Asia Region: Promoting Ethical Recruitment and Decent Work Among Private Sector Partners by Strengthening Company Policies to Protect Domestic Workers

In Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), China, the number of business operations continues to grow rapidly, leading to increased employment opportunities for the population. In order to enable both men and women to enter the workforce, the society in Hong Kong heavily depends on domestic workers (DWs) who are hired to take care of children and the elderly. A recent study has shown that DWs in Hong Kong are vulnerable to exploitation and often subjected to a range of unethical recruitment and abusive employment practices.

Recognizing the potential of the private sector as a driver for change and in line with IOM’s Private Sector Partnership Strategy 2016-2020, CREST Operational Framework and IRIS principles, the overall objective of the proposed project is to contribute to eliminating and preventing exploitation and human trafficking by providing private sector partners with practical guidelines and solutions for the implementation of ethical recruitment and decent work practices. In pursuit of the objective, the project will work together with Hong Kong-based private sector partners, in particular multinational enterprises (MNEs), to enhance their employment contract and code of conduct to ensure compliance of their employees with ethical recruitment and decent work principles. Additionally, the project will engage private recruitment agencies (PRAs) in Hong Kong and their partner agencies in countries of origin (Bangladesh and Philippines) to promote ethical recruitment principles as well as strengthen the capacity of respective governments and their consulates in Hong Kong in improving responses to unethical recruitment practices and agency misconduct.