Helper's dayoff during easter holiday

[annahk]

I have the luxury of not working and therefore, in the 9 months that our DH has been working for us, she has had 3 trips home - amounting to 9 weeks in total. These suited us (mostly during our holidays) and gave her an opportunity to spend time with her children, including Christmas, graduation etc. I therefore totally agree that helpers are entitled to time off.

However, this does not make me a better mother, person or employer. I have also benefitted, as I like to have time with my family without a DH around. Friends of mine do not have this luxury because they work. They are not lazy parents and they are not bad employers, they just have nobody else to collect their children from school etc. One of them has just had to take most of her annual leave to facilitate her helper's trip back for graduation.

Aussiegal makes a valid point; when someone is simply asking what the legal requirements are, they should not be risking a barrage of accusations about their parenting skills etc. They are just asking for basic information (like the very helpful web link that was posted). Surely forums such as this are here for us to provide one another with support?

 

[HappyV]

Get off your high horse, aussiegal. I said cases like 'these' - not yours: I was responding to defend of a pretty inoculous remark made previously. If you were living back in australia with your staff, you certainly wouldn't have access to full time help - unless you're in an income bracket beying my apprehension. What would you do then, if your work demanded longer hours? Child care centres generally close 6pm/7pm. So we have it pretty easy here in terms of one person who will not only look after the kids, but also cook, clean the toilet and do our laundry.

Of course it's hard to work strange hours- but my work also means long evenings, often working through public holidays. I also have a young child, and an often life-threatening medical condition. It should be pretty clear from my post that my comment didn't apply to you personally unless you're one of these people who work their maids hard for no other reson than you can.

EVERY time there's series of public holidays which are not all statuatory holidays, someone gets on here saying "But I don't HAVE to, do I?". So many helper's in this communty get treated like crap - I think it's really important to have an extreme voice out there to back them up. The miad next door gets no food and no food allowance, and has a Sunday 8pm curfew, or she gets fined. A relative of my helper just left her employment because the employer refused to pay her while the family as on holiday for a month, and has refused to allow the helper to stay in their flat while they were away - she had to camp out with friends. A woman I know just fired her helper 'because I didn't like the products she used to clean the bathroom, and she smelt funny'. Another helper just turned up at our door with bruises on her face - she won;t go to the police because she cannot afford to not be working, and the law in HK is just plain insane when it comes to prosecuting employers. Holidays are in some ways the least of their worries, but I find (in my experience)they are generally indicative of how a person perceives their role as an employer: those who give holidays fairly (and perhaps, even generously) are those who treat their helpers well in other regards.

If you don't treat your maid well, then you know who you are, and my coments apply to you. If you treat her well - congratulations: you're swimming against the flow.

These women leave their whole lives and come ere and work really damn hard - and they need to be congratulated and nurtured- and given holiday you can give them.

 

[aussiegal]

Happyv,
you're still missing the point. If you want to have a go at people (us hirers of domestics) who essentially keep whole other economies going (i.e. the Phillipines) just set up a separate thread. My point and Mum of two's point is none of us commented on this post looking to be abused and no body made any comments that warranted it. Not one comment suggests to me that any of the ladies commenting treat their workers badly.

In any case, keep in mind that we are employers and they are our employees so if anyone out there only wanted to give their helper the Thursday off it doesn't automatically make them a bad person. My husband's employer doesn't ever tell him to take non-stipulated holidays off. What's the difference? (and yes, he works very, very long hours so it is comparable.)

I'm not saying, there aren't mean and unscrupulous employers out there, we've all heard the horror stories, but was it necessary to take the stance you did? You knew you would be flamed so why bother?

 

[shri]

I think the original posters question has been answered.

I am struggling to see how a question about "easter holidays" deteriorated into a discussion about ethics and morals.