New Guidelines for domestic help contracts in Beijing will come into effect in early December, helping manage the industry's development, with particular focus on protecting employees' rights and security.

The new guidelines were unveiled on Tuesday at a public hearing jointly held by the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce and representatives from professional circles.

The issue of whether domestic helpers should live with their employers, how holidays should be handled and the protection of the workers' privacy were controversial topics.

The guidelines said domestic helpers should not live in the same room as adults of the opposite gender and that employers should ensure that domestic helpers have at least four days' break per month and eight hours of sleep per day.

However, legal experts say certain areas should have some flexibility for employers.

"If one employer has only a single room and there are senior people or children in need of care, what should the employer do? Should they not have the right to hire a nanny, or else have to buy a home with an extra bedroom first?" legal expert Liu Junhai asked.

A survey by the House of Beijing Domestic Helpers, a company that provides domestic workers, shows that 5.3 percent of women helpers live with their male employers.

A survey of 206 women helpers from 10 Beijing companies showed that 13 of them admitted their employers had sexually harassed them.

"The result should be much higher, up to about 10 percent, considering that women often won't tell the truth about such things," Li Dajing, president of the Beijing Domestic Helper Industry Association, told the Beijing Morning Post.

Statistics show Beijing has more than 230,000 domestic workers, 90 percent of whom are migrant workers with only a primary or junior middle school education. They hardly go out except to shop for food.

As it is difficult to get evidence of sexual harassment, Li suggested helpers take protective measures, and even "call the police when necessary."

Qiu Baochang, a lawyer from the customer rights protection department of the Beijing Lawyers' Association, said it has been always difficult to deal with sexual harassment cases, but "it should be written clearly in the contract that employers must respect helpers' dignity, and that the latter have personal and sexual freedom."

But Zhang Xianmin of the March 8 Domestic Helper Centre suggests the domestic workers also have a responsibility that women employees need to "behave themselves, dress in non-provocative clothes, and keep a safe distance from male employers."

(China Daily October 19, 2006)