Domestic Helper Pack HK: ID 407 Clause 12, Cap. 57 s.25

The pack is a bundle of four supporting documents, none of which replaces the Standard Employment Contract. The Employment Contract for a Domestic Helper Recruited from Outside Hong Kong (ID 407) is the only contract the Immigration Department accepts when a household sponsors a helper's employment visa, it is supplied free by the Government, and any private side agreement cutting below its terms is void under the Employment Ordinance. Employers still need more than the form. ID 407 says the helper performs domestic duties at a stated address. It does not say who cooks, who does the school run, or which day of the week is the rest day.

That gap is what the pack fills. The schedule of duties turns Clause 4(a) into a working document both sides sign, and the house rules deal with visitors, the household internet, meal arrangements and privacy inside the flat. The notice of termination, with its acknowledgement slip, satisfies the written form Clause 10 assumes, and the final settlement statement itemises every sum falling due on the last day. Households hiring through a licensed agency often receive drafts of the first two; those hiring directly, or renewing, usually have nothing. Our wider range of Hong Kong employment and HR templates covers offer letters and warning letters for other household staff.

Three ordinances govern the relationship. The Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57) applies to a foreign domestic helper on the same footing as a local employee, so rest days, statutory holidays, paid annual leave, sickness allowance, maternity protection, severance payment and long service payment all bite. The Immigration Ordinance (Cap. 115) supplies the conditions of stay: the helper works only for the sponsoring employer, only at the address written into the contract, and only on domestic duties, with driving excluded unless the Director of Immigration has approved it in advance. The Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282) makes work injury insurance compulsory, and letting cover lapse is a criminal offence.

Termination is where the clock rules. Under Clause 10 either party may end the contract early on one calendar month's notice in writing or one month's wages in lieu. Clause 11 preserves summary dismissal for wilful disobedience, misconduct, fraud or dishonesty and habitual neglect, alongside the helper's mirror right to leave in the face of violence or ill treatment. Clause 12 then requires the employer and the helper, separately, to give the Director of Immigration notice in writing within seven days of the date of termination, with a copy of the other party's written acknowledgement attached. Section 25 of the Employment Ordinance runs a parallel seven-day clock over the money.

Two further strands shape the drafting. Personal data about a helper, including footage from a home camera, sits under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486), on which the Privacy Commissioner publishes guidance for employers of domestic helpers; the same discipline runs through a Hong Kong confidentiality agreement protecting household information. And in Vallejos v Commissioner of Registration (2013) 16 HKCFAR 45 the Court of Final Appeal upheld section 2(4)(a)(vi) of the Immigration Ordinance, confirming that years spent here as a helper do not count towards ordinary residence. The Immigration Department explanatory notes on the Standard Employment Contract remain the reference text.

Most households reach for the pack at one of two moments. The first is the week before a new foreign domestic helper lands, when the contract is signed but nobody has written down what the job is. A schedule of duties agreed then stops the slow drift into non-domestic work: an hour at the family shop on Saturdays, a second flat across the corridor, a neighbour's child after school. Each of those breaches Clause 4 and the conditions of stay, and both parties can be prosecuted for it.

The second moment is a termination, and it is almost always rushed. An employer decides on a Friday, speaks to the helper on Sunday, and learns about the seven-day Immigration deadline afterwards. Renewal sits in between: a contract cannot be extended, so a household continuing with the same helper signs a fresh ID 407 and should refresh the duties and house rules the same day.

Two edge cases earn the pack its place in the drawer. Where a helper resigns citing a grievance, a signed record of duties and rest days is what protects the employer at Labour Department conciliation. And where the household is emigrating, the helper may be allowed to change employer without first returning home, which turns on a release letter stating the exact date the contract ended.

• The schedule of duties lists tasks by frequency rather than job title, separating daily cooking and cleaning from weekly and occasional work. It records the appointed rest day and confirms in writing that driving and work for any other household are excluded. Window cleaning above ground level follows the statutory terms, with the grille locked and no part of the body beyond the ledge.
• The house rules cover visitors, curfew, the telephone and internet, food arrangements where free food replaces an allowance, and the areas of the flat that stay private. Any monitoring is disclosed openly, in line with the Privacy Commissioner's guidance. You can add a letter of authorisation naming the household member who may give instructions where an elderly parent is the one being cared for.
• The notice of termination is drafted twice, once for service by the employer and once by the helper, because Clause 10 runs in both directions. Each version states the date of notice, the last day and whether wages in lieu are paid, and each comes with an acknowledgement the other party signs and dates.
• The Immigration notification reproduces the particulars the Director of Immigration expects: the contract number, both identity document numbers, the helper's passport and visa details, the address and the exact termination date.
• The final settlement statement breaks the payment into outstanding wages, wages in lieu of notice, untaken and pro rata annual leave pay, the return passage home, the food and travelling allowance for the journey, and long service or severance payment where the service qualifies.

Philippines. The contract must be verified by the Migrant Workers Office in Hong Kong, successor to the Philippine Overseas Labor Office and part of the Department of Migrant Workers. Verification checks the Hong Kong terms against Philippine deployment standards, and the verified contract is later needed for the Overseas Employment Certificate. Book the appointment well before the visa expires, because the Immigration Department will not accept a renewal filed after the helper's limit of stay has run out.

Indonesia. Endorsement runs through the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Hong Kong, whose labour section issues the contract set and traces the placement back to a licensed Indonesian agency. Pre-departure training and exit approval happen on the Indonesian side, so a first-time hire takes longer than a local transfer. Civil status documents, and occasionally a sworn statement about a change of name, may need a statutory declaration sworn before a Commissioner for Oaths before the consulate accepts them.

Other places of origin. A foreign domestic helper from Thailand, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh or Pakistan faces lighter consular formalities, but the requirements move. The Immigration Department itself advises employers to check with the relevant consulate for current policy before submitting the contract in support of a visa. Whatever the nationality, the terms of ID 407 do not change, and no consulate will endorse a contract paying below the prevailing Minimum Allowable Wage.

You begin by telling the form whether you are hiring, renewing or ending a contract, because the three routes produce different documents. On the hiring path the schedule of duties builds itself from the household you describe: occupants, ages of any children, whether an elderly relative needs care, pets, and the size of the flat. You pick the appointed rest day and say whether the foreign domestic helper receives free food or a monthly allowance, and the wording follows the prevailing Government rate rather than a figure that dates the page.

On the termination path you enter the date notice is given and the intended last day, and the pack works out whether the calendar month under Clause 10 is satisfied or whether wages in lieu are needed. The settlement statement then opens the line items that apply to your facts, and the Immigration notification fills itself from the contract details already entered. Everything downloads as an editable Word file and a print-ready PDF.

The most expensive error is treating the Immigration notification as an afterthought. Clause 12 places the duty on both parties independently, so an employer who assumes the agency or the helper has filed stays exposed. A close second is the settlement that stops at outstanding wages. Employers forget pro rata annual leave pay for a helper with three or more months in the current leave year, and forget that the return passage and journey allowance are contractual sums rather than gestures. Paying in cash without a signed receipt compounds it, because before the Labour Tribunal the burden of proving payment sits with the employer.

The third mistake is procedural. Summary dismissal under Clause 11 is for serious misconduct, and reaching for it to dodge a month's notice after an argument about a broken vase invites a claim for wages in lieu on top of everything else. Employers also miss the statutory bars on dismissing a foreign domestic helper on paid sick leave or one who has served notice of pregnancy. Dismissing in either situation is a criminal offence, not simply a bad decision. Finally, do not lend money to a helper on a handshake. Our catalogue of Hong Kong legal templates covers the alternatives.