[rani]

Originally Posted by annette

Hello everyone!

As of now my niece is on training in Manila and she said that it takes only 2 weeks.

Annette

Hope you're right. A couple people have called the agencies and sounds like its a real mess at the moment

http://www.geobaby.com/forum/thread120086.html

[shilo507]

I don't think the existing Pinay maids here are too happy about this. There were a lot of them with loudhalers protesting against the move by the Philippine Government and signatures being sought on petitions.

I spoke to a few about it and they all said it will worsen their situation because of the additional money Pinays would have to find to become OFW's.

As I have said before, many Filipina OFW'a are college/university educated and are better quailfied/speak better English than their Chinese employers. To make them pass a certificate in household management skills is taking the p**s and I can understand their fury.

This is just another tax imposed by the Philippine government on one of its biggest and most important sources of revenue

[multivitamin]

hi everybody,

this topic is of high interest for me, because since you may or may not have read in my introduction in the filipino-thread, the OFWs are the reason for me being here - i am writing my ph.d. thesis about labour migration between the philippines and HK and doing research here.
while the pre-departure orientation in the PI is often of poor quality and focusses mainly on how to send remittances home, it might seem like a good idea to improve this situation - but the measures taken seem to be fairly bizarre to me as well. i am not so sure if them being older/married has some effect on the remittances, since the pressure on daughters to support their famlies is in my understanding just as high. giving the benefit of the doubt, this age limit might actually be some sort of protection to avoid abuse, but who knows.
similar restrictions have been introduced in japan just over a year ago, but this was actually a good thing to provide some measure of protection, based on pressure by ngos and opposed by the PI government.

shilo, I agree with most of your points, are you involved in this issue in any way?
Regards,
Stefan

[shilo507]

Stefan,

I am pretty close to the issue let's say. I am married to a Filipina and we always have maids in the house throughout the week who pop in and offload all their problems.

One problem that is surfacing at the moment is the loyalty bonus the girls get on completion of their 3rd contract with the same employer and subsequently many girls are released on completion of their 2nd term because the employer does not wish to pay the bonus.

I am very interested in the debt problems many of these girls have as many have borrowed up to the hilt and some pay 75-80% of their montly pay in repayments and interest. In any other society, such levels of indebtedness woud lead to severe personal depression and countless personal insolvencies/bankruptcies.

The other topic that comes up time and again is the impact on family life in the Philippines caused by long-term labour migration and the culture of dependency it leads to especially amongst Filipino males. Far from being the family-oriented society the Philippines claims to be it is in fact one of the most family-unfriendly societies in the world as many of its brightest people are actively encouraged by the Philippine government to go abroad to keep the economy afloat to the detriment of family life.

If you want to talk direct to some of these girls to gain first hand knowledge of their work/thoughts on the labour laws of HK and the OFW policy of the Philippine Government please send me a private message. Many of these girls are university-educated but unable to find employment in the Philippines and end up working as domestic helpers in countries such as Hong Kong supporting extended familes back home.

[multivitamin]

hi shilo,

thanks for the info, will pm you. maybe see you at the migrant campaign acitvity on sunday, 2 to 6 pm at charter garden central?

best, multi

[mjken2]

Both these Laws have been abolished, as it was discovered that the laws benefited corrupt polliticians,

It was obsurd, DH, would have to pay 10000 pesos, and do a trainging course for two months, just to work in hong kong, hong kong governement is said to have a part in having the law abolished, maybe they realise without DH, this country would fall apart.

I say pay them more, they deserve it, for the treatment they recieve from chinese employers.

[goodkarma]

I still think FREE training would be great and then they could command more money and yes, of course, they deserve more.

MJken do you have a link to a web that says this law is abolished?

[multivitamin]

unless this is absolute breaking news, to my knowledge these laws have not been abolished, only some slight amendments (no training for returning helpers, but assessment with fee required; age limit changed from 25 to 23)...

by the way, the indonesian helpers have to undergo 3 to 6 months training in special training camps - not for free, of course...

[shilo507]

Originally Posted by multivitamin

unless this is absolute breaking news, to my knowledge these laws have not been abolished, only some slight amendments (no training for returning helpers, but assessment with fee required; age limit changed from 25 to 23)...

You are correct MV. It seems Gloria did not want to lose the vote of the many Pinay domestic helpers so watered down the proposed changes.

My bet is that if the HK economy continues to improve there is a chance that the minimum wage for DHs in HK may increase to around HKD 3600 in late 2007 or early 2008.