Fight for a living wage and the rights of migrant workers
End exploitation of all workers
Statement of the AMCB-IMA-HK on Labour Day 2019
Migrant workers, under the banner of the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body (AMCB) – member of the global formation International Migrants Alliance (IMA) – are with all the working people in Hong Kong and the world in marking the continuing struggles of workers against exploitation and oppression in the name of profit-making and taking by the few.
Hong Kong workers, both migrants and locals, are no strangers to capitalist greed for profits. Enabled by policies that are oriented and servile to business interests, wages of workers are nailed to a floor level that is not enough to live by in the face of rising prices of goods, real estate and constricting social services that drives workers to private services.
A living wage is a fight of all workers in Hong Kong who endure slave wage level.
For migrants who are mostly domestic workers, the struggle to pull up the minimum allowable wage to a living wage is a constant struggle.
Based on the computations of the AMCB-IMA-HK drawn from the definition, studies and standards of living wage, the minimum wage of migrant domestic workers should be HK$5,894 per month. The current MAW at HK$4,520 per month only translates from HK$9 per hour (for 16-hour work day) to HK$12 per hour (for 12-hour work day) which is only 16-21 per cent of the estimated HK$54.7 hourly rate estimated by a study of Oxfam to have a living wage.
Local workers face an essentially similar situation where their wage of HK$34.50 per hour remains a far cry from the estimated living wage level.
Instead of taking decisive actions to increase the wage of all workers, particularly the minimum wage earners, the Hong Kong government occasionally increases the MAW for migrants by approximately HK$2 to HK$4 per month. For local workers, even the reported plan to have an increase of HK$3 to the per hour minimum wage will definitely not be enough to approach the living wage standard.
Meanwhile, the slave wage situation of migrants is even compounded by the refusal of the Hong Kong government to improve the living and working condition of migrant domestic workers. Despite studies and concrete proof of the dire situation of MDWs pertaining to accommodation and working hours, the government has kept on disregarding demands to have more defined rules on decent accommodation of MDWs as well as regulation of working hours.
When it comes to workers, including migrants, the Hong Kong government persists in maintaining the “business as usual” situation.
For this Labor Day 2019, MDWs under AMCB-IMA-HK are marching with our local working brothers and sisters to fight for a living wage and various labor rights that are sacrificed to the altar of capitalist profit-making and taking.
Migrant workers demand for the Hong Kong government to:
1. Raise the MAW to HK$5,894 to meet the living wage in HK;
2. Implement an 11-hour uninterrupted rest plus meal breaks stipulated in the standard employment contract (SEC);
3. Ensure decent accommodation for MDWs and stipulate in the SEC the unsuitable accommodations such as toilet, kitchen, hallway, cupboard, warehouse, living room and other unsafe and unhealthy forms of accommodation;
4. End illegal collection and overcharging;
5. Legislate a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, and;
6. Abolish all discriminatory immigration policies such as the “two-week rule”, mandatory live-in policy, denial of visa to suspected “job-hoppers” and ban on Nepalese workers
We deplore continuing efforts, fanned by government inaction, to drive a wedge between migrants and local workers under false analyses of the roots of deteriorating situation of workers. Capitalist crisis is fueled by its own greed and, in the end, all working people suffer from worsening exploitation, diminishing services, and eroding rights.
Today, we fight for a living wage and the rights of workers. Beyond, we shall continue to build our unity and strengthen the worker’s movement in Hong Kong that is one with the workers of the world in pushing for changes that will establish a structure and system that serves the majority and not only the capitalists and exploiting classes.
Long live worker’s unity!
Long live international solidarity!
