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.
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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.
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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:
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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.
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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-December 2015
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Features Gallery
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Hong Kong employers' practice of requiring their migrant domestic helpers to work up to
18 hours a day is tantamount to forced labor, as the workers obey out of fear and are vulnerable to
abuse because of the live-in policy, a visiting researcher says.
Petty issues such as arguments between the employers and helpers seem to be given
more weight by the government than violations of worker's labor and human rights, said Reginald
Frection from the University of York's Centre for Applied Human Rights.
"Excessive working hours is one of the indicators of forced labor, and the law says that if
a worker is working substantially more hours than the national average, you're working
excessive hours," Frection said.
A Labour Department study in 2012 showed the average worker puts in 48 hours a week, and
in a worst-case scenario, a security guard was found to have worked 69 hours a week. On the
other hand, domestic helpers work 16 hours on average, or up to 18 hours a day, or 96 to 108 hours
a week, he said.
"If you're working 96 to 108 hours a week, the only reason for that is your employer is
abusing your position of vulnerability," Frection said.
He said "if you're living in your employer's home, you depend on them for your shelter,
food and wages, and if you work 15 to 16 hours a day and your livelihood depends ion it, how can you
say no?" he said.
Frection says his research focuses on the human rights violations such as the very long
working hours and very little food common in Hong Kong households, which put the city in a category
where forced labor exists, based on International Labor Organization norms.
Another issue he considers a human rights violation is the ban on domestic workers
living outside their employers' homes.
Frection came to Hong Kong in May this year as close to finishing his study of the plight
of foreign domestic workers for his PhD in Human Rights Law. He told The SUN that from his
interviews with migrant workers here, he thought "there's a space in the law" where the issue of
human rights has not been considered properly.
"When you look at the circumstances of employment and regulation of employment, I
think very little attention is being paid to the seriousness of the offense," said Frection.
"The government seems to consider simple labor disputes, such as arguments between
employer and employee, as the bigger issue and I think there's an opportunity to probably try
and change that".
Frection said setting up an NGO was one option he had been considering to achieve change.
"If you want to raise the issue then you have to have that avenue," he said, but the minimum he could
do was work with another NGO that's already providing advice.
"So, I think there's still an avenue for working with that NGO or set up something
differently," Frection said in an interview in a coffee shop in Sheung Wan on Nov 19.
The former US Army soldier and police officer who had worked for three years with Helpers
for Domestic Helpers in Hong Kong before returning to the United States, said he would rather focus
on the human rights side of labor issues.
"When you think about it, what you're dealing with now is actually a human rights
violation," Frection said. "It's just that you are looking at the very vague end of it which is called a labor
dispute."
His research on local labor laws was prompted by an incident when he moved to Hong Kong
in 2010 and lived in a block where one night a live-out Sri Lankan helper came knocking on his
door complaining she was starving. The couple who employed her had not yet returned from dinner
and she was not allowed to touch anything in the fridge.
Frection learned the helper could not leave until the bosses arrived and food she brought
was only for lunch. She said she was not properly treated by her employers.
The incident led him to research Hong Kong labor laws, and found there was nothing in
those laws governing working hours. That was also when he came across Helper for Domestic Helpers
and offered his services to the NGO.
"My focus is on the conciliation process (which he called Alternative Dispute
Resolution mechanisms) and how they do it here, not only in the Labour Department, resolving so-called
labor disputes," Frection said. He said the focus is on micro-level conciliation, "but when you look at it
on a bigger scale, it's more about an alternative to judicial and non-judicial mechanisms of redress".
Frection questioned whether the conciliation process in Hong Kong provides protective
remedies for any harm or violation of human rights as required under human rights law. His argument
is, during conciliation for claims, the domestic worker is under pressure to settle because of fear
when she is fighting for money that she has already worked for, such as salary, vacation pay, or
allowance that are stipulated in the contract.
One issue in contention, he said, is wages in lieu of notice, when one party terminates
without giving the other party a month's notice as agreed in the contract a worker should not "negotiate
and give up something for money that (he) had already worked for.
"Nobody's educated about the plight of migrant workers when (conciliation is) handled
in secret. No laws are applied when it happens in secret, and no judicial decisions are rendered that
will impact or change the way things are happening, so there's no benefit."
He said it is only the employers who benefit from this conciliation system and this
certainly leads to further labor exploitation. "So, there's a lot of abuses happening in secret," he said.
For the first part of his research, Frection interviewed about 80 domestic workers. He is
now trying to find out who among them are in a forced labor situation based on 11 indicators identified
by the International Labor Organization.
In the second part of his research, which deals with conciliation, he has talked to another
six and accompanied them to the Employment Claims Board or the Labour Tribunal.
He said he was on the last month of his field work and would spend the next year writing
his report.
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