Holiday Policy for Amahs in HK

Swoon

Swoon

Banned
Does anyone know how many official leave days per annum a full-time amah is legally entitled to per year?

Also, do employers have the right not to "allow" the holidays to be taken until after the first year of the contract is completed?

Lastly, how do I find out which statutory holidays are the official ones that amahs can take off?

Reason for questions--we allowed our amah to take some leave days after working 3 months for us. She did not return back on the day she promised and did not call. We couldn't reach her and had no idea what was happening. She finally called three days past her original return date and said she went somewhere too remote to call. She breached our trust, I wanted to sack her, but it was day before my return to work from maternity leave. She's still with us because she's good with the baby but we want to withhold any further leave days until the point it is legally entitled. So we need to make sure we're following legal policy.
 
Bzee,

A domestic helper should be given 7 days Paid Annual Leave after serving for 1 year. The Paid Annual Leave entitlement increases with the year of service as follows:

2 Y - 7 Days
3 Y -8 Days
4 Y - 9 Days

However it is up to the employer to grant the annual leave after a year. Most helpers prefer to take it after completing their 2 year contract.

Helpers are also entitled to 12 statutory holidays. For 2003 these are: (I've also added these to the GeoBaby calendar to remind everyone)

The first day of January
the day preceding the Luner New Year's Day (31 January) *
Lunar New Year's Day (1 February)
the third day of Lunar New Year (3 February)
Ching Ming Festival (5 April)
Labour Day (1 May)
Tuen Ng Festival (4 June)
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day (1 July)
the day following Chinese Mid- Autumn Festival (12 September)
National Day (1 October)
Chung Yeung Festival (4 October)
Chinese Winter Solstice Festival (22 December) or Christmas Day (25 December)(at the option of the employer)
* It is because the second day of the Lunar New Year in 2003 falls on a Sunday.

More info on statutory holidays here:

http://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/faq/cap57f.htm
 
Rani, isn't the 7 paid annual leave days per year? So after 2 years, your helper is entitled to 14 paid annual leave days? I can't seem to find the info on the internet!
 
holidays

THanks for posting that link, as I've always wondered about the holiday leave as well. However, from reading the section on the govt. site it's pretty clear that helpers are entitled to 7 days after 1st year, and an additional 7 days after 2 years (not 7 days in total for 2 years) Isn't it?? Or am i missing something? I need to clear this up for myself too!!
 
annual leave

it is 7 days PER ANNUM (ie, per year). so 2 years = 7 days per year, which is 14 days.

so at 3 years of employment it is 8 days per annum, which is 24 days, and so on.
 
I researched this a bit.

The Guide to the Employment Ordinance is valid for FCW / Domestic helpers according to this snippet.

http://www.labour.gov.hk/text/eng/focus/20030801/news03.html

The relevant chapters of the employment ordinance are on

http://www.labour.gov.hk/text/eng/lrpd/resource_publications_guide_4.htm

and clearly state

An employee's entitlement to paid annual leave increases progressively from seven days to a maximum of 14 days according to his length of service.
Click to expand...

Annual leave is per year not per contract term. The person employed by you (domestic helper or anyone else for that matter) is entitled to 1 week's worth of leave for every year they've worked.
 
Thanks everyone. I also interpretated it as to mean 14 paid annual leave days for a 2 year contract period.

However, I also notice that in the standard employment contract, upon renewal, an employer is supposed to pay for one return ticket back to the helper's home and also give at least 7 days (unpaid or paid - up to you) of vacation. I was wondering whether typically, employers allow their helpers to go home at the end of their contract for 3 consecutive weeks? That's a bit long as that is equivalent to all of my annual leave for one year.

Does anyone know whether an employer is required to send the helper home in order to process a renewal visa? Seems a bit of a hassle....
 
not long enough

We've just given our helper three week's paid leave so she can go home and see her family before my baby arrives next month. She works so hard there is no way I would only let her have 7 days leave each year. Important to remember that the hand that rocks the cradle needs to be treated with respect and trust. Also remember that these women only get to see their families once a year, 7 days doesn't give them much chance to unwind let alone catch up with their lives back home.

We've only had our helper for a few months but as she hadn't been home since last Christmas I didn't think twice about letting her go off now. The government guidelines don't always have to be followed so rigidly!
 
Our family goes on holiday each year for about 2 weeks and our helper takes this time to go home for her holidays. Not all helpers can afford a trip back each year, as contractually the employers pay for one return trip every 2 years. What really amazes me too is that many local families hire a new helper every 2 years to avoid paying long service leave which they are entitled to after working continuously for 5 years or more. Plus this long service leave payment is not legally payable if the helper resigns, only when she is fired. I wouldn't dream of having a different helper every 2 years - it is not stable for the kids at all.
 
What really amazes me too is that many local families hire a new helper every 2 years to avoid paying long service leave which they are entitled to after working continuously for 5 years or more. Plus this long service leave payment is not legally payable if the helper resigns, only when she is fired.
Click to expand...

You have to understand that the majority of the employers in Hong Kong are lower middle class / poor people who have to hire a helper to take care of the elderly or the young, while the rest of the family is at work. They're on extremely tight budgets and barely making ends meet.

Just as there are employers who don't keep their helpers on for long terms we know of several local employers who have kept their helpers for over decades.

Some employers are able and willing to pay the extra and be nice. Some are not. Lets leave it at that...

To answer Jenny's question

Does anyone know whether an employer is required to send the helper home in order to process a renewal visa? Seems a bit of a hassle....
Click to expand...

Jenny, she does not need to go to her home country to process a renewal. The renewal can be done here and I'm sure if you're unable to send her you can negotiate with an alternative time or payment to her (i.e. pay her for the plane ticket + time off).
 
Paid holiday

All workers according to the Labour Ordinance are entitled to annual leave every 12 months from 7 to 14 days depending on length of service. If they have been on a continuous contract for 2 years, it is 7 days, 3 years - 8 days, 4 years - 9 days. Rani was right first time around. It is not 7 days per year. They can always take no paid leave if the employer agrees.
 
Poor people are those who earn less than $4000 per month. They cannot afford to hire domestic helpers. Furthermore, you need to have at least $150,000 annual income (or a bank deposit of $350,000) to be able to hire a domestic helper. Therefore people who employ helpers are not, as you say "poor".
 
New Gov't Policy

I heard from a domestic helper that there is a new government policy that domestic helpers are entitled to a return ticket at the end of every year of service (instead of the return ticket after 2 years of service policy).

Does anyone know about this supposedly new policy?
 
HK$150,000 household annual income is not very much really, even if you have a small family, and yes most HK people who hire domestic helpers are not well off. this is the reason why they change helpers every two years. they simply cannot afford to let the maid take extra days off because one of the parent would probably need to take annual leave so that the maid could go home in the first place.
 
Regardless of annual salary it still doesn't make it right - you have obligations to your helper as they have obligations to you. Can you imagine your company letting you go because they didn't want to pay you to take well earned vacation??
 
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