We've decided to fire our helper as soon as we can find a good one to replace her. ours is simply no good with kids. Any advice on how to go about doing this would be welcomed. Is there anything I need to know? What notice should i give, termination payment etc? thanks.
Firing a helper
- Thread starter aussiegal
- Start date
Best advice is, don't tell her until the day has come. Also make sure she doesn't find out.
If you fire her on the spot, then you have to pay her one month salary plus a single ticket back to her home country. No further notice has to be given. All you have to do is to inform immigration within seven days after you have fired her. Be sure you have a receipt signed by her about all the money you have paid her when she leaves.
Depending on how much you trust her, ask her to pack in front of you to make sure she doesn't pack anything that doesn't belong to her.
If you trust her well, you can fire her with one month notice. Then you simply pay her the ticket and her regular salary on her last day.
You might want to be careful with the one month notice, as she won't work properly anymore.
Good luck!
If you fire her on the spot, then you have to pay her one month salary plus a single ticket back to her home country. No further notice has to be given. All you have to do is to inform immigration within seven days after you have fired her. Be sure you have a receipt signed by her about all the money you have paid her when she leaves.
Depending on how much you trust her, ask her to pack in front of you to make sure she doesn't pack anything that doesn't belong to her.
If you trust her well, you can fire her with one month notice. Then you simply pay her the ticket and her regular salary on her last day.
You might want to be careful with the one month notice, as she won't work properly anymore.
Good luck!
On top of what TripTrap mentioned, I think you have to also pay her HK$100 (for food or transportation I can't remember, but it should be stated in the green contract I think), and also calculate how many days worth of remaining holiday for which you have to pay her as well. Something like that, again, check the green contract, should be there. As for the air-tic, you can just pay her in cash, although some people prefer to buy them a ticket. It's entirely up to you, not her. But I would think paying her in cash is a lot easier. She would probably want you to write a release letter or termination letter (so that she can go out and find another job). Just keep it simple and list out all the payment, then you sign and she signs as ackowledgement. After that, you fax that over to the immigration department, and that's more or less there is to the whole thing.
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Twinsmammie
Registered User
I am going through the same - I will terminate the current maid with immediate effect once I know when my new maid arrives. The paperwork for my new maid is being processed and it should take about 2.5 months before her arrival. You need to consider the remainder of the levy whether to transfer to the new maid or forfeit. My agent told me my maid has to be terminated before the next instalment due date.
The levy can easily be transferred to the next helper. Once your new helper gets the documents approved you can state on a document from immigration whether you want to have it transferred. You then have to only top up the missing amount to pay.
Termination letter is necessary as it has to be sent to immigration. Recommendation letter is not mandatory but if she was good but just didn't match your standards, it might help her to find another employer.
Sorry about the holidays. Oc course you have to pay her the pro rata amount as well. Two weeks for two years unless she has already taken some of them.
Cash settlement for the air ticket is usually easier, as she can sign-up with a new employer without going back to her home country.
Termination letter is necessary as it has to be sent to immigration. Recommendation letter is not mandatory but if she was good but just didn't match your standards, it might help her to find another employer.
Sorry about the holidays. Oc course you have to pay her the pro rata amount as well. Two weeks for two years unless she has already taken some of them.
Cash settlement for the air ticket is usually easier, as she can sign-up with a new employer without going back to her home country.
thanks for all your replies. Will she have only two weeks to find a replacement family before being forced back to the Phillipines? As Triptrap said she was pretty good just not up to our standards. With a newborn in the house and a 16 month old we need someone who is really good with children. She has no real family in the Phillipines so i know she would be keen to stay on here and not have to go back. Her sisters work here in Hong Kong.
She has 14 days from the day you fire her. If she can't find another employer within that time, she has to go back to the PH and try to find a new employer from there.
If she's good, she might find a new employer rather quick and just go quickly out of HK to get her new visa stamped.
If she's good, she might find a new employer rather quick and just go quickly out of HK to get her new visa stamped.
Yeah, it will be up to her how she manages her time within that 14 days. Some will go all over HK, registering with lots of agencies, some will just sit around waiting for her luck. This is something she has to sort out herself. But the thing is, even if she can't find a job within the 14 days period, she can still continue looking for jobs when she is back in the Philippines. If you are really nice, one thing you can help is to allow her future potential employers to telephone/email you for reference. That, I think will help her a great deal.
Twinsmammie
Registered User
Sorry to steal your thread, Aussiegal.
Triptrap - Seems like you have experienced in terminating a dh. This is my first time and I am confused about the levy as I was told by my agent that the levy can only be transferred if my current maid is terminated before the visa for the new maid is approved. As I understand when the visa is issued, I have to pay the levy for the new maid. So how do I carry over the remainder of the levy to the new maid if my current maid is still working for us?
Triptrap - Seems like you have experienced in terminating a dh. This is my first time and I am confused about the levy as I was told by my agent that the levy can only be transferred if my current maid is terminated before the visa for the new maid is approved. As I understand when the visa is issued, I have to pay the levy for the new maid. So how do I carry over the remainder of the levy to the new maid if my current maid is still working for us?
Hi Aussiegal
We have a wonderful helper who loves our son. This is evidenced from how our son has reacted with her. And, I have gotten good reviews from our son's teachers at playschool and music school.
But I am not a stay at home mum and because her English is not good enough to do a lot of marketing/cooking on her own, we simply have to find her a better home as it's too tiring for me to commit to training her in the ways of a Western home. She needs an employee who is a Stay At Home Mum (if she is an English speaking expat) to guide her as her work experience has been for a Cantonese family. She is trainable in the Western way of doing things but I simply don't have the time which is a pity.
If you are interested, please PM me. We have told her the situation of how it is difficult for us with her inability to pick up our "accent" & pronunciation and have asked her to start looking on her own too for a prospective employer. We've done this because she has a family to provide for at home and we didn't want her not to find another job. And we will write her a release letter instead so that she can "transfer" to another employer. She has not stopped doing a good job with our son as according to her, it would be "Unchristian" of her. In our case, it's worked out well as she is a good person.
So, that is something you can consider doing too as it's hard for them to find a job (sometimes).
We have a wonderful helper who loves our son. This is evidenced from how our son has reacted with her. And, I have gotten good reviews from our son's teachers at playschool and music school.
But I am not a stay at home mum and because her English is not good enough to do a lot of marketing/cooking on her own, we simply have to find her a better home as it's too tiring for me to commit to training her in the ways of a Western home. She needs an employee who is a Stay At Home Mum (if she is an English speaking expat) to guide her as her work experience has been for a Cantonese family. She is trainable in the Western way of doing things but I simply don't have the time which is a pity.
If you are interested, please PM me. We have told her the situation of how it is difficult for us with her inability to pick up our "accent" & pronunciation and have asked her to start looking on her own too for a prospective employer. We've done this because she has a family to provide for at home and we didn't want her not to find another job. And we will write her a release letter instead so that she can "transfer" to another employer. She has not stopped doing a good job with our son as according to her, it would be "Unchristian" of her. In our case, it's worked out well as she is a good person.
So, that is something you can consider doing too as it's hard for them to find a job (sometimes).
rani
Administrator
My parents just hired a new helper. Their current helper wanted to go home a couple months before her contract ended. Immigration didn't let them transfer the remaining levy either as the helper was not terminated until the replacement arrived in HK.
We have done all the paperwork for our helper, she was let go, we hired her before her 14 days were up, she still needed to go back to the philippines and after processing of all the paperwork by the hong kong immigration and the philippine authorities it will be 6 weeks at the soonest that she can be back. Not sure if your helper to be can just go through immigration to get her visa stamped, is it different for diff situations?
rani
Administrator
Don't all terminated helpers have to go home, unless they've been let go for financial reasons or if their employers are leaving HK?
Becs, our helper actually left her previous employer so her sister could enter Hong Kong and take her job leaving her with 14 days to find a new employer. We told immigration that we needed her to start asap (I was pregnant and had a 13 month old son at the time) so she wasn't obliged to return home, she just had to wait two weeks for her new papers to be approved before starting with us. As Mailmail says, they just have to go back home within the year.