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the appointed rest day of that week from Sunday to Saturday. Without amendment subsection 5 of section 11F does not permit such a flexibility in the change of appointed rest days.
With these remarks, Sir, I support the motion before Council.
MR HETHERINGTON:-Sir, I thank my honourable Friend, Dr CHUNG, for his strong and welcome support for this bill.
The text of the bill was published in the Government Gazette on 23rd January. By 1st April, the date when it is proposed that the bill should come into force, a period of over nine weeks will have elapsed since publication. I think that employers will then have had a reasonable amount of time to make arrangements to comply with the provisions which are quite simple. When I spoke on the bill in this Council, a fortnight ago, I offered to help both employees and employers to surmount initial difficulties which might arise while they adjusted themselves to the new requirements. I can assure my honourable Friend, Dr CHUNG, that my officers will do all that they can to assist during this early period of change-over from customary practices, especially in the non-industrial sectors, to the new pro- cedures.
I believe that this bill permits the greatest degree of flexibility without losing sight of the main purpose which is to provide a statutory entitlement of a minimum of four rest days in each month on a regular or pre-determined basis. My honourable Friend, Dr CHUNG, is not strictly correct to lump together the substituted rest days under new section 11F(5) and new section 11G(3). Another rest day may be substituted by an employer, under new section 11G(3), only when he requires an employee to work on an appointed rest day in the event of an unforeseen emergency. I do not see how the emergency could be regarded as unforeseen if the employer were permitted to substitute a rest day under new section 11G(3) in advance of an appointed rest day. For this reason, an amendment of this subsection would not be appropriate. On the other hand, a substituted rest day in the normal course of events requires, under new section 11F(5), the consent of both employer and employee. I accept Dr CHUNG's argument that a substituted rest day in these circumstances could be conveniently advanced, within prescribed limits, to the mutual satisfaction of both parties as well as postponed. I will endeavour to prepare a suitable amendment, for consideration by this Council at the committee stage, which would go some way to meet my honourable Friend's proposal without undermining the principle of regular rest days in each month.
DR CHUNG:--Sir, on a point of order, I can show to my honour- able Friend that subsection 3 of section 11G could be relevant.
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