House help from the Philippines should be granted legal rights to work in the Chinese mainland, a lawmaker urged the Shanghai People's Congress on Tuesday.

While Philippine maids are issued working visas in Taiwan and Hong Kong, they are banned from being hired in the mainland. China's laws only allow Filipino helpers to train their Chinese counterparts.

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Legislator Wu Jian told Shanghai's Congress that most Filipino maids can speak decent English and they are professionally trained in cooking, cleaning and first aid.

He said the entry of professional foreign maids would help fix the discrepancy between high pay and low service standards. As incomes rise and more expats live in Shanghai, the demand for good housekeeping services has outstripped supply, Li said.

In the last ten years, the average pay for an experienced "ayi," local term for a maid, in Shanghai rose 600 percent to CNY10,000 (about US$1,600) a month, based on data from yunjiazheng.com, an industry website. But service quality has not kept up with higher salaries, Wu said, pointing out that most local help barely had basic training so they often offer poor service.

The entry of Filipino housekeepers would help meet the demand for their services and fix the chronic labor shortages during yearly holidays, the lawmaker said.

Despite the ban on Filipino maids in the mainland, the demand for them is so high that some labor recruiters resort to breaking the law and illegally bring the women in, the congress deputy said.

He said fly-by-night labor recruiters operate by pasting fake work visas on the help's passports and he told Congress allowing Filipino help to come in with legitimate papers would solve the problem with regulations.

Smugglers of foreign maids into the mainland can be fined up to CNY50,000 (US$8,000), a human resources expert said.

TagsFilipino maids, Shanghai People's Congress, ayi, working visa