We, the domestic workers represented by the Federation of Asian Domestic Workers’ Unions (FADWU), the Coalition for Migrants’ Rights (CMR), and various partners, express the united position and strong solidarity among the Chinese, Filipino, Indonesian, Nepalese, Thai and all DWs in Hong Kong. We have ardently campaigned for the long overdue and greatly deserved recognition of our status, rights, welfare, interests, and dignity.

We are here today, 8 July 2009, to collectively express and show our indignation over the HK Labour and Welfare Department’s recommendation to exclude live-in domestic workers, the majority of whom are women and migrant, from the coverage of the proposed Statutory Minimum Wage (SMW) Law. This decision of the HK government to exclude us from the protection of the SMW law is yet another glaring proof of the recurring and methodical discrimination policy employed by the government in its treatment of one of the most vulnerable, most abused, most exploited sectors of the working force here in HK.