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Connor Mycroft

About 60 domestic helpers in Hong Kong diagnosed with cancer or other critical illnesses have been illegally fired by their employers due to their condition since 2020, support groups have said.
The organisations on Sunday also urged the government to extend public healthcare coverage to domestic helpers who were pursuing discrimination cases after having their employment terminated.
“The reality is most of the employers are not supporting their domestic workers when they’re in their darkest hour,” said Rowena Borja, the secretary of the Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions.
Another group, the Filipino Migrants Cancer Support Society Hong Kong, said it had documented 195 cases of domestic helpers being diagnosed with cancer or other critical illnesses during their employment since 2020.
Of those cases, an estimated 30 per cent had been illegally terminated by their employer due to their illness.
Dhay Dhay*, Filipino domestic worker in her fifties, was diagnosed with stage-three breast cancer in 2020 and, later, thyroid cancer.
While she has managed to maintain employment throughout the process and is now in recovery, she has been covering her medical bills out of her own pocket. The monthly check-ups alone could cost her hundreds of Hong Kong dollars, she said.
She also said she had to use her annual leave while she was undergoing radiotherapy and other cancer treatment, which she accepted as she did not want to risk losing her employment.
“I don’t want to demand more, I just wanted to protect myself and my work,” she said.
In another case, Baby Jane Allas, also a helper from the Philippines, was sacked by her employer after being diagnosed with stage-three cervical cancer.
Allas, who died from complications related to a kidney infection in 2021, had depended on funds raised by the employer of her younger sister, Mary Ann, for treatment.
In a pre-recorded video shared on Sunday, Mary Ann said her sister had been awarded HK$30,000 by the Labour Tribunal in 2019, but a separate case before the Equal Opportunities Commission was still ongoing as the helper’s former employer could not be located.
“It’s been six years,” Mary Ann said. “I feel like I cannot move on completely, thinking about this case.”
Among the 67 documented cases remaining employed in Hong Kong, seven had not received their salary, 30 were denied medical expense coverage and 14 were forced to use their rest days for hospital appointments, according to the cancer support society’s data.
Just 10 workers had received full support from their employers, the group said, while 13 had only “partial” medical expenses covered.


Under Hong Kong law, employers are required to purchase employees’ compensation insurance for their domestic helpers. The Disability Discrimination Ordinance also protects people with chronic illnesses from being fired.
Domestic helpers can file a complaint with the Labour Department for unlawful termination, after which they can receive a temporary visa that must be renewed each month. They also lose access to affordable public healthcare options in the city, according to the support group’s chairwoman, Janice Valencia.
She said only about 20 per cent of cases the group had handled decided to take action with the department. Only 10 per cent had been successful.
Rather than pursue a case, many of the cases opted to return home to the Philippines, where they still might end up facing difficulties to access treatment, she said.
The two groups urged the government to allow domestic helpers with severe illnesses to maintain access to public healthcare at the “eligible person” rate while they pursued discrimination claims.
The groups called on authorities to step up enforcement of existing labour laws to protect domestic helpers from exploitation if they became ill.
The Labour Department said the government attached great importance to safeguarding the employment rights of foreign domestic workers, who were entitled to the same protections as local employees under the law.
“Additionally, foreign domestic workers benefit from additional protections provided by the ‘standard employment contract’, including provisions for minimum wages, free accommodation, meals, medical care provided by the employer, as well as travel expenses to and from their home country,” a government spokesman said.
He added the department rigorously enforced the Employment Ordinance and would prosecute employers found to be in violation.
In a reply to the Post, the Hospital Authority said that to ensure proper use of limited public resources, medical charges for “non-eligible people”, who do not have resident status, were normally not waived unless there were exceptional circumstances involving financial hardship.
Additional reporting by Oscar Liu
*Name changed at interviewees request.


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Support groups urge better public healthcare coverage to helpers pursuing discrimination cases after being fired over their condition


Support groups urge better public healthcare coverage to helpers pursuing discrimination cases after being fired over their condition.


Foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong

‘About 60 domestic helpers in Hong Kong fired over critical illness since 2020’

Support groups urge better public healthcare coverage to helpers pursuing discrimination cases after being fired over their condition

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