'Maids In Mandatory Quarantine Shouldn't Get Salary'

An employers group said on Wednesday that foreign domestic helpers should not receive a salary when they undergo mandatory quarantine after arriving in Hong Kong, as they are not working during the two weeks.

This comes after the government announced that foreign domestic helpers will need to test negative for Covid-19 before they're allowed to enter Hong Kong, and they will also have to undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days at a hotel, with their employers footing the bill.

The chairwoman of the Hong Kong Employers of Overseas Domestic Helpers Association, Betty Yung, said this is discriminatory.

“We want to ask the labour department to make it very clear that when they come to Hong Kong, when they stay in a hotel, they are not working,” said Tung.

She said the Hong Kong government should talk to the Philippines consulate that no work that means no pay.

“Just like the local labourers. Otherwise you are discriminating or [are being] unfair to the local labourers,” she said. “Local labourers, if they are not working, their employers won’t pay them.”

She also urged the government to consider subsidising employers who are less well-off for their helpers’ stay at hotels.

Health Secretary Sophia Chan had said on Tuesday that domestic servants arriving in Hong Kong now will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine in hotels as the city is facing another outbreak of coronavirus cases. But she had ruled out government paying for their expenses.