A Comparison of Working Conditions on Foreign Domestic Workers and Long Term Care in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan

• Main Authors: Wu, Ting-Wei, 吳庭緯
• Other Authors: Chung, Chien-Ping
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/13166573983362517030

碩士 === 實踐大學 === 企業管理學系碩士班 === 104 === With the number of foreign domestic workers increasing in different countries around the world, governments have also begun to pay attention to issues related to the rights of foreign domestic workers. The rapid proliferation of aging societies in Asian countries has led to increasing health care and social care burdens. This thesis presents a comparison and analysis of foreign domestic workers’ working conditions and long-term care in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. We found that foreign domestic workers in Asian countries lack access to regular forms of migration. They also face high migration fees, low wages, exploitative working conditions, non-recognition of domestic work under labor laws and mistreatment related to domestic work conditions. The government also needs to focus on long-term care and provide social welfare where it is lacking. As the number of migrant workers increases annually, so does the probability of workers experiencing inhumane conditions and actions. To improve this situation and employee policies, the government and employer accountability must get a lot more attention. According to the definition of WHO, of when a country’s population of those aged 65 years and older surpasses 7% it is called an aging society. In the three abovementioned countries and other developed nations rapid population aging has led to increased health care and social care burdens. Long-term care includes a range of social and healthcare services to support the needs of people who are unable to care for themselves for an extended period of time due to their chronic health conditions. For foreign domestic workers, their workload is heavy in providing long-term care services to the elderly. The long-term care system is an important issue and a key part of the social safety net. The government has the responsibility and obligation to focus on long-term care and domestic workers to care for the elderly. However, the government disregards the challenge and forgoes overall planning of a long-term care policy; this avoidance leads to low-income families only being able to hire foreign domestic workers. Compared to Taiwan’s domestic workers, foreign domestic workers can be paid low wages and made to work overtime. Hong Kong’s government does not include foreign domestic workers within its Employment Ordinances; subsequently, they lack the protection of the law in regard to exploitation. In Singapore, foreign domestic workers are paid different wages according to their different countries. The foreign domestic workers will play an important role in supplementing the shortage of manpower of domestic workers. To take care of the elderly and expand in home and community-based care capacity, it is necessary to support care givers and help them balance their care giving and work obligations. The government of Taiwan needs to train domestic workers for realizing a long-term care system and good ways to care for the elderly.