Foreign Workers From China, Elsewhere Find Grass Is Not Greener in Hong Kong : Asia: Complaints against employers include illegal deductions, short pay and substandard housing.

Good fortune has smiled on Xu Daijuan for the first time since she left China a year ago seeking a better life in booming Hong Kong.

After struggling to make enough money to put food on the table from her garment factory job, the 22-year-old suddenly found herself $1,900 richer when labor officials ordered her boss to repay illegally deducted wages.

“I’m very happy,” Xu said with a big smile as she left the Labor Tribunal hearing in March with three co-workers who also got back their deducted wages.

Most foreign workers are not so lucky.

Labor unions and workers from the Chinese mainland, who make up the bulk of foreign laborers apart from 60,000 domestic employees from the Philippines, say abuses of labor regulations abound.

Many workers do not complain, because they are afraid or are unaware of their rights. Those who do speak up often lack the evidence necessary to bring charges.

The most common complaints against employers are illegal deductions of wages, underpaying or providing accommodation that fails to meet government standards.

“Some garment workers were paid as little as $26 a month because of illegal deductions,” said Hui Wing-fung, vice chairman of the Garment Making Trade Workers Union.

“How can they survive? Some of them can only buy white bread for meals and walk everywhere because they can’t afford a bus.”

Many workers are also housed in poor conditions, with one report of six women sharing a 100-square-foot room.

Wang Chiqiang, a 26-year-old former hair salon owner from China’s Guangdong province, speaks about his Hong Kong experience bitterly.

Wang (not his real name) paid a $385 deposit to get a job at a dyeing factory here, making $630 a month--a virtual fortune compared to China’s average monthly salary of about $36.70.

Six months later he found himself without job or deposit after his boss fired him and seven other Chinese for complaining about being forced to work unpaid overtime.

“Everyone in (my home town) dreams of earning lots of money in Hong Kong but they are very disappointed when they come here,” said Wang, as he prepared to return to his wife and two children in China.

“It’s all a dream.”

The Hong Kong government began allowing companies to import unskilled and semi-skilled workers in 1989 to alleviate a labor shortage.

Labor Department officials estimate that Hong Kong now has some 13,000 foreign laborers. Applications are being considered to bring the total to a maximum of 25,000.

Apart from China, most workers come from southeast Asia. The men tend to work in construction while the women take factory jobs.

Inspectors found that 249 employers of overseas workers out of 2,300 were in breach of regulations in the first nine months of last year, said senior labor officer M. C. Leung.

Labor union workers say one of the main reasons for abuses is that the salary set for foreign workers is similar to that for locals.

“If every boss followed the contract and paid foreign workers the median salary of local workers, they wouldn’t bother to use foreign labor,” said Wong Chi Mei, a secretary for the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions.

“Besides the salary, they must pay for a health exam, apply for visas and deal with many other procedures.”

Another problem is enforcement. The maximum fine for breaching contracts is $2,560 but the government is considering increasing fines by up to 10 times.

Despite the problems that foreign workers face in Hong Kong, the opportunity to earn money here is still too good to pass up--at least for most.