Filipino Workers in Hong Kong: Fending for Themselves

Filipinos comprise Hong Kong’s biggest migrant community. Migrant workers among them stay on for years to work hard for their children’s future; others come home after a short stay as their dreams of buying a piece of land in their country of origin are shattered.

By Bobby Tuazon
Bulatlat

Members of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-HK) during their congress, Nov. 26

On any Sunday at Hong Kong’s Central Park, thousands of Filipino migrants most of them women spend the day hobnobbing in groups, sitting on the park chatting with others crocheting. Still others mill around and line up at money exchange shops or spend hours at bargain centers looking for some signature shirts sold at low prices that they can send back home. Outside are some enterprising ones doing side jobs by selling prepaid phone and mobile cell cards and other wares. Working through the crowd and listening to conversations, one can meet Cebuanos, Ilonggos, Ilocanos, Pangasinanes, and even Tagalogs.

It is the day off for most Filipino migrants and it will only be late at night when Central becomes deserted. It is also time for Hong Kong’s Uzi automatic-armed policemen assigned to secure the park for tourists to leave.

At 120,000, Filipinos comprise the biggest migrant workers community in Hong Kong, followed closely by the Indonesians (110,000), Thais (8,000) and small clusters of Indians, Sri Lankans, Nepalis, Pakistanis, Malaysians, and Singaporeans. More than 15,000 Vietnamese who came to Hong Kong as refugees are now permanent residents doing casual work.

Many of the Asians work as domestics and housekeepers, known locally as amahs or feiyungs. The social divide is visible: unlike most Asian nationals, the Koreans, Japanese, Australians, Europeans and Americans are found in Hong Kong’s financial districts and, along with opulent residents who sometimes prefer being greeted as British citizens instead of Chinese, maintain a living standard seen as one of the highest in the world.

Economic boom

The first Filipinos who came to this former British colony were attracted by the territory’s economic boom in the 1970s with the proliferation of factories manufacturing toys, plastics, garments and microchips. Noted for their dexterity and hard work, Filipino women began to be hired into these industries until many more followed to work as domestics. Unlike other Asian nationals, Filipinos have the advantage of proximity to Hong Kong where pay is higher compared to other migrant destinations and get to fly home in times of emergency and during holidays.

Cynthia Ca Abdon-Tellez, director of the Mission for Filipino Migrant Workers in Hong Kong, sheds some light about Filipino migrants:

Many compatriots originate from northern Luzon such as the Ilocos, Pangasinan and the Cordillera although many other provinces are represented in Hong Kong. Majority of the migrants are of peasant origin with an average two-year tertiary education. Ninety-five percent of the domestics are women. Men usually work as gardeners, caregivers for senior citizens, family drivers or house caretakers.

About 50 percent of the Filipino migrant workers is married and have children. Many migrants are usually in their 20s to 40s compared to other Asian women such as many Indonesians who come to Hong Kong in their teens. It is usually the young migrants who are vulnerable to contract violations and exploitation.

A typical Filipino national, says Ms. Tellez, just wants to earn money to enable his or her parents back home to buy a piece of land, to start a small business, or to support siblings in school. But before such a dream can materialize, migrant workers go through several snags. These include exorbitant employment-processing fees that the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) charges most of which, such as the so-called Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC), do not benefit the prospective overseas Filipino worker. Then there is the agency fee which is three times higher than government fees.

In some extreme cases, married Filipino women go into extra-marital relationships either as a condition to their contract or in the course of their working and staying in Hong Kong. “Certain financial gains are usually part of the arrangement although there are genuine love relationships,” says Ms. Tellez. “Whatever it is we at the Mission understand their decisions – but we don’t condone them.”

Violations of work contract

Other common problems, says Ms. Tellez, are “violations of contract especially underpayment or non-payment of wages, non-provision of statutory holidays and days-off, as well as endorsement to other employers making this system illegal.”

“Physical and sexual abuse is not uncommon, nor is rape,” the Mission director says. “Physical and mental torture appear to be normal for some employers as a way of treating people of lower status.”

The case of Vony, not her real name, is an example. For four months, Vony was beaten up, kicked and hit on the head by her employer whenever the latter thought she made mistakes or was dissatisfied with her work. The househelp would kneel and plead with the employer not to terminate her contract. She had been made to believe by her agency that premature termination of her contract would result in a reduced wage and blacklisting by the Hong Kong police. Unable to stand the assaults anymore and with two ribs already broken, Vony came to the Mission office for shelter. She began to work as a volunteer.

Vony sued her employer but lawyers and Hong Kong police were unable to convince the court to support the criminal charge. After two years, she managed to receive compensation for her injuries. She has returned to the Philippines to continue her studies.

Together with other groups, Ms. Tellez’s organization has campaigned for just compensation for Filipino OFWs as well as their Asian counterparts. The migrant workers’ struggle for just wages has found them at loggerheads with Philippine labor officials for siding with Hong Kong authorities who had tried legislating for reduced minimum wages.

The Arroyo government, the Mission director says, has no right to tell the migrant workers to “think not of what your country can for you but what you can do for it.” Filipinos, she adds, “have sacrificed a great deal of their life to work overseas to fend for their families…and in the course have saved the economy of the country from total collapse.”

“The least that the government can do,” she says, “is to give the services due them instead of cracking their heads thinking of the best way to milk the workers of their hard-earned money.” Bulatlat

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