File photo from 2006 shows one of the best-known pop singers in Hong Kong, Jacky Cheung
HONG KONG (AFP) - One of the best-known pop singers in Hong Kong, Jacky Cheung, has been banned from hiring Filipina maids after employing and sacking 21 in three years, the Philippines consulate here said Thursday.
The consulate said it has placed Jacky Cheung and his wife on its watchlist of sub-standard employers for one year, and they will not be allowed to renew the contracts of the four helpers they currently employ.
"There has been a string of Filipina helpers whose record showed they have been terminated by the employer," said Vice Consul Val Roque, vice consul at the consulate.
Roque said the couple was put on the watchlist after the consulate received complaints. He did not reveal details.
"For us, it's a disturbing trend because ideally we want the workers to have a stable job here," he said.
"When an employer terminates a contract it's the workers who suffer because they might have to confront a mountain of debt incurred by coming to Hong Kong. It's an unfair situation."
Roque said Cheung's wife, a former actress, tried to explain the high rate of firings and stress they had all been treated well.
The consulate said its decision could be reviewed after a year.
Cheung, one of Hong Kong's biggest stars, rose to fame in the mid-1980s.
Like most stars here Cheung has been packaged as an all-round entertainer, starring in a number of hit local films as well as singing Canto-pop, a hybrid of Chinese ballads and Western pop.
The South China Morning said one of the complaints came from a former maid who was jailed for six months last year for stealing photographs and a letter from the ballad singer.
She told the paper that helpers often had to work up to 19 hours a day.
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