in HK, then try pulling up Mr. James Tien and his so-called "Liberal" party. He's the chief architect of this legislation, and he should be at the receiving of all the abuse.

As for the differences between Singapore and HK, all I have to say is ; give em' some time. I'm sure they'll get around to the idea of protesting for what they believe in, maybe even take a cue from Mr. Long Hair and group.......

[WestCove]

Hahaha! I was amazed by the emotion here. All I was trying to know is what's the difference and be prepared. That's all. Singapore is not really that bad and we have to be fair. For your info, we treated the maid better than average, extra bonus, can have freedom of own mobile phone and more. Perhaps you married a maid so you feel offended...if so I apologize. What I mean one day off each week if it can be rotated to weekday instead of weekend. We have a simple family and the last thing we want is to do the clearning ourself over the weekend after a week of heavy work...hope you understand what I meant.

As for the aggressiveness of a maid. I lived to see one of my friend whose jewleries and cash were wipped off and disappeared on the day the maid took a vacation home and she never return. Of course, this is not very common and it does happen. Yesterday Singapopre newspaper says a Indonesia maid cut a 2 year old baby boy private part by 2 inches and has to rush to the hospital...like most of the employers, all we need is some help and peace, not something bad, or sleeping with them (sorry, I do heard a lot of this)

[shri]

Where is that joy to the world and all that crap?

WestCove : http://www.amahnet.com has some FAQs that will help you out.

I'm closing this thread as I see no productive future to this particular conversation.