Hong Kong mulls hiring more female workers
Hong Kong's labour ministry has shown interest in hiring more female workers from Bangladesh, opening doors towards a prospective market expansion.
About 700-750 Bangladeshi woman migrant workers are currently employed in Hong Kong as female domestic helpers (FDHs). However, new workers need to have skill and language training in Cantonese, among other qualifications, to migrate as FDH, said Bangladesh Consulate General officials in Hong Kong.
According to a Facebook post of the consulate, Hong Kong labour and welfare ministry, headed by its secretary Chris Sun Yuk-han, held a meeting with the Bangladesh mission officials on August 8 to discuss possible ways of expanding the country's labour market in Hong Kong.
Consul General Israt Ara, who headed the Bangladesh side at the meeting, said the meeting was held as the Hong Kong counterparts wanted to know ways of recruiting more FDHs from Bangladesh.
The meeting was held after Indonesian Manpower Placement Agency Association said it would enforce rules introduced by Jakarta in 2020 and last year, stating that employers had to foot the administrative bill when they hired new helpers, according to South China Morning Post.
However, details on whether local employers would have to pay the full HK$20,000 (US$2,558) remained unclear as of August 11, SCMP said in the report.
The Indonesian consulate and Hong Kong's Labour Department said existing policies would be unchanged, the report added.
The Philippines and Indonesia are the two top source countries of FDHs in Hong Kong, as per SCMP reports.
As per the Bangladesh mission, Hong Kong is a specialised market for FDHs as the working conditions there are better than the ones which have employed female workers from the country.
The minimum wage for an FDH is HKD 4,730 (about Tk 65,939) per month, effective from October last year.
A Bangladeshi female migrant worker in Saudi Arabia earns Tk 17,300 per month on average, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' "Cost of Migration Survey-2020".
The first batch of FDH from Bangladesh to Hong Kong was recruited in May, 2013, according to the Bangladesh mission.
Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training data shows, 2,005 female migrants went to Hong Kong for employment between 1993 and June 2023.
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