{"id":19850,"date":"2019-02-24T22:09:38","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T14:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=19850"},"modified":"2019-02-24T22:09:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T14:09:40","slug":"migrant-rights-denied-in-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2019\/02\/24\/19850\/","title":{"rendered":"Migrant rights denied in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Migrant <\/span><\/b><\/span>and local women\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span>workers<\/span><\/b><\/span>\u00a0need to unite and fight the unjust system<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Adam N Lee Socialist Action<\/span><\/p>\n

Hong Kong\u2019s 380,000\u00a0<\/span><\/span>migrant<\/span><\/span>\u00a0domestic\u00a0<\/span><\/span>workers<\/span><\/span>\u00a0live a hard life of long working hours and drudgery, sending money home to the Philippines or Indonesia to support families and pay for their children\u2019s education.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Migrant<\/span><\/span>\u00a0women have also come together to protest and fight for improved conditions in a succession of demonstrations and rallies, winning some support, but not nearly enough, from local trade unions and political organisations.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

CUHK survey<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

A new survey from Chinese University reveals how much still needs to be changed in 2019. Over seventy percent of\u00a0<\/span><\/span>migrant<\/span><\/span>\u00a0domestic\u00a0<\/span><\/span>workers<\/span><\/span>\u00a0work more than 13 hours a day, according to the survey which interviewed 2,000 women. Almost 9 percent said they worked more than 16 hours a day and 5.9 percent said they did not get their statutory day off once a week.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The live-in rule, which forces\u00a0<\/span><\/span>migrant<\/span><\/span>\u00a0domestic\u00a0<\/span><\/span>workers<\/span><\/span>\u00a0to be billeted in the homes of their employers, is the major cause of this overwork and denial of adequate rest time. Hours can\u2019t be regulated when a worker is also living in the home and can be asked to do chores, clean, or take care of children, at any time of the night or day. Only 43 percent of the domestic\u00a0<\/span><\/span>workers<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in the survey had a room of their own. The rest are forced to sleep in hallways, bathrooms, storerooms or even to share a bed with children. This is the reality in a city with notoriously small apartments for all except the rich. Over 120\u00a0<\/span><\/span>migrantworkers<\/span><\/span>\u00a0died in Hong Kong in 2016, mostly from stress-related illnesses such as hypertension.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Migrant<\/span><\/span>\u00a0organisations have for years campaigned for the abolition of the live-in rule, which was first introduced in 2003 as a mechanism of social control, to prevent migrants establishing a stronger position in the local economy and in this way limits their bargaining power as\u00a0<\/span><\/span>workers<\/span><\/span>. Breaking the rule can lead to various penalties ranging from cancellation of a work permit to criminal prosecution and 14 years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Shockingly low wage<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Perhaps the most shocking finding in the CUHK survey concerns average pay levels, which in 2017 were HK$4,277 per month \u2013 below the minimum wage for migrants, which was HK$4,310 at that time (since raised by HK$100).<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This raw exploitation of\u00a0<\/span><\/span>migrant<\/span><\/span>\u00a0domestic\u00a0<\/span><\/span>workers<\/span><\/span>\u00a0is the other side of the coin of the government\u2019s refusal to invest in public services like elderly and childcare, starving these sectors of finance while showering money on the property tycoons and other capitalists. There are dozens of reasons why\u00a0<\/span><\/span>migrant <\/span><\/span>and local women\u00a0<\/span><\/span>workers<\/span><\/span>\u00a0need to unite and fight this unjust system, being sure to use International Women\u2019s Day as the next rallying point for this struggle.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Migrant and local women\u00a0workers\u00a0need to unite and fight the unjust system<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":19851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[133,124],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hong-kong","8":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"\nMigrant rights denied in Hong Kong - China Worker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2019\/02\/24\/19850\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Migrant rights denied in Hong Kong - 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