hiring a domestic helper

W

wandasmart

New member
hi,

i found a domestic helper that i like through an agency, but she called me up to say the agency is charging the equivalent of 2 months wages... about $7,000. my friend who hired her dh from the same agency only paid $550. when i called the agent, she said that because my helper hadn't finished her previous contract, instead she had wanted to terminate her contract due to differences with her former employer thus the higher fee. i can't really understand why?

does this not seem a little excessive for a helper to pay, as i can understand she cannot afford this money.

help!
 
it's illegal for an agency to charge a helper more than 10% of their monthly wage. that said, a lot of them charge more...
we paid $2200 for agency fees (incl. visa, consulate fee, dr cert, etc) when my helper went to collect her visa, the agency refused to reimburse her for the visa. she told me and i called the agency and demanded they refund the money to her as i had paid the visa fee in the agency fees. my helper also told me that they charged her $500 when the maximum should have been $327 (now it would be $333). the agency told me that they would refund it to her but when she got there, they refused. i asked my helper if she'd like me to take the case further and she said no. so we left it.

moral of the story...
beware of agencies!!!
 
carang,

if they havn't even begun the process of the visa application (its been 2-3 weeks now), can i demand a refund of my monies paid? i mean they havn't fulfilled their obligation of the contract. the thing, is that it was the maid who told us of this, and the agency is mad at her for doing so. in my opinion, if she hadn't have told us, we would be sitting here not knowing that there is a problem. when would the agency have told us? when its too late and my due date has gone?

also wot is the legalities of me just hiring this maid directly or thru another agency which would only charge her 10% of the first months salary?

also where do you find that it is against the law, for the agency to charge anything more then 10%? is there a link that we may find this info?

Thanks!
 
what if you were to tell the agency you don't want to hire her, so you get your money refunded. then have her quit her job. then hire her on your own either with another agency's help to sort the papers or directly (i'm told its not too hard). also, does she have some kind of contract with this agent saying if she transfers/quits before contract term, she must pay this ridiculous sum? i can't imagine. if you have a friend who has a helper who's beena round here for a while, you might ask them whats best to do because in my experience these ladies know FAR more than we do.
 
i just went to the gov't website for the labour dept. first thing i saw was this....

Seminar for Employers of Foreign Domestic Helpers

There are about 200 thousands Hong Kong families employing Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDH). To enhance FDH employers' understanding of relevant legislations and to provide them with useful information on employment of FDH, a Seminar organized by the Task Force on Foreign Domestic Helpers Matters will be held on 16 July 2005.

Objectives of the Seminar

* To remind FDH employers of relevant legislative provisions including the Employment Ordinance and the Immigration Ordinance
* To provide FDH employers with practical information for example, to explain the important points that employers should note with regard to monitoring of activities of FDH working at home.

Target participants: FDH employers or potential FDH employers and their family members (Adults only)
Date: 16 July 2005 (Saturday)
Time: 2:15 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Venue: Auditorium, 1/F Christian Family Service Centre, 3 Tsui Ping Road, Kwun Tong, Kowloon.
Enquiry Tel. No.: 2867 5876
The seminar will be conducted in Cantonese

i know... in cantonese...argh!

after a little more searching, i came up with this....

Employment Agency Regulations

The Employment Agency Regulations made under the Employment Ordinance regulate the operation of employment agencies in Hong Kong. The major provisions of the Regulations are:

* Every employment agency is required to apply for a licence from the Labour Department before undertaking any job placement business.
* An application for the issue of a licence must be made to the Commissioner for Labour in the prescribed form at least one month before the commencement of business.
* A licence is valid for 12 months from the date of issue and application for renewal has to be made not later than two months before its expiry.
* The maximum commission which may be received by an employment agency from a job-seeker should not exceed 10% of the job-seeker's first month's wages he received after he has been successfully placed in a job.
* Any agency failing to comply with the requirements of the law is liable to prosecution and revocation of licence.


the link that i went to was....www.labour.gov.hk/eng/legislat/content2.htm
 
Blood face angency

mammalicious said:
hi,

i found a domestic helper that i like through an agency, but she called me up to say the agency is charging the equivalent of 2 months wages... about $7,000. my friend who hired her dh from the same agency only paid $550. when i called the agent, she said that because my helper hadn't finished her previous contract, instead she had wanted to terminate her contract due to differences with her former employer thus the higher fee. i can't really understand why?

does this not seem a little excessive for a helper to pay, as i can understand she cannot afford this money.

help![/QUOTE
Click to expand...
 
I read above message and fell very simple because all agency will charge this price from DH and in another way they also collect money from employer. Very bad treatment to DH
 
Hi, we're in the process of hiring a helper. I'm just wondering if we pay for the OWWA fee, VSA and OEC fees? I think the OWWA is like a union. Thanks for any help!
 
yes, you should cover all costs of hiring the helper... i don't know if it's law, but it's something that i've always done.
 
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