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| The revised Code will have anti-job hopping provisions |
A revised Code
of Practice (CoP) for employment agencies that will incorporate provisions
related to the so-called job hopping practice of some foreign domestic helpers
will come into force by April this year.
This was according
to Labour Secretary Chris Sun who spoke at the Legislative Council meeting
yesterday, Feb. 28 in response to queries from legislator Doreen Kong of the Election Committee constituency.
“After
concluding the consultation exercise on the preliminary proposals for revising
the Code of Practice for Employment Agencies (CoP) in the first half of 2023,
the LD has analysed and examined the feedback received,” he said.
“Currently, the
LD is finalising the revised content of the CoP taking into account the
suggestions and concerns raised by different stakeholders, as well as
formulating the mechanism for enforcing the revised CoP. The LD will promulgate
the revised CoP in the second quarter of this year."
Sun said that
the new rules will require EAs to request employers and FDHs to acknowledge in
writing that they have been briefed on the standard employment contract for
FDHs and the Labour Ordinance.
Agencies must
also explain to FDHs the requirements for changing employers, and get them to
sign a written acknowledgment that this has been done.
However, audio
or video recordings of EAs making such explanations will not be required,
contrary to proposals made by some employers and legislators.
The revised CoPs
will also expressly prohibit EAs from providing incentives to FDHs to entice
them to switch employers. Violators may be meted sanctions.
But Secretary Sun
declined to give in to suggestions that employers be exempted from providing a
return air ticket to FDHs who terminate their employment contracts.
Kong has
suggested that Labor strengthen its cooperation with source countries for FDHs
so that “immoral EAs and FDHs” cannot obtain by deception agency fees and
contract benefits such as free return air tickets.
Sun said that employers are obliged to provide their FDH with free return passage to his/her place of origin
upon termination or expiry of the contract, to ensure the FDH’s smooth return
to their place of origin and prevent them being stranded in HK due to a lack of
travel expenses.
As for the
agency fees, the revised CoP will require EAs to specify in a written agreement
with employers, whether they will provide a refund or an alternative
arrangement to replace FDHs who terminate their contracts. A sample service
agreement with this clause will be appended to the CoP, but it will not make
refund arrangements mandatory.
According to
Kong, job-hopping or the premature termination of contracts to change employers
has not abated, despite the short supply of FDHs in Hong Kong.
But Sun denied
this, saying that there has been an 80 percent decline in the number of visa
applications from FDHs that were rejected due to suspected “job-hopping” over the past two years.
In 2023, the
number of visa rejections fell to 502 from the 2,833 recording during the
pandemic in 2021.
Migrant support
organizations like the Mission for Migrant Workers and the Asian Migrants
Coordinating Body have called the job-hopping allegations a “myth,” saying FDHs
will not give up on a whim jobs they had spent money on, or if their employers
have been good to them.
Besides, they
said all FDHs are aware that if they terminate their contract they will be sent
back home within 14 days, and if they want to work in Hong Kong again they will
have to apply for a new contract from their home country, at great cost.
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