(Source: China Daily)
After a 21-day mandatory quarantine at a government-designated hotel and one week's self-monitoring at another hotel required by the employer to cut the risk of COVID-19 infection, Mustini - a domestic worker from Indonesia - was finally able to start work in Hong Kong on Feb 16.
It had been more than a year since she applied for a work visa with Hong Kong's Immigration Department, during which she had missed out two potential employers. Her travel plans were disrupted several times by flight cancellations and difficulties in booking a room at the city's limited number of quarantine hotels earmarked for foreign domestic workers.
In efforts to contain the pandemic, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has maintained a "dynamic zero infection" policy, with some of the strictest travel curbs in the world. While there are no regulations governing the number of FDWs entering the city, the dearth of quarantine hotels designated for FDWs last year has created an invisible cap.
Late last month, the SAR government announced that all FDWs arriving in the city from March 1 can choose to be quarantined at any designated hotel. Hopefully, the measure will ease the acute shortage of FDWs.
According to Hong Kong's Immigration Department, the number of FDWs in the city had dwindled to 337,281 by late January from about 400,000 two years ago. This has sparked concerns among employers about the growing scarcity of labor and a price war in hiring FDWs.
It used to take about two months for an FDW to set foot in Hong Kong after having submitted all documents for processing. But this could now take about six months to a year due to flight disruptions and new quarantine hotel arrangements amid the pandemic, said Thomas Chan Tung-fung, chairman of the Hong Kong Union of Employment Agencies.
The struggle to book quarantine rooms for FDWs and the lengthy period for processing documents, coupled with high quarantine hotel costs, which have soared to between HK$15,000 ($1,920) and HK$18,000, have forced employers to consider other options. They now prefer to hire FDWs who are still in Hong Kong.
The domino effect has been a boom in FDW's wages as employers tussle for helpers, while employment agencies specializing in getting FDWs to Hong Kong have suffered a blow to their business, according to Chan.
More difficulties
Tsoi (full name withheld on request) - a Hong Kong employer who recently terminated his helper's contract - had to fork out almost HK$14,000 for an employment agency to hire a new helper - far more than the HK$9,000 he would normally have had to pay before the pandemic.
The new worker's salary alone has gone up to HK$6,600 a month, compared to HK$5,000 previously. "My wife and I both work full time. We need someone to take care of our 4-year-old son and do the cooking as well. And, with schools switching to online teaching, we need someone to help her set up the computer devices," said Tsoi.
According to a survey conducted by HelperPlace - an online platform connecting domestic workers and employers - the shortage of FDWs in the city has worsened due to the difficulties and high costs of hiring.
The average real monthly salary of an FDW in Hong Kong rose to HK$5,288 in 2022 - the highest in nearly three years, representing an increase of nearly 10 percent year-on-year - the survey showed.
The minimum wage for domestic workers has been frozen at HK$4,630 since September 2019, and has remained unchanged for two years. The decision made by the government not to increase the minimum wage was based on the study of the general economic and labor market conditions in Hong Kong over the previous year, as well as on the near-term economic outlook, including the downturn triggered by the pandemic.
Despite the risk of being scrutinized by the authorities for abruptly ending their two-year work contracts, the temptation of higher pay has prompted FDWs who are still in the city to look for better job opportunities and improve their working conditions.
The Immigration Department said it handled 5,844 applications for employment visas or extensions of stay by FDWs suspected to have been involved in job-hopping last year. Up to 2,833 applications were rejected - almost nine times the total number of applications turned down in 2020.
The department warned that it would not approve applications submitted by domestic workers thought to have been job-hopping. Their records are also taken into account when they apply for new work visas or extensions of stay. The department has all along been proactively combating job-hopping among FDWs and set up a special duties team in June 2013 to deal with the problem.
Chan explained that job-hopping refers to workers who prematurely terminate their employment contracts or deliberately perform poorly to force their employers to fire them in order to change jobs.
Under the SAR government's existing policies, FDWs are required to leave Hong Kong upon completion of their employment contracts or within two weeks of their contracts being terminated, whichever is earlier. Even if they intend to work for a new employer, they must still leave the city and submit a fresh application for a work visa to Hong Kong's Immigration Department from their home countries.
Although the SAR government announced on March 21, 2020 that FDWs would be allowed to extend their stay in Hong Kong as visitors for not more than a month to reduce their risk of being infected with COVID-19 when they travel, the practice was discontinued on Dec 30, 2020 to prevent FDWs from abusing it.
But Chan thinks it doesn't look fair for the government to be more inclined to protect the interests of employers in dealing with job-hopping by FDWs. An employer's comments and complaints may prevent an FDW from ever returning to Hong Kong again, he said.
"It would be more appropriate to define it as switching jobs rather than hopping jobs," Chan said.
On the same side of the fence with Chan is Adam Cheung Ka-lok - an assistant professor at Hong Kong Baptist University's sociology department. He said there is nothing wrong with seeking a job that pays well and offers better working conditions. However, due to the specific nature of FDWs' work contracts, employers themselves have to bear the high costs of hiring a new helper.
Pulling together
Cheung said although middle-class families or those with higher incomes might not care about paying more to keep their domestic workers, it would be a big financial burden for lower-income households, particularly during the pandemic, which has dented the local economy. "It's hard for the government, while helping one party, to please the other at the same time," he said.
Cheung explained that Hong Kong companies also demand dedication and commitment from staff. It would be difficult for their employees, most of the time, female employees, to take up household chores while going to work, creating a problem for families without domestic workers.
The local wages of FDWs are much lower than those of other workers and are affordable for many families. On the other hand, the cost of sending a child to a specialized nursery or hiring a local domestic worker is much higher than employing an FDW who has to put in extremely long hours, said Cheung.
HelperPlace's survey also revealed a shocking negative relationship between an FDW's workload and salary - the longer the working hours and the higher the number of children in an employer's family, the lower the salary. Many families may not be that well off financially, with limited living space, and are more careful about spending money. They would like their helpers to do more household chores, said Cheung.
"Low-income families face more difficulties in hiring domestic workers, especially during a protracted pandemic. The government and the community should provide these families with various options, such as lower costs for childcare services, to ease the pressure of hiring a domestic worker," he said.
Hong Kong has been battered by the worst wave of COVID-19 infections since early this year, threatening the health and safety of the population and dealing a serious blow to the city's declining workforce.
HELP for Domestic Workers - a non-governmental organization looking after the interests of FDWs in Hong Kong - said there have been cases of domestic workers having their contracts terminated or of being between jobs and unable to fly back to their homeland after testing positive for COVID-19. This has left them with huge medical bills, and facing an uncertain future due to flight bans and lack of money and supplies to care for themselves, said Avril Rodrigues, head of communications at HDW.
Rodrigues said their organization has been working closely with government departments, such as the Centre for Health Protection, but the authorities said local hospitals and quarantine facilities have been overwhelmed as the number of COVID-19 infections continues to soar.
She called on employers and domestic workers to ride out the storm together.
A domestic worker coalition of more than 14 non-governmental organizations is working together to back up the FDWs in the hardship. "It is likely to see more FDWs being tested positive, with the government's compulsory universal testing scheme due to start in March," Rodrigues said. "The shortage in the supply of domestic workers is likely to last longer."