The SUN HK

Pinay, employer drop wage in lieu claims to settle dispute

Posted on 07 January 2020 No comments

The 2 settled their dispute at the Labour Tribunal in Yaumatei

A Filipina maid and her German employer agreed to settle their dispute over who was supposed to pay for a month’s salary in lieu of notice when they met at the Labour Tribunal on Monday, Jan 6.

As a result, Jannice Batuto, a domestic worker of Rainer Werner Angerer for just more than two weeks, left the Tribunal with $3,730, less than half her original claim of $8,250.

Aside from the salary in lieu, she had sought payment for arrears in wages, food allowance, air fare and traveling allowance.

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Angerer agreed to pay all her claims except for the wage in lieu of notice, saying it was the maid who walked off her job. He also offered to pay just $1,100 for her return air ticket instead of the $2,400 she was asking for.

Presiding officer Timon Shum, giving a background of the case, said Batuto filed her claim after Angerer allegedly dismissed her prematurely on Nov 13 following an argument.

Shum said that when the helper handed her one-month notice on that day, Angerer initially told her to serve out her notice, then leave. But the employer later changed his mind and told the maid to work just 7 days, then she could leave.

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However, Angerer changed his mind again and told her to leave immediately on the evening of Nov. 13. She filed a labour claim as a result.

On the other hand, Angerer claimed Batuto had asked him to let her go immediately after he changed his mind a second time, so he filed a counterclaim.

The presiding officer advised the two to settle their dispute instead of going for a trial that could take place only after two to three months.

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The two were apparently not ready to wait that long, so after a short discussion outside court they agreed to end their dispute. – Vir B. Lumicao

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DH says she filmed herself cleaning 19th floor window in case she fell

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By Vir B. Lumicao

HK banned dangerous window cleaning by domestic workers 3 years ago

A Filipina helper has told the Labour Tribunal she filmed herself cleaning the exterior window of her employers’ 19^th floor flat in Repulse Bay last year so there would be proof in case she fell. But she denied sharing the video on social media to discredit her employer.

Nerie Mier gave evidence on Jan 6, the third day of hearing her $45,931 claim against her employer for her alleged illegal dismissal.

Mier is also seeking $13,613 in food allowance, accusing Ip of giving her either leftovers, instant noodles or none at all, so she and co-worker Girlie were often forced to buy their own food.

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The employer, Garfield Ip Kam-tim, has denied Mier was ordered to do the dangerous window-cleaning.

He said that after her video went viral, the Consulate called and told him he was violating the law for letting the maid clean the outside part of his window.

Ip, who said he is the landlord of the building, claimed he also received letters from tenants saying he broke the law.

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Hong Kong banned exterior window cleaning starting January 2017, a few months after Filipina Rinalyn Duollog fell from her employer’s high-rise flat in Tseung Kwan O while cleaning windows.

Mier said she took the video clip on the morning of Feb 20 last year after Ip’s wife ordered her to clean the window of their 19^th floor flat even if she was not feeling well.

Fearing for her safety, she sent the clip to her husband in Albay, who forwarded it to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office. In the afternoon the film reportedly went viral on Facebook.

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The maid, who was crying while relating the window-cleaning incident, said she made the video so her family would know her employers were making her do dangerous work.

“My male employer accused me of sharing the video on social media. The fact is, I sent the video to my husband because if I fell from the ledge, he would know I was cleaning the window,” Mier said, adding her worried husband had urged her to come home.

Mier, who has two children, said she did not know who shared the video on Facebook, suggesting it could be the Consulate to warn workers not to perform that kind of task.

It appeared the video was also sent to the Labour Department. Ip said someone from the Department’s office in Mong Kok had called to warn him that he could be prosecuted over the incident.

Ip, cross-examining Mier, denied his wife ordered the maid to clean their flat’s window exterior. He said his maids used a window cleaning robot which is operated from inside the flat to reach the external panes.

But Mier said the device was defective and the cleaning pad might fall off, so she stepped on the ledge and did the job manually.

The employer said he would not pay Mier’s claims for loss of earnings and meal allowance since Mar 15 last year.

He insisted Mier had resigned on Feb. 15 and showed a letter purportedly from her but was not signed. He also said that since that day, he had received several calls from loan companies she owed money to.

Mier said she gave a one-month notice on Feb 15 but Ip ordered her to leave on Feb 26.

Presiding officer Michael Lok asked Ip why he did not call an employment agency staff named Janet as his witness since she seemed to know the case very well, instead of asking his wife and another maid, Girlie, to testify.

Before Ip stepped down from the witness box, Lok asked the employer to read two statements he had submitted as evidence and confirm if they were true and correct.

The hearing will resume on Monday, Jan. 13.

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7 new cases of Wuhan pneumonia reported in HK

Posted on 05 January 2020 No comments

By The SUN

Health checks at HK's airport have been tightened as a result of the mystery disease outbreak

Hong Kong authorities have reported seven new cases of people being admitted to various public hospitals with pneumonia-like symptoms believed to have been picked up from Wuhan City in Central China.

All the patients, aged between 2 and 55 years old, were taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours after showing signs of fever, respiratory infection or pneumonia symptoms. They are all in stable condition.

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Three of them, two males and one female, are confined at Queen Elizabeth Hospital; two, a male and a two-year-old female, are in Princess Margaret Hospital; one other female is in Ruttonjee Hospital; and the last, a male, is in Tseung Kwan O Hospital.

A government press release issued at noon today, Jan. 5, said the new patients brought to 15 the total number of such cases reported in Hong Kong since Dec 31. Five of the patients admitted to hospital earlier have been discharged.

The statement said all the patients had been to Wuhan in the past 14 days, but had not been to any wet market there. News reports had earlier identified a wet market in Hubei’s capital as the source of the outbreak of the still unidentified type of pneumonia.

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They are all being treated in isolation at the hospitals while the Department of Health is conducting further tests.

Reports of the mysterious flu outbreak have revived memories of the deadly SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) that started in China in 2002, and went on to kill hundreds of people in several places, including 299 in Hong Kong.

Latest reports from Wuhan said 44 people had been admitted to hospital with the unidentified virus, and 11 are in serious condition. A further 121 are under observation. However, no death has been reported.

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At least one suspected case has also been reported in Singapore, involving a three-year-old girl from China who had pneumonia and had traveled to Wuhan.

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Health Sophia Chan has reminded people not to visit wet markets or eat wild animals while traveling. She also assured the public that the government has adopted an active response to the outbreak.

Yesterday, the government activated its new three-tier response mechanism for infectious diseases and put down the suspected Wuhan pneumonia cases as “serious”. Least serious cases merit an alert response, and the most serious, an emergency.

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PCG aims to set new record in overseas vote

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By Vir B. Lumicao

Overseas voting registration at the PCG started on Dec 16 and will last until Sept 30, 2021.

Voter registration for the 2022 presidential and local elections is underway at the Consulate, and staff running the list-up say they are aiming to overtake the 23,000 who registered for the 2019 Philippine midterm election.

Rene Fajardo, who was manning the OVR desk at the Consulate’s lobby on Jan 5, said his team would have to attract more registrants to set a new record for the total number of registered Filipino overseas voters in Hong Kong.

The current record stands at 93,978 voters, set ahead of the 2016 national and local elections. For last year’s mid-term vote, a total of 87,441 were registered as voters, but only 34,183 or about 40% cast their votes to choose 12 senators and a party-list representative.

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Fajardo said the Commission on Elections deactivated 16,000 registered voters in Hong Kong after the month-long election that ended on May 13 last year, so there should be more effort to encourage qualified voters to register.

There are about 220,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong, more than 90% of whom are migrant workers, who should all be qualified to vote.

Under Philippine law, all Filipino citizens who are not disqualified by law and at least 18 years old can register to vote in an election.

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The overseas registration officially kicked off on Dec. 16 last year, and will end on Sept. 30, 2021.

According to a registration volunteer, this Sunday has been the busiest so far, with about 50 people already registered and about 10 more waiting before the 4pm closing of the Consulate.

As in previous registration exercises, the number is expected to peak in the last few months of the nearly two-year long exercise.

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Those who want to register as an overseas voter in Hong Kong must go to the Consulate and bring a copy of their valid Philippine passport, or, if a dual citizenship holder, a copy of their oath of allegiance or proof of citizenship from the Bureau of Immigration.

For seafarers, they must present a copy of their seaman’s book.

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Unifil decries mandatory, punitive Philhealth payments imposed on OFWs

Posted on 04 January 2020 No comments

By Daisy CL Mandap

PhilHealth graphic shows premiums going up to 5% of monthly income in 5 years

The dreaded increase in mandatory premiums for PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance) officially took effect on December 7 last year, and it turned out to be much higher than what Filipino overseas workers had expected. Worse, all OFWs are now compelled to pay for it.

A Filipino domestic worker in Hong Kong who earns the minimum wage of HK$4,360 a month (or Php30,095), for example, is now required to pay Php900 per month, or Php10,800 each year.

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The premiums will be higher for those earning more, because the mandatory contribution for this year is pegged at 3% of the worker’s monthly salary, in line with Republic Act 11223 or the so-called Universal Health Care Act.

The monthly premiums will gradually increase through the next few years, until the 5% level is reached by the years 2024-2025. This means an OFW in HK will be paying at least Php1,500 a month (or Php18,000 a year) by then.

Previously, OFWs were not compelled to pay for PhilHealth, so most of those who found a need to secure health insurance for their family members in the Philippines only paid the minimum premium of Php2,400 a year or Php200 a month.

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Unifil kicks off a new round of signature campaign against the hiked PhilHeatlh fees and other govt charges

Without prior notice or clear guidelines being relayed to OFWs about the new law, which provides for health insurance for all Filipinos but passes on the financial burden to contributors, the impact of the new compulsory fee is now just being felt.

United Filipinos in Hong Kong (Unifil-Migrante Hong Kong) has immediately slammed the new mandatory fee as another ploy by the Philippine government to squeeze OFWs.

Balladares-Pelaez says the mandatory fees punishes not just the OFWs but also their families

“It is bleeding us dry,” said Unifil’s chair Dolores Balladares-Pelaez in a statement issued on Jan. 3.

“This is a huge amount of money we can supposedly send to our families for their daily needs, but this will never happen because PhilHealth is mandatory for all OFWs now,” she said.

According to the statement, newly hired OFWs are now being required to pay Php2,400 upfront prior to their deployment abroad, and the balance must be paid in full “after six months or in the next two quarters.”

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Those who don’t pay on time will be charged an interest of 1.5% for every month of missed contributions. However, it is not clear how OFWs who are already abroad could be compelled to pay for PhilHealth, which has no offices in any government post abroad.

Pelaez said that in the same way that the Duterte government had issued a “kill, kill, kill” order against mere drug suspects and human rights defenders, it is now killing families of OFWs through various state exactions.

She also decried that instead of setting aside funds to back up his promise of universal health care for Filipinos, President Rodrigo Duterte merely passed on the financial burden to OFWs.

“The solution of Philippine government to the long clamor of Filipinos for accessible health care and to stop the exodus of Filipino medical practitioners is to intensify government exaction from OFWs instead of allocating sustainable budget for health services and curbing corruption in the government,” she said.

Unifil is a founder of the Rise Against State Exactions (Rage) coalition in Hong Kong, which has been waging a strident campaign against various compulsory fees collected from OFWs, including for SSS, OWWA, mandatory insurance, and PhilHealth.

The group has vowed to continue fighting for what it calls as unjust and inhumane government exactions on OFWs.