Jassy Santos, the acting chairwoman of the Progressive Labour Union of Domestic Workers in Macau (PLUDW), told The Macau Post Daily in an online interview late last week that she was dissatisfied with the government’s policies during the COVID-19 pandemic concerning non-resident workers.
The union was established in 2019 and since then has been fighting for the rights of migrant domestic workers. The labour union is also represented in Hong Kong.
At the start of the interview, Santos expressed her support for the local government. “Compared to other regions, the Macau government did a good job to provide everyone, including migrant workers, with free nucleic acid tests (NATs) and facemasks so that the migrant workers can be safe from the virus,” Santos, who is from the Philippines, said.
“However, I cannot understand why, if the government is able to spend so much money on its COVID-19 prevention and control measures, didn’t they provide any supplies of daily necessities to migrant workers? Many of our fellow migrant workers are literally starving during the pandemic since we don’t have any money,” Santos said.
Santos also said that, unlike local workers, migrant workers usually do not have any savings to tide them over when they are temporarily out of job. While local workers have many different types of support from the government and most of them have some form of job security, migrant domestic workers are overworked all the time but don’t say anything because they fear retaliation, Santos said.
She underlined that many domestic workers were suddenly on unpaid leave because they couldn’t go to their employer’s home during the current COVID-19 outbreak because their employers were scared that they (domestic helpers) had caught the virus, but their employers also refused to compensate them.
“We [migrant workers] are going to be free from COVID-19 soon, but not free from hunger any time soon”, Santos said.
“I have no clue why migrant domestic helpers are excluded from the minimum wage. In fact, I read in the news recently about it and the government gave the reason – domestic helpers are not here to help employers make a profit. This makes me so mad. Not only should you not use ‘profit’ to evaluate the value of one’s work, but domestic workers are also so critical to Macau society, and to say that we should not be included in the minimum wage because we don’t generate a profit is unbelievable,” Santos said.
She also talked about what she feels is an anti-migrant workers atmosphere in local society right now. “If migrant workers are to be kicked out of Macau, then all the workers in Macau will finally enjoy good benefits because only locals are left,” Santos said tongue in cheek, adding: “It’s the right of the local government and residents to kick us out of Macau, but it’s our right to tell them that every worker needs to be treated equally.”
According to the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), Macau had 24,543 domestic helper at the end of May, about 56 percent of them from the Philippines, the remainder mainly being from Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar – as well as one each from the United States and Australia. At the end of May, domestic helpers accounted for about 15 percent of the total number of non-resident workers in Macau.
Logo of the Progressive Labour Union of Domestic Workers (PLUDW) downloaded from their Facebook page last night.
