Association wants criminal check for domestic helpers

The Macau Women’s General Association urged the government to implement a new requirement in the recruitment of non-resident domestic helpers: criminal records.
The proposal comes after the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) has accused six domestic helpers of stealing goods and money from their employers. According to a statement released on Tuesday, the defendants confessed to the crimes.
The MP said that, “cases of theft involving domestic helpers happens frequently”. It called on authorities to “provide domestic helpers with training and guidelines to lower the incidence of similar cases”.
The association pointed out that there are more victims of theft committed by domestic helpers but they would rather not report it to the police.
Speaking to Portuguese-language newspaper Tribuna de Macau, the deputy-director of the association’s department of social services, Hui Ho Chi, said that it is about time to review the system for hiring domestic helpers, in order to “strengthen the management” of this profession.
Hui added that several government departments, such as the Human Resources Office, the Labour Affairs Bureau and the police forces, should set up a database to exchange information on domestic helpers. “Employers should have a wide knowledge of the personal data of employees before they hire them,” he said.
Last year the Macau Women’s General Association was the one who proposed to the government the importation of domestic helpers from mainland China. The government is now in talks with the Central Government.
In November a self-titled ‘Club of Good Mothers’ prepared and released on the Internet ‘a black list’ of about 60 domestic helpers. Lawmaker Chan Meng Kam supported the move but even he questioned whether or not the initiative was a breach of the personal data protection law.
The Office for Personal Data Protection launched an investigation to the case, in order to analyse whether or not the law was breached in the handling and release of the data on domestic helpers.