HK scraps HK$9,600 training levy for foreign maids - DOLE


By: InterAksyon.com

Filipino domestic helpers gather in this public place in Hong Kong during their day-off. AFP FILE PHOTO

InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA – The Hong Kong government has abolished the controversial Employees Retraining Levy effectively after the suspended fee charged against Hong Kong employers expires July 2013, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said Monday, welcoming the good news from Philippine Labor Attache to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Manuel C. Roldan.

"This is, indeed, welcome to us for it will be beneficial to our household service workers in the Chinese territory," said Baldoz in a news release.

In his report, Roldan said "The retraining levy was actually intended to support the training of Hong Kong nationals, not of foreign domestic workers, hence, it does not have any effect on our OFWs, but the amount could have affected the financial capability of employers to employ foreign household service workers.”

Philippine government figures show that some 174,000 Filipinos, mostly working temporarily as maids, reside in the former British colony.

Five years ago, the Hong Kong government charged Hong Kong employers of foreign domestic helpers the amount of HK$9,600 (P50,239) as a so-called Employees Retraining Levy for every two-year contract of a foreign domestic helper. Employers can pay the levy in four equal installments.

Employers of foreign household service workers vigorously protested the levy until the Hong Kong government suspended its implementation for five years. The suspension will expire on July 2013.

Roldan said that Hong Kong Chief Executive Cy Leung has announced the abolition of the levy paid by employers of foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong during the his 2013 Policy Address entitled, “Seek Change, Maintain Stability, Serve the People with Pragmatism.” 

"The chief executive said that to ease the burden on families employing foreign domestic helpers, I have decided to abolish the levy when the suspension of its collection expires on 31 July 2013," he said.

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