Type To Search
Type To Search

Thought Leadership

Home Research Thought Leadership

Helping the Helpers

NA

The case of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, a former Indonesian domestic helper who was abused physically by her employer, caused a stir in Hong Kong in 2014. The incident exposed the vulnerability of some 352,000 foreign domestic helpers in this affluent city.

When facing exploitation by employers or employment agencies, many of them dare not come forward to report for fear of losing their jobs. Having no one to turn to, they can only swallow their grievances.

To advance the rights of migrant workers, Mr. David Bishop, Principal Lecturer in HKU Business School, launched the Migrant Worker Advancement project in 2015. The lecturer and his team partnered with governments, social entrepreneurs and labor unions to address long-standing employment problems that these workers face. In an effort to advocate ethical behavior in the industry, Mr. Bishop co-founded the Fair Employment Agency (FEA), a non-profit agency that helps migrant workers find employers in an ethical and transparent way.

Mr. Bishop also spares no efforts in bringing transparency to the Hong Kong employment agency (EA) industry. In 2016, he and his team created Migrasia, Hong Kong’s first online platform that allows both domestic workers and employers to rate on local employment agencies. Multiple educational videos and content have also been created and shared to help employers and workers understand their rights. The team also partnered with a number of external organisations and government to establish standards for proper and ethical agency behavior.

Mr. Bishop’s recent KE project,Enhanced Employment Agency Enforcement: A step towards eliminating one of HK’s largest black-market industries, successfully lobbied the Hong Kong government to amend the regulations of the EA industry, particularly extending the statutory time limit for prosecution of abuses. On February 9, 2018, the Government announced that the statutory time limit for prosecution of overcharging commission from job-seekers and the unlicensed operation of employment agencies is extended from six months to 12 month, offering more protection to job-seekers, especially for foreign domestic helpers who often suffer from overcharges and unscrupulous recruitment practices. In addition, the project team also investigated several cases of agency illegality with HKU students, resulting in numerous media reports and criminal prosecutions.

Corporate social responsibility: Doing good is good for business1 Feb 2020
Didn’t Earn It? Return It.
Trending
Carbon-Transition Risk and Net-Zero Portfolios
Carbon-Transition Risk and Net-Zero Portfolios
Key Takeaways Net-zero portfolios (NZPs), managing over $130 trillion USD in assets, align financial performance with climate goals. These portfolios reward firms that actively reduce emissions while excluding those lagging behind, driving market incentives for decarbonization. The study introduces distance to exit (DTE), a forward-looking metric that measures a firm’s risk of exclusion from NZPs based on its carbon footprint and decarbonization efforts. Firms with higher DTEs—seen as safer from exclusion—tend to have higher valuations but lower expected returns, highlighting the market’s pricing of carbon-transition risks. DTE serves as both a risk measure and a catalyst for action, incentivizing firms to accelerate decarbonization to remain in NZPs, while enabling portfolios to achieve up to 95% reductions in carbon intensity without sacrificing sector diversification. Source Publication: 
10 Jan 2025
Research
Trade, Trees, and Lives
Trade, Trees, and Lives
Key Takeaways The agricultural export value of Brazil has quadrupled over the last two decades due to rising global demand. Brazil’s agricultural export boom drives deforestation: between 1997 and 2019, trade-induced agricultural expansion led to the loss of 3.6 million hectares of forest. Trade-induced deforestation causes severe health consequences: it results in over 700,000 premature deaths, primarily from cardio-respiratory diseases linked to pollution from deforestation in upwind areas. The economic cost of these deaths is estimated at $513 billion USD—about 18% of Brazil’s total agricultural export value during the same period. These findings highlight the negative health impacts of trade-induced deforestation and the resulting regional inequality, because mortality costs and economic benefits are not always shared by the same populations. Source Publication: 
8 Jan 2025
Research