Hong Kong should cut out the greedy middlemen in foreign helper hiring process

N. Balakrishnan says Hong Kong should follow the lead of Malaysia which has begun a ‘direct hire’ system that benefits both employers and employees. Moreover, the city can innovate in making the process tech friendly

Reading Time:3 minutes

Domestic helpers congregate in Central on their day off. The bureaucracy and intermediaries in the hiring process of domestic helpers from outside Hong Kong work to the disadvantage of both employers and helpers. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 9:22am, 26 Jan 2018Updated: 7:31pm, 26 Jan 2018

Anyone who has hired a foreign domestic helper in Hong Kong knows that the process involves a lot of paperwork, greedy intermediaries across borders and archaic processes such as declarations and red seals. Neither the employer in Hong Kong nor the domestic helper benefits from these time-consuming processes. The intermediaries, including the governments of the places the helpers come from, benefit financially while providing unnecessary services such as “exit permits” and “training”.

With a willing employer in Hong Kong and willing employees in the Philippines and Indonesia, and with technology, we can short-circuit and simplify the current convoluted process.

Looking for a domestic helper? Two Hong Kong students have made the job easier with new mobile app MamaHelpers

After years of complaints, Malaysia has now started a direct hire method: the potential employee leaves her country as a tourist, avoiding the need for an exit permit. In Malaysia, the helper is granted a standard two-week tourist visa.

The Malaysian employer, with a local agency if necessary, conducts the interview, medical tests and other formalities which are faster and more reliable since they are done in the country of employment. Because the employee and employer would have met face to face and the employee could have seen the place of work, the chances of gross misunderstandings are reduced. If both parties agree, Malaysian immigration converts the tourist visa into a domestic helper visa.

Women in Jakarta protest against a series of cases of Indonesian domestic helpers being abused in Malaysia in 2009. Photo: AFP

This system bypasses the exit permit racket perpetrated by the government agencies of the Philippines and other labour-exporting countries. Charged with safeguarding the welfare of workers going abroad, the agencies specialise in holding both employees and employers to ransom.

The budding direct hire system means government bodies issuing the exit permits now fear losing lucrative sinecures. The Philippines suspended the issuing of exit permits for a month before Christmas to investigate “corruption” in the case of direct hires. It was not explained why it was necessary to suspend the issuing of exit permits to do this. These permits remind me of the Soviet Union, which used to demand that scientists and artists compensate for the cost of their education before getting a permit to leave. The governments of poor countries are seldom on the side of their poor citizens.

Hong Kong should cut out the greedy middlemen in foreign helper hiring process

N. Balakrishnan says Hong Kong should follow the lead of Malaysia which has begun a ‘direct hire’ system that benefits both employers and employees. Moreover, the city can innovate in making the process tech friendly

Looking for a domestic helper? Two Hong Kong students have made the job easier with new mobile app MamaHelpers

Filipino helpers trafficked to Russia for bogus jobs