Indonesian maid set to file compensation claim, says Hong Kong labour official

[KingsOfTheDay]

Erwiana set to file compensation claim, says Hong Kong labour official

PUBLISHED : Monday, 27 January, 2014, 1:51pm
UPDATED : Monday, 27 January, 2014, 1:51pm

Shirley Zhao [email protected]

Commissioner for Labour Warner Cheuk Wing-hing. Photo: Felix Wong

An injured Indonesian maid allegedly abused by her Hong Kong employer has sought help from a domestic helpers’ association to file a compensation claim in the city, said a top labour official on Monday.

The Commissioner for Labour Warner Cheuk Wing-hing said after a Legislative Council meeting that officers from the department had visited 23-year-old Erwiana Sulistyaningsih in her home country, where she was currently hospitalised.

During the visit, Cheuk said, Erwiana told officers that she had asked an overseas helpers’ association based in Hong Kong to hire a lawyer to help with her compensation claim.

If Erwiana did launch a lawsuit, Cheuk said the department would first try to mediate between disputed parties to seek a settlement. He said this would be in line with normal procedures in dealing with such cases.

If that failed, he said, the case would be handed over to the Minor Employment Claims Adjudication Board or the Labour Tribunal.

Meanwhile, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said on Monday the government would propose a law granting private sector workers three days of paid paternity leave by the end of the second quarter, and that he hoped it could be passed in the Legco this year.

The labour sector has been demanding for such a law for eight years. Civil servants currently have five days of paternity leave.