The SUN HK

Associate of employment agency convicted of overcharging foreign domestic helper

Posted on 03 July 2019 No comments

Eastern Court

The Labour Department (LD) crackdown on employment agencies overcharging foreign domestic helpers has netted another violator of the law that limits the placement fee to one-tenth of their first month's salary.

An associate of Philip-Indonesian Helpers Employment Limited, which had earlier been fined for overcharging, was found guilty of the same offense at Eastern Magistrates' Court on June 28 and fined HK$8,000.

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This completes the case that started in October 2018 when the Employment Agencies Administration (EAA) of the Labour Department (LD) started receiving complaints from nine domestic helpers claiming that Philip-Indonesian Helpers Employment Limited, located in North Point, charged them excessive commission.

Investigators found enough evidence to prosecute Philip-Indonesian and filed cases against both the licensee for overcharging the nine helpers, and an associate working for it for overcharging another one.

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As a result, Philip-Indonesian Helpers Employment Limited, the licensee, was convicted at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts for overcharging the nine FDHs and fined a total of $84,000. The Court also ordered the agency to refund the excess amount, which totalled $60,297, to the helpers who were overcharged.

The conviction of the agency's associate came later.

According to the law, a licensee or an associate of a licensee in respect of an EA, or a person purporting to act as such a licensee or associate, is not allowed to collect from a job seeker any fees or charges other than the prescribed commission, which is an amount not exceeding 10 per cent of the first month's salary of the job seeker upon successful placement.

In a press statement, the LD reminded employment agencies to operate in full compliance with the law and the Code of Practice for Employment Agencies at all times.

"Failure to do so may lead to prosecution and/or revocation of licence. The Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 2018, effective since February 9, 2018, has raised the maximum penalty for overcharging job seekers to a fine of $350,000 and imprisonment for three years," it added.

For complaints about unlicensed operation or overcharging by these agencies, please call the EAA at 2115 3667, or visit its office at Unit 906, 9/F, One Mong Kok Road Commercial Centre, 1 Mong Kok Road, Kowloon.

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HK unrest shows need for workers to learn livelihood skills: Labatt dela Torre

Posted on 02 July 2019 No comments

Labor Attaché Jalilo dela Torre gives the certificate of completion to one of the graduates. Looking on are assistant labor attaches Antonio Villafuerte and Angelica Sunga, and trainors.

By Vir B. Lumicao

Filipino domestic workers here should take advantage of free skills and livelihood trainings to prepare them to return home should the political uncertainty in Hong Kong worsen, and put their jobs in jeopardy.

Labor Attaché Jalilo dela Torre gave this advice on Jun 16, as he spoke at the graduation of 52 massage therapy trainees at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Wanchai.

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The graduates made up the 10th batch of the 10-week training course offered by the POLO and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

Labatt Dela Torre, who was sweating and panting as he arrived from a Health-Wise mission outreach in Yuen Long, apologized for his delayed arrival for the graduation rites, where he was the guest speaker.

He spoke of how he had a hard time returning to the city by bus and train because of the heavy volume of black-shirted passengers going to Admiralty to join the anti-extradition protest.

He said at Admiralty, he had to find his way out of the station because all the exits were clogged with people, as was the platform for the line towards Wanchai.

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In the end, he said, he had to exit in Admiralty by all means.

Labatt Dela Torre said the past few days’ protest action against the extradition bill being pushed by the Carrie Lam administration shows OFWs the importance of preparing for any eventuality.

He explained that the proposed legislation, if passed as scheduled last Jun 12, would have made it possible for Hong Kong to send accused people to places where it does not have an extradition treaty, such as Taiwan, Macau, and especially, China.

He asked the workers if they thought they would be affected by the proposed amendment to the law, and they answered “yes” in unison.

“This points to the fragility of our stay here in Hong Kong. So, the more empowered you are to return to the Philippines with skills like massage therapy, the better for all of us, di ba?” Dela Torre said.

“Kasi hindi natin alam, eh. Who would have guessed na ganito ang mangyayari sa…ang bilis ha! Kailan nag-umpisa? Last Sunday, and then Wednesday, then ngayon. Talagang ang bilis ng mga pangyayari,” he said.

He said things seemed to have cooled because the government had backpedaled and suspended the hearing on the extradition bill indefinitely. But he warned that when the protests had died down, the government could push the bill again and “maaapektuhan na naman ang mga trabaho natin”.

He congratulated the graduates, many of whom, he said, were already raring to go home. He said he hopes they could put to good use the skills that they learned.

Labatt Dela Torre reminded them of a standing offer from Nuat Thai, a massage therapy company founded by an OFW, that offers its franchise free of charge to every group of 10 OFWs who could put up an outlet of the company.

He also advised them to prepare for the certification assessment by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority in December this year.

“Sana ay sa pagdating uli ng Tesda ay nandito pa kayo at maipasa ninyo ang NCII,” he said.

Also addressing the graduates were assistant labor attaches Antonio Villafuerte and Angelica Sunga, who both urged the workers to take advantage of the POLO’s skills training programs.

“Maganda ang ginagawa ninyo na ganyan na kung hindi kayo busy sa inyong mga gawain…
tingnan ninyo yung mga programang ibinibigay ng opisina para magagamit ninyo pag-uwi ninyo sa Pilipinas,” Villafuerte said.

Sunga, for her part, praised the graduates for their initiative to learn new skills instead of playing cards elsewhere on their days off.

“Mabuti iyan para pag-uwi ninyo sa Pilipinas magkaroon kayo ng ibang options. Sana pag-uwi nyo ay magtayo kayo ng sarili ninyong spa tulad ng iba,” she said.

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Stop the killings, int’l human rights groups tell Duterte

Posted on 01 July 2019 No comments

by Vir B. Lumicao

Image may contain: 7 people, including Baneng Mendez, Ma Jai and Eman Villanueva, people smiling, people standing, child and outdoor

Protesters set off from Chater Road in Central

Some 400 Filipino and international human rights campaigners have urged Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to stop killing poor and innocent people in his bloody war against drugs.

Leaders of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines sent their message to Duterte in a communiqué issued at the end of a three-day conference hosted by the Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights in the Philippines (HKCAHRP).

The statement was handed over to a representative of the Philippine Consulate on Jun 30, following a protest march from Chater Road in Central to United Centre in Admiralty where the diplomatic post has its offices.

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Peter Murphy, ICHRP chairman, said some 160 delegates from 45 countries have expressed solidarity with the Filipino people by signing the declaration calling on the Duterte government to stop the killings.

The protesters, which included activists from Argentina, Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, United States and leaders of Anakbayan USA and Gabriela USA, chanted “Stop the killings in the Philippines” and “Long live international solidarity,” as they marched to the Consulate.

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A few delegates from the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, which held its Sixth Assembly in Sai Kung recently, also joined the rally to show support.

A copy of the communiqué was handed by Murphy to PCG officer Danny Baldon, and asked that it be notarized as proof it was officially received by the government. Baldon told them to leave it with him and pick up a notarized copy in the afternoon.

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ICHRP chair Peter Murphy reads communique outside the Consulate building

In speeches on Chater Road and outside the Consulate, the protest leaders alleged that Duterte’s anti-drug campaign has led to the murders of activists, priests, journalists, students, farmers, workers and innocent children.

“We decided, as an Asia priority, to enable and support the United Nations and the International Labor Organization and other international fact-finding missions to enter the Philippines and investigate and ask the government to stop the killings", said Murphy.

Ma Jai, deputy secretary general of the ICHRP, called for more international solidarity with the Filipino people as, he said, Duterte’s government will get worse.

“Hong Kong people respect the Filipino people for their resistance against Duterte, who uses his power against the vulnerable, the weak and the poor,” he said, “but not the drug lords and others who are destroying the country.”

Adrian Bonifacio, chairman of Anakbayan USA, said the repressive regime in the Philippines is forcing some 6,000 Filipinos to migrate daily, mostly to places where they are trafficked, abused, exploited, detained and deported.

He also slammed the US government for allegedly recruiting immigrant youth to the military to fight its imperialist war and “kill people who look like us, our own kababayans.”

Among the other speakers was Donna de Lima of Gabriela USA, who pledged to fight for migrant women workers and for national democracy.

Migrante International chairwoman Joanna Concepcion said the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration had collected US$5 million in pre-departure processing fees and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration US$20 billion as of 2017. But she claimed the funds were being used by Duterte to pay off his massive debt to China while neglecting the plight of distressed OFWs, like the 81 migrants who remain in death row.

She said that Migrante has just launched a global petition to be signed by migrants and submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate the worsening human rights violations by the Duterte administration.

Eman Villanueva, chairman of Bayan Hong Kong and Macau, said migrant workers have long been suffering from forced separation from families back home and from maltreatment, unfair wages., discrimination and modern-day slavery.

“But we are unable to go home because in the Philippines, there is no justice for the poor and the Filipino people. Under the Duterte regime, the sufferings of the Filipino have only exacerbated,” Villanueva said.

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FDHs warned never to receive air parcels for anyone

Posted on 30 June 2019 No comments

The High Court, where the case is being heard

By Vir B. Lumicao

An Australian Catholic priest who is helping jailed drug carriers is warning migrant female workers never to collect air parcels for friends or from anyone else sent through the postal system or delivery services.

Most likely, these parcels are laden with dangerous drugs sent by the maids’ purported boyfriends from other parts of the world, Fr. John Wotherspoon said.

He issued the warning on Jun 28 as a Filipina detained since February last year on a charge of trafficking in dangerous drugs appeared in the High Court for a scheduled plea-taking and sentencing that was reset at the last minute.

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The defendant, Sharon V. Berces, was arrested in Kowloon on Feb 28 with small amounts of dangerous drugs.

She was first arraigned in Kowloon City Court, then her case was transferred to the Eastern Court on Jun 25 last year. The case was moved to the High Court last month after the prosecution said she was ready to enter her plea.

But Judge Amanda Woodcock adjourned the case until Sept 30 at the request of the defense lawyer, who said he wanted to look for more mitigating factors before the plea-taking and sentencing.

Wotherspoon, speaking to Filipino newsmen outside the court, said foreign helpers, Filipinos and Indonesians especially, continue to be tricked into collecting drug parcels unsuspectingly from post offices or delivery services.

“Very often the people who are doing the tricking are boyfriends from other parts of the world,” said Wotherspoon, who is a prison chaplain.

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He said the drug ring members meet the women online or in churches and befriend them before tricking them into receiving or collecting air parcels for them.

“Please be careful about anyone who asks you to go and collect the parcel. Don’t do it. Even your closest friend, your boyfriend, don’t do it. There’s so many people still going to prison. It’s very difficult for them to prove they’re innocent, so, please be careful about accepting or collecting parcels,” the priest said.

He said the women should not let anybody send a parcel to their home address. He said two Filipinas who let their boyfriend send parcels to their employers’ homes were just too lucky to be acquitted this year.

He was referring to Calin Baybayan and Michelle Mardo, who were released by the West Kowloon Court on Mar 14 and Jun 4 after the prosecution withdrew the charges of trafficking in dangerous drugs against them for insufficient evidence.

In a strange twist to the cases of Baybayan and Mardo, they were both girlfriends of the Nigerian man who they identified as sender of the drug-laden parcels.

And Wotherspoon said he could not stop wondering why the man was still moving around freely in Hong Kong.

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Makinig kasi sa payo

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Nataranta si Margarette nang aksidenteng ma delete sa telepono niya ang screen shot ng kanyang OEC habang nakabakasyon siya sa Pilipinas.

Dahil mabagal ang internet connection sa kanilang probinsiya ay napilitan siyang pumunta sa isang computer shop para subukang mag log in sa BM Online at humanap ng paraan kung paano ulit lalabas ang OEC niya.

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Pero inabot na siya ng isang oras doon ay hindi pa rin siya makapag sign in sa kanyang account. Kailangan pa naman niya ang OEC para makabalik sa Hong Kong.

Mabuti at naisipan niyang tawagan ang hotline ng Domestic Workers Corner, isang Facebook group sa Hong Kong na tumutulong sa mga migranteng manggagawa, lalo na sa mga baguhan.

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Laking pasasalamat ni Margarette dahil wala pang limang minuto niyang nako kontak ang DWC hotline ay naipadala na ang kopya ng OEC exemption niya sa kanya.

Umuwi si Margarette noong ika-10 ng Hunyo para mag-exit pagkatapos pumirma sa bagong kontrata.

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Pagkakakuha niya ng kanyang OEC ay hindi niya sinunod ang payo ng mga administrator ng DWC na i-print ang kanyang OEC dahil baka aksidenteng ma delete ang litrato niya nito sa kanyang telepono o kaya ay mawala mismo ang telepono.

Pwede ding mabura ito ng kanyang anak, kasama ang iba pang litrato, o mag low bat ang cell phone niya habang nasa airport na siya paalis ng bansa.

Bagamat naging pasaway siya ay buong lugod pa rin siyang tinulungan ng DWC, kaya ganoon na lang ang pasasalamat niya.

Pabalik na ng HK si Margarette, 36 taong gulang, at taga Capiz.
Tatlong taon na siya sa among nakatira sa Lok Fu. — Rodelia Villar

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