On the invitation of the Labour Department, and speaking to about a hundred employers or prospective employers of foreign domestic helpers and employment agencies in the evening of August 31, Professor Stephen Chiu brought his research and also 20-plus years of experiences to bear on employment Relations in families with foreign domestic helpers.
Drawing on insights from industrial sociology, he first sketched the two polar types of “managing” domestic helpers, ranging from detailed instructions to responsible autonomy that suits different kinds of employers and helpers with different levels of mutual trust and bargaining power. He then recalled stories of his family living with their “aunties” (the way they addressed their helpers) and shared lessons he learned in seeking to develop a relationship of trust and respect with them.
In closing, he broadened the discussion to urge the audience to reflect on the deeper contradiction that our system of foreign domestic helpers has created for Hong Kong society by causing an underdevelopment of family services of all kinds. He pleaded for more efforts in fostering affordable family services as childcare and elderly care so that we could gradually lessen our dependence on the far from unlimited supply of foreign domestic helpers.
