Oof. Hong Kong levies fines in excess of a month's pay to domestic workers who gathered with friends on their day off. When Hongkongers band together to raise money to pay the fines, a government official declares it illegal and the fundraiser is cancelled.
https://twitter.com/hkfp/status/1495170303877693444
Hong Kong has a huge number of live-in domestic workers who are citizens of other countries, and since they have no homes of their own in HK, these workers often gather with friends in public spaces on Sundays—their standard day off.
Under Hong Kong law, such workers are required to live in the homes of their employers, which means they don't have access to private spaces of their own to socialize during their time off.
Last Sunday, Hong Kong police gave out seventeen citations for gatherings in violation of HK's two-person maximum. All of the citations went to domestic workers. All of them.
The citations carried fines in the amount of HK$5000, which is $640 US. The legal minimum monthly salary for a Hong Kong domestic worker is HK$4630, or about $595 US.
Yes, you read that right.
Yes, you read that right.
And bear in mind, we're talking about public gatherings of small numbers of people here, primarily outdoors. On Sundays in HK, plazas, pedestrian bridges, even wide sidewalks are lined with groups of three, four, five women sitting and eating, talking, playing cards.
Again, this is these workers' only time off all week, and their only opportunity to spend time away from their employers. (98+% of these workers are women, and 96% are from the Philippines or Indonesia.)
Anyway, it's a small story in the scope of all the horrors of the world, but the horrors of the world are made up of small stories.
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