Fight for a wage increase now!
Struggle for our rights and welfare!
On the occasion of the International Migrants' Day, we struggle for our wage, we demand our rights and we fight for our wellbeing.
Since the wage cuts of 1999 and 2003, foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong have only recovered HK$210 of the HK$590 slashed from the minimum allowable wage. The piecemeal wage hikes that the HK government has implemented have been insufficient to meet our needs in HK as well as that of our families back home.
Additionally, the intensifying crisis and poverty in our country of origin has even speeded up the erosion of the value of the past wage hikes to the point that we are rapidly losing money amidst the soaring prices of commodities and services in our home country.
While HK continues to experience steady recovery of the economy, we are yet to experience the recovery of our wage.
Up to now, the demand for a legislated minimum wage that can protect the workers ?including the migrants ?from the adverse impacts of an economic crisis is yet to be approved.
During times of problems, the wage of workers are the first to be targeted. In periods of rebound and recovery, our livelihood is not prioritized.
Aside from our concern for our wage, this day is also most timely to reiterate our demands for the improvement of our situation as migrant workers and as part of the HK community.
The New Conditions of Stay (NCS) or Two-Week Rule continues to rule our employment and exposes us to abuses and exploitation. Many FDWs have been forced to accept unspeakable treatment from cruel employers just so they can hold on to a job for their own families.
Discrimination instituted with the NCS is also expressed in other policies of the HK government and even in the everyday lives of migrant workers. Ban against Nepali workers still stands while migrants of other nationalities are subjected to discriminatory treatment even by the police.
Meanwhile, little protection is given to women migrant workers. Their access to important education and information on issues of women's health, for example, is still very limited.
These concerns have been raised and discussed in the first ever Asian Migrant Workers' Summit held last November 26. More than 100 leaders of associations and alliances of migrants from Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines gathered to find commonalities in issues that we face and draft a set of demands to the HK government.
Today is the most opportune time to raise our concerns and let our voices again be heard throughout the streets of HK.
On this International Migrants' Day, we again pledge our commitment, determination and unity to pursue the cause for our rights and wellbeing.
The struggle goes on and migrant workers stand ready to fight.
Asian Migrants' Coordinating Body (AMCB)
Members:
Association of Sri Lankans in Hong Kong (ASL-HK)
Asosiasi Tenaga Kerja Indonesia - Hong Kong (ATKI-HK)
(Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers)
Far-East Overseas Nepalese Association - Hong Kong (FEONA-HK)
Friends of Thai - Hong Kong (FOT-HK)
Thai Regional Alliance (TRA-HK)
United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK)
c/o APMM, No. 2 Jordan Road,
Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR
Tel no(s): (852) 3156-2447, 2314-7316
Fax no(s): 2735-4559
E-mail: amcb.hk@gmail. com
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