Unions Want Maids' Salaries Raised To HK$5,800

An alliance of unions representing foreign domestic helpers has demanded a 30 percent rise in the monthly salary of maids to HK$5,800, to bring it into line with the Minimum Wage Ordinance.

The unions say they also want the authorities to legislate for better working conditions as helpers' working hours are currently unregulated.

"In our data and in our cases, the average working hours are between 12 and 16 hours a day. In some cases, up to 21 hours. That is inhumane ... that is modern day slavery," said Eman Villanueva, of the Asian Migrants' Coordinating Body.

He said if Hong Kong wants to show itself as a place that does not protect slavery, it has to regulate these hours.

The unions want domestic workers to be given 11-hours of uninterrupted rest. "The workers should not be asked to work within the 11 hours," he said.

Villanueva also said the current regulations only specify that these workers be provided with suitable accommodation. Some domestic helpers are forced to sleep in toilets and kitchens, he said.

He told RTHK's Carol Mang that the unions have asked the Labour Department to specify in future contracts what kind of sleeping arrangements are not considered suitable, to avoid such abuses.