Work-Related Aggression in Home-Based Working Environment: Experiences of Migrant Domestic Workers in Hong Kong

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 722-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingtong Lai ◽  
Eric Fong
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Workplace Aggression ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Workplace Environment ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Abusive Behavior ◽  
Home Based ◽  
Informal Settings

Previous studies on workplace aggression and violence have limited their scope to the conventional formal workplace environment. Few have explored the possibility that an increasing number of people, especially females, who work in more informal settings may also face work-related aggression. Our research on a random sample of 2,017 migrant domestic female workers from the Philippines and Indonesia who work in Hong Kong focuses on a nonconventional workplace, the employer’s home, and examines how conditions specific to the home-based working environment are related to workers’ experiences of abuse. Findings suggest that both the working conditions (e.g., types of people served) and the workplace environment (e.g., the size of the home) are related to experiences of abusive behavior performed by employers in the domestic work setting. The findings extend our understanding of the concept of workplace and highlight new factors contributing to aggression and violence against workers when boundaries between work and home are blurred.

The place/s of Tagalog in Hong Kong’s Central district

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicanor Guinto
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Business Opportunity ◽  
Linguistic Resource ◽  
Central District ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Speakers Of Other Languages ◽  
The Government ◽  
Predominantly Female

Abstract The Central district is the government, financial, and business center of Hong Kong. Yet, on Sundays, it turns temporarily into a space densely occupied by migrant domestic workers from the Philippines. It is then that Tagalog emerges as a valuable linguistic resource in the center of Hong Kong, primarily as it is used on commercial signage as well as by speakers of other languages who see the presence of Filipinos – predominantly female domestic workers – as a business opportunity. Other signs in central Hong Kong that include Tagalog are regulatory, indexing the same Filipinos as low status domestic workers. Using the key concepts of sociolinguistic scales (Blommaert, 2007) and center-periphery dynamics (Pietikäinen & Kelly-Holmes, 2013), I analyze the underlying forces relevant to Tagalog’s (and hence its speakers) symbolic centering and peripheralization in Hong Kong’s semiotic landscape.

State-Sanctioned Structural Violence: Women Migrant Domestic Workers in the Philippines and Sri Lanka

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (12-13) ◽  
pp. 1598-1615
Author(s):  
Sophie Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Advocacy Groups ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Adopting a structural violence approach, this article examines how the failure to implement protective rights-based migration policies by the governments in the Philippines and Sri Lanka creates the conditions for the systematic exploitation of women migrant domestic workers by recruitment agencies and employers. Fieldwork conducted in 2018 with advocacy groups, government agencies, and international organizations in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Hong Kong illustrates how both countries are prioritizing the promotion of overseas employment and commodification of labor above the protection of the rights of their women domestic workers under domestic and international law.

scholarly journals Abuse and Violence Against Foreign Domestic Workers. A Case from Hong Kong

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akm Ahsan Ullah
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Psychological Abuse ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Foreign Domestic Workers ◽  
Decision To Stay ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Abstract This paper explores various abuses Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDHs) or migrant domestic workers (MDW) in Hong Kong suffer and the strategies they take up to cope with this abuse. Data were collected from 215 domestic helpers (135 from the Philippines, 30 from Thailand, 41 from Indonesia, and 9 from Sri Lanka) all of whom had been in residence for at least six months. Selected by snow-balling technique, respondents were interviewed with structured and non-structured questionnaires. Research shows that sexual abuse is the most common form of abuse against MDWs followed by psychological and physical abuses. Female employers are the main perpetuators of psychological abuse while the male employers are culpable for sexual abuses. Coping strategies varied widely among the MDWs. Many of them endure the violence to keep the job; some quit the job and others struggle with the decision to stay or quit.

scholarly journals Determinant Factors of Work-Related Complaints

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Qoni Mulia Sagita ◽  
Yuliani Setyaningsih ◽  
Sulistiyani Sulistiyani
Keyword(s):  
Medical History ◽  
Ventilation System ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Shoe Industry ◽  
Home Based ◽  
Home Workers

Home-based workers of Footwear industries in Semarang Regency are all womans. The employment status of home-based workers usually unrecognized or unregulated by the employer or their itermediaries so that they did not paid close attention about HWBs’s working condition. They often work on inadequate working environment such as poor ventilation system, bad lighting, humid working space (damp wall and floor), and also poor layout of furnitures and work equipments. That condition exaberated by lack of HWBs’s knowledge and awareness regarding their health and safety at work. In addition HBWs often with little to none education, work on long extended working hours and working under intensive labor.This research was aimed to determine the relationship between respondent characteristics, medical history, and use of PPE with work-related complaints on home workers of shoe industry in Semarang regency. This was an observational analytic study using cross sectional approach. Population in this study was 80 home workers of shoe industry in Semarang regency. The samples are 66 home workers were taken using stratified random sampling method. Data were analyzed using frequency distribution and Chi-Square test. The results of this study showed that there were some variables that have significant association with work-related complaints (p≤ 0.05) including, length of work, duration of work, personal protective equipment (PPE). While the variables of age, body mass index (BMI), and medical history did not show significant association with work-related complaints (p> 0.05). Multivariate analysis using logistic regression showed the duration of work had the most powerful influence to the work-related complaints. The conclusion of this study was important for home workers to maintain health condition by doing exercise to avoid work-related complaints. Home workers that have long duration of work should increase the use of PPE such as masks and gloves.

scholarly journals Work-related Covid-19 transmission

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fan-Yun Lan ◽  
Chih-Fu Wei ◽  
Yu-Tien Hsu ◽  
David C. Christiani ◽  
Stefanos N. Kales
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Taxi Driver ◽  
Related Case ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Religious Professionals

AbstractImportanceOur study helps fill the knowledge gap related to work-related transmission in the emerging coronaviral pandemic.ObjectiveTo demonstrate high-risk occupations for early coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) local transmission.MethodsIn this observational study, we extracted confirmed Covid-19 cases from governmental investigation reports in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. We followed each country/area for 40 days after its first locally transmitted case, and excluded all imported cases. We defined a possible work-related case as a worker with evidence of close contact with another confirmed case due to work, or an unknown contact history but likely to be infected in the working environment (e.g. an airport taxi driver). We calculated the case number for each occupation, and illustrated the temporal distribution of all possible work-related cases and healthcare worker (HCW) cases. The temporal distribution was further defined as early outbreak (the earliest 10 days of the following period) and late outbreak (11th to 40th days of the following period).ResultsWe identified 103 possible work-related cases (14.9%) among a total of 690 local transmissions. The five occupation groups with the most cases were healthcare workers (HCWs) (22%), drivers and transport workers (18%), services and sales workers (18%), cleaning and domestic workers (9%) and public safety workers (7%). Possible work-related transmission played a substantial role in early outbreak (47.7% of early cases).Occupations at risk varied from early outbreak (predominantly services and sales workers, drivers, construction laborers, and religious professionals) to late outbreak (predominantly HCWs, drivers, cleaning and domestic workers, police officers, and religious professionals).ConclusionsWork-related transmission is considerable in early Covid-19 outbreaks, and the elevated risk of infection was not limited to HCW. Implementing preventive/surveillance strategies for high-risk working populations is warranted.

Bordering domesticity: Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong’s contemporary art

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junting Huang
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Care Work ◽  
Art Practice ◽  
Migratory Experience ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

Since the 1970s, hundreds of thousands of migrant domestic workers from the Philippines have moved to Hong Kong. As they filled the city’s growing demand for care work, they also altered the city’s art practice and cultural landscape. In this article, I propose to consider a double meaning of ‘domesticity’ – in both the language of motherhood and motherland – as a productive framework to investigate the migratory experience of Filipina domestic workers. Focusing on Cedric Maridet’s Filipina Heterotopia and Xyza Cruz Bacani’s We Are Like Air, I examine how ‘domesticity’ has become particularly pertinent to understanding the ‘border’ through the movement of bodies and the global transferral of care labour.

scholarly journals Associations of Workplace Aggression With Work-Related Well-Being Among Nurses in the Philippines

2011 ◽  
Vol 101 (5) ◽  
pp. 861-867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaori Fujishiro ◽  
Gilbert C. Gee ◽  
A. B. de Castro
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Workplace Aggression ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Work Related

State-led Migration, Democratic Legitimacy, and Deterritorialization: The Philippines' labour export model

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Scott Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The State ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
Export Policy ◽  
Discursive Strategy

AbstractDeveloping countries are increasingly facilitating migration as a way of generating remittances for the home economy. The Philippines serves as a paradigmatic example, inaugurating a labour export scheme in 1973 that has grown each year and resulted in nearly 25 per cent of the labour force working abroad. The institutionalization of this labour export policy, along with changes in citizenship and voting laws, has led to the increasing deterritorialization of the Philippines state, with concomitant implications for democracy and democratization. This deterritorialization presents both opportunities and challenges for the state. Among them are the possibility of securing sustained remittances and the necessity of securing democratic legitimacy from a globalized polity. This paper traces the evolution of this labour export policy and analyzes the effects of state discursive strategies designed to secure democratic legitimacy. To further this analysis I present the results of a survey conducted among Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong (n=691). The responses indicate the discursive strategy of 'national heroes' has been effective in that majorities of OFWs view themselves as 'heroes of the nation.' However, OFWs also view themselves as making sacrifices for the nation and have concerns about government commitments to protect the rights and interests of OFWs.

Migrant workers and LGBT activism: A comparative study of Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110259
Author(s):  
Francisca Yuenki Lai
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Lgbt Activism ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Migrant Groups ◽  
Shed Light

Situating LGBT activism in a gendered, Asian migratory context, this study asks why and how LGBT migrant workers are able to organize themselves and come out publicly as lesbians, bisexual women, or transgender people in Hong Kong. Which factors are enablers for this phenomenon? A comparison of two migrant groups, namely, the Filipinos and Indonesians, who reside in the same city, will shed light on both the commonalities and diversities of their understanding of LGBT rights as well as their approaches for engaging in the LGBT movement. The study examines the different immersed contexts of the two migrant groups rather than homogenizing “migrant domestic worker” as a universal description of these women. The study adopts an intersectional approach to examine how multiple subject positions, including gender, race, class, and non-citizen status, affect migrant domestic workers who have a same-sex relationship in the host city as well as their practices and activism. Besides, it also adopts an inter-Asia approach to shed light on the flows of knowledge as well as inequalities among Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Indonesia and provide insights into how LGBT activism in Asia is culturally hybrid and diasporic. Qualitative research methods, including participant observation and in-depth interviews, were conducted from 2016 to 2018. I attended LGBT parades and events and conducted in-depth interviews with three Filipinos, two Indonesians, and two Hong Kong people. I also used data from my earlier field work in 2010 to 2012.

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