In Hong Kong, it is a legal requirement that must insure our staff according to the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance and also to protect ourselves against common law claims for negligence in our treatment of the helper.

What if my helper is at fault?

The Employees' Compensation Ordinance provides no fault cover.

So if you tell your helper NOT to cross the street other than at a Zebra crossing, there will be no question of contributory negligence in an accident, no question about whether she/he was careless or not.

Is Helper cover only available in Domestic Helper Policies?

Actually, we provide a couple of home plans from AXA which both provide free for Employees’ Compensation cover :

• AXA Captain’s
• AXA New Settlers (This plan ALSO includes free health and personal accident etc cover for ONE helper)

AXA’s New Settlers home plan is typical of most plans in the market in that it provides a small degree of cover for many things, but little of anything substantive. For example, with just HKD30,000 in medical bills for an entire policy year, you are going to be very very fortunate if this is all you need.

Recently a number of insurers have launched helper plans with cover for cancer, which had previously been excluded from cover.

The trouble is that the HKD70,000- 100,000 they offer is that such cover may last only a couple of weeks for outpatient treatment.

Our Advice

Our advice is that you take the compulsory insurance for a legally employed local or overseas helper and even for a staff you illegally hire.

Reason is that if your staff is injured in your employ, a court will probably first ask questions as to whether you insured your staff, ahead of any questions about the legality of the employment.

If your really care to give your helper access to private medical care, a genuine health, rather than helper policy is the only answer. Please see below for a selection of more comprehensive helper health insurance options.