Hong Kong residents must pay thousands of dollars more to hire a domestic worker from Indonesia as Jakarta plans to enforce revised rules on recruitment, according to agencies from the country.
The Indonesian agencies, which met Hong Kong labour officials on Wednesday, warned that employers who failed to follow the regulations would not have their applications processed.
Filius Yandono, secretary general of Indonesian recruitment association Aspataki, also noted that only some experienced workers knew about the update that took effect last year, while many employers and agencies from the city were unaware.
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“We believe there is still confusion after the implementation,” Yandono said.
The changes require helpers to pay only for the cost of undergoing training, while employers have to shoulder the full recruitment cost of up to HK$20,000 – several thousand dollars more than at present, depending on the agency.
Workers earlier had to pay a placement fee, which has been scrapped by the country’s authorities in a bid to reduce indebtedness among helpers.
The rules governing fees have been revised twice, in 2020 and last year, but very few Hong Kong agencies are complying, according to their Indonesian counterparts.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo stressed the importance of protecting his country’s citizens in Hong Kong when the city’s Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu visited the country last month.
The Indonesian government said the pair discussed the protection and welfare of the 140,000 Indonesians, mostly migrant workers, in Hong Kong, with Lee quoted as saying the city was grateful for their contribution to the economy.
A source told the Post that the Head of the National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers was expected to visit Hong Kong on August 8 to discuss his country’s commitment to implementing the new fee system.
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The Indonesian consulate in Hong Kong on Wednesday said the revised rules were aimed at better protecting workers.
“Any amendments to such laws and regulations will surely take into consideration every related aspect of the placement and protection of the Indonesian FDH [foreign domestic helpers], as well as the best interests of all stakeholders,” a consulate spokesman said.
The Labour Department said authorities had been in frequent contact with the consulate since the revised rules were implemented, adding the changes were publicised on its website.
Authorities had also told the consulate that, to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship, any policy change should not lead to a significant rise in recruitment fees for employers or affect the job opportunities of helpers coming to work in the city.
Saiful Mashud, chairman of Aspataki, warned that applications would not move forward if requirements were not met.
He said the regulations were intended to ease the financial burden of the workers, as previously most of them had to pay the placement fee to an agency and risked falling into debt.
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Yandono said there was no penalty for non-compliance, but Indonesian authorities had the right to stop sending domestic workers to the city.
Mclean Ng, vice-chairman of the Indonesian Workers Agency Association for Hong Kong and Macau, said city agencies had “tried very hard to stop the regulations”, as some elderly employers could not afford the added expense.
Ng suggested employers might opt for workers from the Philippines as they were significantly cheaper to recruit. He added that Indonesian domestic helpers could report to the Labour Department or the consulate if they were overcharged fees.
There are about 338,000 foreign domestic helpers in the city, with Filipinos accounting for more than 190,000 in 2022, Immigration Department’s statistics showed.
More from South China Morning Post:
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