Millions of his adoring fans across Asia would give anything to be by his side. But yesterday Jacky Cheung, the Hong Kong crooner, was banned from hiring another Filipina maid.

Cheung, one of the biggest names in Chinese showbiz, has hired, and fired, no fewer than 21 maids from the Philippines in only three years, earning himself the nickname “The Terminator”.

Now employment watchdogs in the former British colony have intervened, placing Cheung and his wife, May Lo, on a blacklist.

The decision means that Cheung will not be able to renew the contracts of the four Filipinas who take care of his family, including his four-year-old daughter, and their luxury apartment in Hong Kong.

All contracts for Filipina maids in the territory must be certified by the Philippine consulate, which said yesterday that Cheung would remain on the blacklist for a year.

Vice-Consul Val Roque said: “There has been a string of Filipina helpers whose record showed they have been terminated by the employer.” He added: “For us, it’s a disturbing trend because ideally we want the workers to have a stable job here. When an employer terminates a contract it’s the workers who suffer because they might have to confront a mountain of debt incurred by coming to Hong Kong. It’s an unfair situation.”

The Filipino Globe newspaper – published for Filipino workers in Hong Kong – reported the unusually high turnover of maids at Cheung’s household in its September edition, citing local consular records. It said that only a few of the 21 maids Cheung hired over three years completed their two-year contracts.

Affluent Hong Kong and Singapore have thousands of maids from less well-off neighbours such as the Philippines and Indonesia. Courts often hear cases of rape and other abuse by their employers.

Cheung became the hottest pop star in Hong Kong in the mid1980s and in the 1990s captivated audiences across China with his sugary, lilting ballad Kiss Goodbye, performed in Mandarin.

The former airline employee is equally at home in Cantonese. He is often regarded as the king of “Canto Pop”, a genre of singing that combines Cantonese lyrics with Western musical instruments and pop influences but can also retain some traditional Chinese instruments such as the erhu, a two-stringed bowed fiddle.

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