Hong Kong recruitment agencies have not canceled job orders and contracts for Filipino domestic workers, according to an association of Philippine recruiters. In a statement, Society of Hong Kong-Accredited Recruiters of the Philippines (SHARP), an association of government-accredited agencies sending Filipino domestic workers to Hong Kong, said the demand for Filipino workers in the Chinese special administrative region remains. The group issued the statement to assuage fears of a backlash against Filipinos after eight Hong Kong tourists were killed in a hostage-taking incident in Manila on August 23. The group, through its president, Alfredo Palmiery, said given the history of services rendered by Filipino household workers to Hong Kong employers, the recent incident is not expected to diminish the preference to hiring Filipino household workers.
No notice Palmiery likewise said their counterpart associations in Hong Kong have not received notice from prospective employers withdrawing or canceling contracts for domestic workers. There have also not received any report of a Filipino household worker terminated because of his/her nationality in light of Monday’s hostage-taking incident. Palmiery also added that so far, there has been no report coming from his member agencies that any of their deployed household workers was terminated due to the hostage-taking incident. Records from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) show Hong Kong was the third top destination for land-based overseas Filipino workers, with over 100,000 OFWs in 2009. Over 24,000 domestic workers were likewise deployed in Hong Kong in 2009, which is almost a third of the total number of Filipino domestic workers worldwide for the same year. According to SHARP, there are about 135,000 Filipino household workers in Hong Kong receiving a monthly salary of HK$3,580 (P22,000), with one rest day per week and a monthly food allowance of Hk$750 (P4,500). Palmiery meanwhile clarified that the freeze in the salary hike for foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong was declared long before the hostage-taking incident and is therefore not in retaliation to the deaths of Hong Kong tourists.
Dismissal, physical attacks In a related development, a Filipino migrants’ rights group in Hong Kong said it is verifying reports of alleged discriminatory acts against Filipino workers there in relation to Monday’s hostage drama. Eman Villanueva, vice chairperson of the Filipino Migrant Workers Union, said in an interview that there are text messages circulating among Filipinos in Hong Kong alleging mass dismissal of and physical attacks against Filipinos. Villanueva said while the reports are “sketchy and unverifiable," they will nevertheless forward whatever information they receive to the Hong Kong police for investigation. “We are especially wary about these text messages reaching the locals, because they might be antagonized," he told. - KBK
