Reference...
45
Mr. Spendlove.
Night Work for Women in Hong Kong.
In view of the stress placed by Lord Shepherd during his meetings with trade unionists and Members of Parliament on the fact that only larger firms will be permitted to employ women at night and that he would resist any extension of the exemption to smaller firms, I think we should look carefully at the wording of the first sentence of paragraph 5 of Hong Kong Savingram of 4 March 1970. The use of the word
'initially' would seem to indicate that the Commissioner of Labour is predisposed at some stage to widen the net. We need to warn Hong Kong about this.
2. Turning now to the proposed examination of the Inspectorates, I think that in view of the size of the problem the reviewing team should consist of three specialists, as follows:-
3.
(a) A very senior Factory Inspector (preferably
of not less than Superintending Inspector of Factories grade);
(b) A senior Wages Inspector drawn from the staff of the Chief Inspector of Wages Councils;
(c) a senior woman Factory Inspector.
The terms of reference which I propose are as follows:-
4.
"To review and report on
(i)
the general arrangements for the recording, registration and inspection of industrial premises, and
(ii) the staffing, administration and technical
quality of the factory and labour inspectorate,
with reference to current conditions and anticipated future developments.
It
I think that an adequate inspection could be carried out in something like three weeks to a month. The question of publicity would be one for discussion with Hong Kong, but as far as we are concerned we would obviously be content that the job should be done quietly and without fuss.
(G. Foggon) 19 March 1970