CONFIDENTIAL
2
membership of some 3,500 and is affiliated to the right- wing Hong Kong & Kowloon Trade Union Council. It is the largest right-wing industrial trade union, but not the largest in the textile industry. Its Chairman is reputable and the Union has reasonably good relations with employers. The fact that this is the only union that raised the question with the Commissioner of Labour, and then only in private correspondence, does not suggest that there are any significant feelings about the subject in union circles generally.
Apart from these approaches, public opinion appears to have taken the view that the experiment has not had any adverse effects and that, because there is an overall shortage of labour, the women who work at night do so voluntarily to suit their own convenience, since they can quite easily obtain employment on day shifts.
As regards your second paragraph on the substance of the proposals, it remains our practice for the factories to be the subject of individual inspections, before a permit is issued. These inspections are the joint responsibility of the Labour and Factory Inspectorates. So far only five factories are authorized to employ women at night so that the burden on the inspectors concerned is not unduly onerous.
Tome
Iver
Anyn Naman-Wahnen