Editor's Note |
20 years of service to the community
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Time flies.
Exactly 20 years ago this month, The SUN shone for the Filipinos in Hong Kong. It was
the fulfillment of a dream that took shape years earlier, or shortly after I arrived here in 1987 and
realized there was no reliable information channel serving the community.
But turning that dream into reality proved to be difficult. Several people offered to fund
the publication of a news-paper, but everyone wanted a business model different from what we had
in mind.
Details...
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Anak Araw |
Pagpapabaya
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Nitong nakaraang buwan ay naging saksi tayo sa nangyari kay Manang Gloria Ortinez,
ang OFW na biktima ng tanim-bala sa Manila airport. Halos buong araw kasi ay naglagi siya sa
opisina ng The SUN, kasama ang mga naghatid sa kanya na sina Susan "Toots" Ople na tagataguyod ng
mga OFW, at ang abogado niyang si Atty Spocky Farolan, kaya nasaksihan namin siya nang malapitan.
Details...
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Migrant's Forum |
Nanay Gloria's journey to HK
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President Benigno Simeon Aquino III recently told the media that cases of tanim-bala
were sensationalized, citing figures to prove his point. As an OFW advocate, I respectfully
disagree. Looking at this from a purely numbers perspective could lead one to overlook the deep trauma
that such incidents have caused its innocent victims.
Had he met and spoken to 56-year old OFW Gloria Ortinez, our President would have
learned the following:
Details...
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Know Your Rights |
The Mission
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This was the speech delivered by the Mission for Migrant Workers' general manager,
Cynthia Tellez, at the launch of the 10-year Impact Evaluation Report of the Mission's work held on
December 5, 2015 at the Li Hall of St. John's Cathedral.
Details...
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With at least one -- and possibly two disqualification cases in the presidential race --
the Supreme Court has assured the nation politics will not dictate its decisions.
See this month's stories...
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Staff and volunteers at the Mission for Migrant Workers had reason to celebrate when
they launched the non-government organization's 10-year Impact Evaluation Report at Li Hall of St
John's Cathedral on Dec. 4. Nearly all, or 97% of migrants who sought assistance said that they were
helped by the Mission, and more than half of them (57%) said they would recommend the NGO to others.
See this month's stories...
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Mid-August 2014
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Know Your Rights
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We are so good at coining words like "break contract", "terminate", "early release", and so on,
that these words have come to carry certain meanings that are understood only within our community.
Many Filipinos use them without confirming their accuracy, or realizing their implications.
Say, for example,"break contract" and "terminate".
For more than three decades now, we at the Mission have been trying to correct the misuse of
the word "break contract". Despite this, the misuse of the term continues to this day, even among
new arrivals.
When this phrase is used, it is to refer to a worker who terminated her contract. If the term used
is "terminated", then it is presumed that it was the employer who initiated the move. The
misuse appears to have been perpetrated by most employment agencies.
We do not encourage the loose use of such terms. The termination of a contract is exactly that.
It does not matter who initiates it, whether it was the worker or the employer. For example, one
can say: "My contract was terminated by my employer" or, "I terminated the contract".
The problem with using the term "break contract" to refer to a migrant worker who terminated
her contract connotes that the act was done without following the prescribed procedure. This amounts
to illegal termination.
Migrant workers should understand that terminating or ending the contract is one of the
provisions or clauses in the employment contract. Thus, if either the domestic worker or employer ends
the contract, as long as the rules are complied with, the termination is legal and no contract is "broken".
As a foreign domestic worker, one can say "I terminated the contract by giving my employer
a month's notice of termination." If the employer did the same, the statement can be similar:
"My employer terminated the contract by giving me a month's notice of termination." In both cases,
no one broke the contract because in both cases, the rule of giving a month's notice to terminate
the contract was followed.
If you were driven out of the employer's house in the middle of the night without notice, without
a valid reason, nor payment in lieu of notice, your employer broke the contract. When you left
your job without giving a month's notice, without a valid reason nor payment to your employer of
the equivalent of a month's salary, then you broke the contract.
There are certain complicated situations such as in assault cases. When an employer assaults
a domestic worker, the latter may decide to run away for fear of her life. The contract is
therefore terminated in a constructive way or what is legally called constructive termination. The
domestic worker has a valid reason to leave without a month's notice.
Even if it is the migrant worker who did run away, the contract was in effect terminated by
the employer because it was the employer's act of assaulting the worker that broke the contract.
What these show is that "breaking the contract" also means ending the contract prematurely but in
an unjust or unlawful manner.
We hope that the use of the term is better clarified in this example.
Then, there is also the oft-misused term "early release".
It is important to understand that the two-week rule (or New Conditions of Stay, 1987) is like
the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of foreign domestic workers. Thus, it is not unusual
to aspire to have more days to find a new employer when a contract is terminated.
If the duration of the remaining visa before termination is more than two weeks and you have a
valid reason to stay longer such as when you have a pending case, you acquire the status of a visitor
once your visa is extended. Ascertaining the termination date is very important to determining the last
day of your stay in Hong Kong under the "two-week rule".
There are instances when a contract is terminated with still a month or a few more weeks to go
to finish it but the employer wants the domestic worker to leave her employ immediately. Sometimes,
it is the domestic worker who requests to be let go early. It is in instances like these that the matter
of "early release" comes in.
There is no such thing as an "early release". The Immigration officer at the counter will
consider cases only as one of a finished contract or a termination, never as an "early release".
When you are in a situation where your employer made you leave her employ early, consult
your diary immediately. Check the number of statutory holidays that you were not allowed to take as
rest days, and then add the annual leave due you. Put all these together, so you can get the number
of days that you can take and declare lawfully as your holidays (days off, statutory holidays and
annual leave).
If there are remaining days in your contract you may ask your employer to pay.
It will also help to have a termination letter written by the employer to explain the situation and
these should all be presented to the Immigration Department for their decision. Keep in mind that it is
only Immigration that can determine what a "finished contract" is, especially in tricky situation.
Remember, there is no such thing as an "early release." The only thing that needs to be determined
is whether you had a finished contract or not.
While the saying "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will not hurt me" is often
used, it is not always true. The use of precise words or terms is important, as loose terminologies or
words that are echoed without real understanding could lead one to trouble.
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This is the monthly column from the Mission for Migrant Workers, an institution that has
been serving the needs of migrant workers in Hong Kong for over 31 years. The Mission, headed by
its executive director, Cynthia Tellez, assists migrant workers who are in distress, and focuses its
efforts on crisis intervention and prevention through migrant empowerment. Mission has its offices at
St John's Cathedral on Garden Road, Central, and may be reached through tel. no. 2522 8264.
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