Do domestic helpers deserve more?
Updated: 2013-04-13 05:47
By Jony Lam(HK Edition)
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In a recent campaign against right of abode for domestic helpers, speakout.hk successfully went viral with a comic strip post titled "If she has the right of abode..." The strip depicts two households. On the left, captioned "today", a female Hongkonger sitting on a couch says "Maria, please sweep the floor." An expressionless Southeast Asian woman sweeping the floor says "Yes mom [sic]."
On the right, captioned "tomorrow," the same Southeast Asian woman Maria now sits presumptuously on the same couch. "Mary, hurry up and sweep the floor!" she says. You can see her impatience through the comic symbol that looks like # on her forehead. "Yes, boss," Mary the Hongkonger says in resigned fashion as she sweeps the floor.
This ingenious post earned speakout.hk more than 30 shares and almost 50 likes utilizing a time-tested principle in marketing: exploit common motivations and behaviors. It visualizes our worst but unfounded fear of being ruled by Southeast Asians and expresses the message in a compressed and easy to digest manner. Marketing is not a science, and accuracy may do more harm than good.
We know for a fact that not all Hong Kong employers are amicable to their domestic helpers - in many ways. Hong Kong people's argument has always been straightforward: foreign domestic helpers know full well when they sign their employment contract that citizenship is not part of the deal.
Recent events in Brazil could be enlightening. From April 2, a new law came into force giving domestic servants the same rights as other workers for the first time. In recent years, their rights have been gradually revised to include paid holidays, sick leave and maternity leave. After the latest adjustment, an estimated seven million housemaids and cooks are also entitled to overtime after working for a maximum of eight hours a day and 44 hours a week, among other rights.
"Domestic work in its current form in Brazil is virtually unique in the world and is a legacy of slavery," said Brazilian Senator Lidice da Mata, a sponsor of the new constitutional amendment.
So what is the relevance? Domestic work in Brazil and Hong Kong are both hierarchies. A legacy of Brazil's history of colonialism and slavery, Brazilians with African ancestry earn substantially less than white Brazilians due to disadvantages in education and wages. According to the World Bank, black Brazilians have levels of educational attainment only two-thirds the level of whites, which limits their access to higher paying jobs. In Hong Kong, we "import" domestic workers from Southeast Asia at below market prices.
A lot of us believe that people are poor because they are incompetent or lazy. This is far from the truth. Domestic work in Brazil and Hong Kong exists not because wages determined by a free labor market allocate the jobs as such, but because the law makes a certain kind of people's time cheaper than others'. As reported by the BBC, when the law says domestic helpers should be treated like other workers and enjoy overtime pay in Brazil, they immediately earn between 18 to 40 percent more.
The hypocrisy of Civic Party lawyers lies in the fact that they have no intention of challenging the status quo. In a just world, you pay people who do your laundry with an equitable amount of money, not with "rights of abode" seven years later (with costs other taxpayers who may not have employed domestic helpers have to share) in lieu of fair pay.
Isn't it something to look forward to in the next election, when we can again decide which side to support? Do you want more hypocrites, or are you going to give the heartless a chance?
The author is a current affairs commentator. You may contact the author at jony.lam.kh@gmail.com.
(HK Edition 04/13/2013 page6)