Filipinos in HK told to learn Cantonese

Filipinos in HK told to learn Cantonese

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Hong Kong

Filipino maids in Hong Kong have been told to learn Cantonese or
lose out on jobs to Indonesians, a news report said on Tuesday.

The number of Indonesian maids working in Hong Kong has grown
by 25 percent to nearly 86,000 over the past 30 months while the
number of Filipinos has fallen by 21 percent to 122,000.

Philippines labor attache Bernardino Julve told the South
China Morning Post part of the reason was because Indonesian
maids were better trained and spoke Cantonese before arriving in
Hong Kong.

Indonesian maids receive three to six months live-in training
and are taught Cantonese while Filipinos are trained for between
one and 14 days and do not learn the Chinese dialect.

"That is why Indonesians are preferred over Filipinos," Julve
told the newspaper. "Cantonese is not part of the training back
home and their training period is so short."

Julve is seeking ways to stop the decline in the hiring of
Filipino maids and appealed to his nationals to put more effort
into learning Cantonese before coming to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong employers are also believed to favor Indonesians
because they are less likely to complain about their conditions
and are often prepared to work for less than the minimum wage.

Filipino maids have become increasingly willing to stand up
for their rights in recent years and a number have sued employers
over working conditions and assaults at work.

More than 200,000 women from the Philippines, Indonesia and
Thailand work as live-in maids for Hong Kong families for a
government-set minimum wage of US$420 a month.