Helpers, employers demand clarity on Jakarta fee rules
Employers of domestic workers and groups representing helpers on Thursday called for clarity over new fee rules set by the Indonesian authorities which are expected to add about HK$5,000 to the cost of each hire. Speaking on RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme, Betty Yung, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Employers of Overseas Domestic Helpers Association, and Sring Atin, spokesperson for the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, both said there was a need for officials in the SAR and in Jakarta to look into the matter. They made the comments after representatives of a union of recruiters from Indonesia, known as Aspataki, visited Hong Kong with authorisation from the Jakarta government to set out new regulations under which employers rather than workers must pay the local agency fee, which is equivalent to a month’s wages. Yung said her group had approached the Indonesian consulate and the Hong Kong Labour Department to seek clarification. "In Hong Kong we have already paid our local agency; now it's already over HK$20,000," Yung told RTHK's Ben Tse. "Why, then, has come another increase?" She added: "Our local agencies have, in fact, paid for every girl that they introduce to Hong Kong. That means the local agency has to pay the agency in their country. I do hope the Hong Kong government should ask about this for us." Yung said many people who employed domestic helpers were not wealthy, with elderly people in particular finding it difficult to find more money. Speaking on the same programme, Sring Atin said the Jakarta government had set out in 2020 that domestic helpers should pay "zero fees" when taking a job abroad. However, she said there was no system of redress in place, and many helpers were still hit with high charges. She called for authorities in Hong Kong and Indonesia to thoroughly examine the matter, noting that the Labour Department here had directed complaints about local agencies continuing to collect large fees from helpers to Jakarta. That's despite rules set here to prevent fees higher than 10 percent of the helper's monthly wage. "This problem must be settled by the Indonesian and Hong Kong government, with the illegal collection of fees for the domestic worker. I think that the Indonesian government also needs to clarify which costs the employer should pay."