To assist with the development of the domestic help industry in Beijing new guidelines that come into effect early December have been produced and particular focus is put on protecting the rights and security of employees.

 

The new guidelines were unveiled on Tuesday at a public hearing jointly held by the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce and representatives from professional circles.

 

The issues of whether domestic helpers live with their employers, how holidays should be handled and the protection of the workers' privacy were controversial topics.

 

The guidelines state that domestic helpers shouldn't live in the same room as adults of the opposite sex; households should ensure those they employed had at least four days' leave a month and eight hours sleep a day.

 

However, legal experts say certain areas require some flexibility for employers.

 

"If one employer has only a single room and there are senior people or children in need of care what should the employer do?" legal expert Liu Junhai asked. "Should they not have the right to hire a nanny or else they'd first have to buy a home with an extra bedroom?"  

 

A survey by the House of Beijing Domestic Helpers, a company providing such assistance, identified that 5.3 percent of female helpers lived with their male employers. A survey of 206 such women from 10 Beijing companies showed that 13 of them had been sexually harassed by their employers.  

 

"The result could be much higher, up to about 10 percent, considering that women often won't tell the truth about such things," Li Dajing, president of the Beijing Domestic Helper Industry Association, told the Beijing Morning Post.

 

Statistics show Beijing has more than 230,000 domestic workers of whom 90 percent are migrants with only a primary or junior middle school education. It seems they hardly go out except to shop for food.

 

As it was difficult to get evidence of sexual harassment Li suggested domestic helpers be careful about their personal security, take appropriate measures and "call the police when necessary."

 

Qiu Baochang, a lawyer from the customer rights protection department of the Beijing Lawyers' Association, said it was difficult to deal with sexual harassment cases. "It should be written clearly in the contract that employers must respect helpers' dignity and that the latter have personal and sexual freedom," said the lawyer. 

 

But Zhang Xianmin, of the March 8 Domestic Helper Center, suggests female domestic workers also have a responsibility to "behave themselves, dress in non-provocative clothes and keep a safe distance from male employers."

 

(China Daily October 19, 2006)