March 29, 2023
HONG KONG – A Hong Kong nursing-home chain is suspected of colluding with unlicensed agents on the Chinese mainland to defraud mainland care workers coming to Hong Kong under a government program to ease the manpower shortage.
According to Wen Wei Po, the media recently received a number of requests for help from mainland caregivers who claimed that the nursing chain has collaborated with the agencies to create invalid labor contracts and demand the workers pay an additional “service fee” that amounted to 20 to 40 percent of their salaries.
By October 2022, about 4,000 caregivers were imported to work in Hong Kong’s care homes for the elderly under the Supplementary Labour Scheme.
The two mainland caregivers were assigned to work in two different branches of the nursing chain, with a salary of HK$14,150 each
Two mainland caregivers who came to Hong Kong through the program said they signed up to work in the city in October and early November through a domestic service company based in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The workers paid 12,000 yuan ($1,740) and 14,800 yuan respectively for their applications.
They were promised a minimum monthly wage of HK$14,150 ($1,800) when they come to Hong Kong, and with other subsidies, the number could reach up to HK$16,000. They were told that there would be no other fees after coming to Hong Kong, except the board and lodging expenses, or about 10 percent of their salaries.
The two mainland caregivers were assigned to work in two different branches of the nursing chain, with a salary of HK$14,150 each.
However, after they started work, a man who claimed to be an employee of the care home repeatedly demanded they each pay an additional HK$5,150-per-month “service fee”. They said the head of the nursing home had hired the man to collect the fee. The man also requested the two caregivers sign a labor contract with a healthcare investment company based in Guangzhou.
According to the media report, neither the Guangzhou company nor the Guangxi-based domestic service company has obtained the certificate from the Ministry of Commerce to introduce mainland workers to work in overseas regions.
Also, according to the regulations on the mainland’s labor cooperation with the HKSAR, the export of workers from the mainland must be handled by licensed labor service management companies.
A lawyer based in Guangxi said the contract the man had asked the two mainland workers to sign was invalid because the Guangzhou company did not get the qualification from the Ministry of Commerce to export laborers.