Little holiday cheer for Indonesian workers in HK

By Sari Sartika Natley

HONG KONG (JP): In late December, Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok Airport was mobbed by Filipino domestic workers. They dragged luggage full of gifts and presents for their families.

They were going home for Christmas.

It was not the same for their Indonesian counterparts a couple of weeks later. This year, like in the past, Lebaran was a low- key event in Hong Kong. Idul Fitri is not a public holiday and its celebration is virtually unknown in this Confucian society.

The only Lebaran rite for these overseas Indonesians was the Shalat Ied prayer on the morning of Jan. 19, held by the Indonesian Consulate General. They returned home later, not to their beloved families and relatives, but to cook, clean and do other household chores. It was business as usual.

Many domestic helpers chose to celebrate on the Sunday after Idul Fitri. Victoria Park, a favorite hangout for Indonesian domestic workers, was more crowded than usual on Jan. 24. About 4,000 young women turned out to picnic, exchange photos and gossip. Friends greeted each other with the traditional Minal aidzin wal faizin (I beg your forgiveness if I erred in the past).

In the middle of the field, a dozen migrant workers chose not to forget the traditional way of marking Lebaran. They donned headscarves, read the Koran and recited prayers.

Aside from this small group, most of the people in the park seemed to be oblivious to the religious aspects of Idul Fitri. Many women danced the afternoon away with dangdut or techno music.

Indeed, the true meaning of the festivities had been lost since Ramadhan.

"I didn't even fast," Tumini, 35, admitted. "My boss was afraid I would have fallen sick if I had not eaten."

Some could not hide their homesickness. Rani (not her real name) said: "I cried when I called home and heard my family breaking the fast."

Being a good mother, Tumini usually sends money to her two children in East Java. But she said she did not send anything more for Lebaran. Living in Hong Kong was expensive enough for her, and her wage barely covers her expenses.

Nevertheless, every two months she manages to send HK$3000 (Rp 3.6 million) home. That is her one month wage, which is below the stipulated minimum of HK$3,860 (Rp 4.6 million rupiah).

In early 1997, when The Jakarta Post published a story on Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong, low wages were a rampant problem for them. Two years later, things have not changed much. Bien Venido, the organizing and education coordinator of the Asian Migrant Center, said: "According to statistics, Indonesians have the most cases of underpayment, while they are the second biggest."

Today the migrant workers are facing more problems and uncertainties. Once an economic miracle and business haven, Hong Kong is set to endure a tough year. Many companies have cut salaries and slashed their workforce. Unemployment has reached 5.8 percent, the highest since the government began tracking the figures in 1983.

Amid the economic gloom, local politician Jennifer Chow Kit- bing proposed last September a 20 percent cut in domestic helpers' minimum wage.

It caused an uproar among the domestic helpers, most notably from the better organized Filipinos. Their unions arranged several rallies to oppose wage cuts.

The education and manpower department is still reviewing the fate of the minimum wage, either to cut or freeze it. In reality, however, employers have already started to cut wages, especially for Indonesian maids.

"Employers will think twice about giving full minimum wages," said Tumini. Rani agreed. She said the most affected ones were the newcomers and those renewing contracts.

At the end of 1998, there were about 31,800 Indonesians working as domestic helpers in Hong Kong, a 30 percent increase from 1997 (see table below).

Filipinos, who constitute the biggest domestic helpers' workforce, only experienced a 1.7 percent increase, from 138,100 in December 1997 to 140,400 in 1998.

"Indonesians are the fastest growing (group)," Venido acknowledged. Unfortunately, they are also the weakest and the least protected of all.

Few of them receive the standard minimum wage. Some even receive as little as HK$1,800 (Rp 2.2 million) or HK$2,000 (Rp 2.4 million rupiah). Although these amounts are much higher than comparable monthly wages in Indonesia, ranging from Rp 100,000 to Rp 200,000, cost of living in Hong Kong is considerably higher.

Recently, the Hong Kong government cracked down on seven recruitment agencies suspected of violating the law. They were accused of charging exorbitant fees to Indonesian maids and offering them to employers at nearly half of the legal minimum wage. Thirty-nine people were questioned.

However, the crackdown is still far from solving the problem of abuses. The reason why Indonesians are, and have always been, mistreated, workers and activists allege, is collusion between the consulate general and the agencies. To renew contracts, for example, the workers need to present the consulate general's stamp to Hong Kong's immigration department.

To obtain the consulate's stamp, strangely enough, the workers need to get their employment agency's stamp, even though workers from the Philippines, Thailand and Sri Lanka do not face the same requirement.

On top of this bureaucratic tape, the workers have to pay the agencies HK$8,000, and their employers have to fork out HK$5,000.

These are not the only costs the domestic workers have to dig from their pockets. Agencies usually hold domestic workers' passports, a practice illegal under Hong Kong law but apparently given the blessing of the Indonesian Consulate General.

If the workers need to "borrow" their passports, they must pay HK$300. To claim their passports back, the "settlement fee" is HK$3,000.

In the recent crackdown on recruitment agencies, the immigration department also confiscated 2,909 Indonesian passports. They will be returned to the owners.

It was a few days before Lebaran when several domestic workers heard about the news. They cheered, laughed and nodded their heads happily. It was an early, or perhaps the only, gift amid this pessimistic festive season.