By Daisy CL Mandap
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| Grace's mattress on the floor is squeezed between the toilet bowl and a wall |
A Filipina domestic worker who sought help after being told to sleep in a toilet, has left her employers’ home in Happy Valley,
and is now pursuing a claim for more than $22,000 from them.
Grace, 32, told The SUN she was forced to call the police on
Oct 15, after being told by her employers that she would be put on a flight
back to the Philippines early the next day when she refused to withdraw the one-month notice she
gave them five days earlier.
By then, the Hong Kong
newbie who left behind a husband and two teenage sons in La Pinas City, had
been with her employers for just over a month.
“Natakot ako kasi baka
ano ang mangyari sa akin kapag sumama ako sa airport. Kung ano-ano ang pumasok
sa isip ko kasi ang amo kong lalaki lang daw ang maghahatid sa akin” Grace
said.
(I got scared thinking of what might happen to me if I
agreed to go to the airport. A lot of things went through my mind after I was
told that only my male employer would take me there).
On the pretext that she was packing her things, Grace said
she secretly hid her telephone in a drawer and called 999 from there.
Five police officers responded to her call, and two checked
out the toilet where Grace was made to sleep in.
“Pumunta sila sa CR
(comfort room), tapos yung isa ang sabi, ‘You eat here?’ ‘You sleep
here?’,” said Grace.
When she replied in the affirmative, the officer reportedly
could not help but respond with a shocked “Huh?”.
At first, her employers were reportedly hesitant to allow
the police to come into their house. But left with no choice but to comply, the
couple lay all of the helper’s things on their dining table, including her
underwear, as they inspected each item.
In an apparent attempt to further shame her, Grace said she was thoroughly frisked before she was
finally allowed to leave, which took all of one hour.
After being escorted out by the police, Grace was picked up
by volunteers from the Mission
for Migrant Workers, which has given her shelter and is now helping her with her labor case.
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During the day, a stool was turned into a table where Grace ate her meals
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The Mission
and an online group, Domestic Workers’ Corner, were the first to be told of
Grace’s plight. Her husband reportedly got in touch directly with the Mission, while a friend
linked her up with DWC, and subsequently, The SUN.
Hearing her story, all the support groups advised Grace that
she could leave her employment on the spot without having to worry about paying
anything, as her employer was the one who violated their contract by making her
sleep and eat in the toilet.
But as that would have entailed calling the police which she dreaded, Grace chose to just serve a month’s notice on Oct 10.
Grace, who started working with her employer’s family on
Sept. 4, said she immediately protested when she saw the tiny room where she
was supposed to sleep, rest, do the laundry, iron clothes – and eat and
defecate.
The room was so tiny and narrow that when she lay down her
mattress at night, Grace ended up sleeping with her legs folded, and her face
right smack beside the toilet bowl.
She was also forced to eat inside the toilet, saying her employers stared at her the first time they gave her food, until she was forced to retire there.
What made her feel worse was that there was a third room in the flat which the
family used as a study room and was unoccupied at night. Grace said she would
have been more than glad to sleep in that spare room, even if only on the
floor, for a few hours each night.
When she complained to her agency representative called
William, she was told to be patient and not demand too much because she was
just new in the job. The agent also advised her to stay put for at least six
months, warning her that she would have difficulty finding another employer otherwise.
Conflicted, Grace followed the advice of a friend and told
her employers about her concern, but they reportedly told her they couldn’t
give her more than what she already had.
The couple even told her that she should be grateful because
other helpers were made to sleep in worse places like kitchen floors and
cabinets.
Left with no choice, Grace decided to terminate her contract.
Suddenly, she said her employers became very good to her, giving her more nutritious food, gifting her with a hair dryer, and even offering to let her sleep in their prized study room.
Her female employer also became lavish with her praises, reportedly telling Grace such things as, “I like your work, I like the way you clean our house.”
“Parang biglang bumaliktad ang sitwasyon,” said Grace. (They became the exact opposite of what they used to be)
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Her employers told Grace she should be thankful she was given her own room
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But Grace couldn’t be moved.
“Kasi mahirap na
silang pagtiwalaan. Kung hindi pa ako nagbigay ng notice, hindi sila magbabait,”
she said. (I couldn’t trust them anymore. They became good to me only
after I served my one month’s notice).
Now, all she wants is to move on, and maybe ask the
Philippine Consulate to ban her employers from hiring another Filipina so
nobody would suffer the same sorry fate that she had.
That wish may soon be realized, as Consul General Raly Tejada has expressed an interest in seeing her after learning about her case.
Hong Kong legislator Fernando Cheung is taking the step further, saying he wants to help Grace pursue a labor case against her employer.
What she learned from her experience, says Grace, is that one shouldn't be afraid of reaching out for help, and to stand up for your rights when the situation calls for it.
