CONFIDENTIAL
2 -
Hours of Work and Overtime for Women and Young Persons (paras. 22 26)
6.
The words in brackets at the end of paragraph 22 appear to suggest that Hong Kong should have regulations governing the hours of work of males over 18. This does not form part of our present programme and it is noted that no such legislation exists in the United Kingdom.
7.
The Labour Department has recently made a sample survey of opinion among 1,100 women and some young persons and found that 50% of those consulted favoured the present overtime arrangements and, of the rest, half had no comment and half opposed overtime. It is the present intention, subject to agreement by the Labour Advisory Board and subsequently by the Executive Council, that amendments should be made to the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Regulations to reduce or even prohibit altogether overtime for young persons of 16 and 17 years in industry. Initial assessments made by the Commissioner suggest that such a measure would not cause serious disruption to industry. However, further studies may be needed before legislation is finalised. We would regard this here as of higher priority than reducing the overtime for women who themselves appear to be reluctant to accept greater limitation. In this connection, it is noted that in September 1973 the U.K. Department of Employment, the Department of Education and Science. and the Home Office published a paper called "Equal Opportunities for Men and Women". One of the implications of this document, which indicated that it was a statement of Government intent at that time, was that the U.K. Legislation dealing with overtime for women would be repealed as it was now regarded as sexually discriminatory. It would be useful to know if this remains the policy of H.M.G.
8.
The Commissioner of Labour will discuss further with the Chinese Manufacturers' Association the question of keeping individual records of overtime. He is doubtful however, if industry could satisfy his likely requirement to keep detailed and readily available individual records for inspection if it were decided to control overtime for women on an individual rather than a group basis.
Child Employment in Industry (paras. 28 - 30)
9.
Our opinion is that the campaigns against child employment are gaining in effectiveness and the results of the survey referred to by the Labour Adviser were encouraging. The new identity cards for children which were introduced recently and which are expected to facilitate the determination of a child's age will not become fully effective for about two years by which time all children within the affected age group can be expected to be in possession of the cards. This wil1 greatly assist in the task of control.
CONFIDENTIAL
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ན॰॰, ༈བྷ༥ཏྟཱ