The SUN HK : Labour keen on job-hopping proposal, says AMCB

27 April 2023

By The SUN

Sringatin & Balladares air their disappointment after the meeting in Kwun Tong

Officers of the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body said they were dissatisfied with the outcome of their meeting with Hong Kong labour officials Thursday, on the proposal to amend the Code of Practice for Employment Agencies so the word “job-hopping” becomes part of the prohibited acts of migrant domestic workers.

“We are very disappointed with what happened during the meeting,” said Dolores Balladares, spokesperson of AMCB. “It seems the Labour Department is very firm in its position to include the proposals, especially the job-hopping of MDWs.”

AMCB presented its position on the issue, which is part of an eight-month public consultation on amending the CoP. The amendments also provide that agencies must speak with employers about finding a replacement for a migrant worker who has been terminated, or provide a refund.

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Balladares said they kept telling labour officials that the so-called “job-hopping” is a myth, as MDWs will not deliberately leave their employ unless they are treated badly, or the employer violates their agreement.

Besides, she said it is not a crime for MDWs to choose who they want to work with, and not be subjected to the threat of being sent home because they decided to change employers.

Both arguments apparently fell on deaf ears.

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Balladares added that her group did not understand why the government was pushing for the amendment that tends to favor employers, instead of giving greater protection to migrant workers.

Another AMCB spokesperson, Sringatin, said their group submitted its own position statement on the issue, in which Immigration is encouraged to look more into the reasons why MDWs are forced to terminate their contracts, instead of labeling them unfairly as job-hoppers.

“Also, we argued that if they want to call us job-hoppers, then they should abolish the two-week rule,” said Sringatin.

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The two-week policy already mandates that a worker who is terminated must return to her home country within 14 days, effectively canceling the notion of job-hopping which presumes that a MDW who is terminated can still move to another employer without going home.

Both leaders appealed to their fellow migrants to also make their opposition to the proposals known by emailing or mailing letters to Immigration before the public consultation ends on May 14.

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This was the same call aired by Consul General Raly Tejada the other Sunday, who said it would be difficult for the government to ignore the workers’ pleas if they all wrote about their opposition to the job-hopping allegation.