396
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
11th March 1970.
[MR HETHERINGTON] Oral Answers
of State to provide further details of the collective agreement relating to the Vauxhall motor plants so that I can make them available to anybody in Hong Kong who may be interested. Even without this information, it appears to me that several night shifts of ten hours between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., are permissible under the United Kingdom Factories Acts subject to the limitations, which I have already men- tioned, of five night shifts a week, 48 hours in any week, and 88 hours in any fortnight.
Regarding shift work during the day in Hong Kong, concerns which operate a system of three shifts normally employ their workers for three equal periods of eight hours. I refer my honourable Friend, Dr CHUNG, to the answer which I gave to him in this Council on 23rd August 1968 when he asked a question about overtime for female shift workers. I said then that I was willing to consider applications for exemptions from regulation 12(2)(d) of the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Regulations, which limits shift working to eight hours, to permit overtime within the general statutory limitations on overtime. The effect of such an exemption would be to allow women on shift work to be employed for up to ten hours, including a maximum of up to two hours of overtime subject to an annual limitation on total overtime worked, and to permit over-lapping between the morning and afternoon shifts in the middle of the day. Subsequently, during the succeeding 18 months, I have received only three applications, all of which I have approved.
MR KAN:-Sir, it would seem from my honourable Friend's answer that there are conditions imposed in the United Kingdom but they are not the same conditions as those that are imposed in Hong 'Kong. Is that the answer to my supplementary question to the first
question, Sir?
MR HETHERINGTON:-Sir, I do not think I can give an unqualified yes or no. Basically, the regulations in Hong Kong follow those in the United Kingdom but, in some cases, the provisions of the United Kingdom Factories Act and the regulations made under them are generally more strict than those in Hong Kong.
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