A winter of discontent is brewing among Hong Kong's army of foreign domestic helpers, who marched yesterday against an Executive Council directive which would see them excluded from the statutory minimum wage.
About 800 members of the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body joined the march from Chater Road to the Central Government Offices yesterday.
The group is a coalition of domestic helpers associations from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
"Legco should not let the injustice that the Exco has committed against foreign domestic workers continue," she said.
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League of Social Democrats legislator Leung Kwok-hung spoke before the march to show his solidarity with the helpers.
The groups also said the third Global Forum on Migration and Development "kills migrant workers."
"The policies of the governments of host countries like Hong Kong and the labor-exporting countries are the expression of the design of the Global Forum," Balladares said.
The Global Forum's civil society organization meetings are taking place in Athens, Greece today and tomorrow. The international meeting of government representatives is set for Wednesday and Thursday.
Iweng Karsiwen, vice chairperson of the Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers, said their inclusion in a minimum wage bill will protect foreign helpers.
"The minimum allowable wage is not a protection," she said.
"Every year the government decides the MAW, sometimes they deduct, sometimes they add, we do not know how the government arrives at their decision."
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