Hong Kong employer asked to pay HK$580,000 in compensation for ‘discriminatory’ treatment of late Filipino helper, court hears
- Employer Rita Choy allegedly ignored domestic helper Joan Sarmiento Guting after her cancer diagnosis and refused to provide her with sufficient food
- Guting was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2017 and died a year later after she returned to the Philippines
A Hong Kong employer has been sued for damages and is asked to pay more than HK$580,000 (US$74,155) in compensation for depriving her late Filipino domestic helper of food and firing her after her cancer diagnosis, a court has heard.
Domestic helper Joan Sarmiento Guting was diagnosed with cervical cancer, oedema and acute kidney failure in 2017. She died at the age of 41 after she returned to the Philippines the following year.
Carla Arangote Temporosa, Guting’s friend and executrix, on Wednesday testified at the District Court against the employer, Rita Choy Chiu-yee.
Choy was accused of unlawfully discriminating against Guting in April 2017, when the latter was on sick leave at her home.
The employer allegedly ignored Guting, refused to provide her with sufficient food, installed a security camera and threw away utensils she used.
Five years after she filed the allegations to the Equal Opportunities Commission, Temporosa told the court that Guting said the employer had barred her from using the kitchen and left her with no option but to cook in her bedroom with a rice cooker she took from a friend.
“She only cooked once [after she was discharged]. And after that, the employer had controlled her use [of the kitchen] and then she was not allowed,” Temporosa said in the cross-examination.
“She had to ask for food from fellow church members.”
