Days off this weekend

S

SS@HK

Registered User
Are the coming Friday(Good Friday), Saturday (Day following Good Friday) and Monday (Easter Monday) days off for helpers?
I checked these days are not mentioned in the list of statutory holidays but my helper mentioned a couple of days back that these are 'red days' in the calendar. I think she is talking about the general holidays for 2008.
She is our first helper...so would be great to know what is the norm and is everyone giving these days off to their helpers?
 
Helpers are only entitled to statutory holidays and not general holidays. its up to you if you'd like to give her the extra days off. most helpers like to go to Easter mass or if there is a party etc. our helper just lets us know a couple of advance if she has anything planned.

12 statutory holidays in 2008

the first day of January;
Lunar New Year's Day;
the second day of Lunar New Year;
the third day of Lunar New Year;
Ching Ming Festival; April 4, 2008
the first day of May;
Tuen Ng Festival; June 9, 2008
the day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival; Sept 15, 2008
Chung Yeung Festival; Oct 7, 2008
Chinese Winter Solstice Festival or Christmas Day (at the option of the employer);
the first day of July; and
the first day of October.

http://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/faq/cap57f_whole.htm#q1
 
DH don't get those days off as they are not statutory holidays but general holidays. It's entirely upto you whether you want to give those days off.
 
These questions come up every year - the question of is a public/statuatory holiday. I've never understood why helpers aren't entitled to the same public holidays as the general public.

We've always taken the stance that if there are a run of public holidays when neither my husband or I are working, then we're happy to give our DH a couple of 'extra' days off.

Given that many helpers are churchgoers - try to consider giving some 'church' time, even if you can't give them a whole day off. It's worth a lot in goodwill in the relationship.
 
We don't differentiate between public/statutory holidays...if it's a public holiday our helper has the day off.

I think it's a little unfair that helpers aren't entitled to the same public holidays as the rest of us.

Espec. Easter, which is to Christians (and most fillipinos are practicing christians) the most important holiday in the year.
 
The statutory leave entitlement for Hong Kong employees is about 7 days and most employers give much better leave than that!

Helpers are employees too and an extra day here and there NOT dictated by law is a nice gesture especially if they're doing good jobs for us.
 
there's a history for stats holiday & general holidays:

- stats holiday are called labour holiday in cantonese. so they're made for labors, who worked as factory workers, construction workers, shops, markets. in the old days, most ppl in hk worked at factories.

-general holidays used to be called bank holidays.

generally, offices & the govt follow bank holidays because a lot of their work involved the bank. whereas, the factories have to provide for the other things:shops, markets, constructions, etc so they need to work 6 full days a week (instead of 5.5 days a week like the banks)

while the labor seem to have less holidays (very unfair!), but they get 15 days of holiday every year at chinese new year, when the factory labors go back home, and all the factories closed (which was mainland china). that's why in the old days, nothing opened during the first 3 days of CNY, and a lot of shops were closed until the 7th day or the 15th day of CNY. cos most of them had to "faan heung ha" (went back to their origin homes)

with the overseas DH, it got very complicated cos they originally were hired as "workers" (labour).
 
also, this mght clarify it a bit more:

banks, office, govt offices - white collar
factory workers, construction workers, domestic helpers - blue collar

that's how we were taught when we were at school in hk. (this doens't mean i agree with the system or not. i'm just stating what i know)
 
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