16
have a very high labour turnover
month
G
we were quoted instances of 5% a
and workers have been known to leave them in groups on report of
better wages elsewhere. Certain firms particularly those of
Shanghaiese origin are highly paternalistic, and make extensive social
provision (including housing, welfare services, educational grants, and
so on) for their employees. In both our surveys of employees (the
smaller 'pilot' one of factory workers, and the larger general survey)
about a quarter of those interviewed were attending vocational classes
outside working time; 40% of the younger factory workers were doing so,
which indicates a fairly high level of personal ambition, one would
think. The importance of the family as an economic unit and support is
shown by the fact that in our first survey the average size of the
household to which the factory workers interviewed belonged was 6, of
whom 3 were income-earners. And recent surveys by major employers'
organisations of workers' attitudes to the new legislation to provide
paid holidays and control young persons' overtime have shown a
distinctly negative attitude. We have considerable scepticism as to the
technical validity of this last evidence, but the general attitude was
confirmed by our own surveys: a distinct majority of our factory workers
and about half of our sample of all employees preferred more income to
statutory provision for more leisure.
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31. On the contrary side, it is also clear that employers' organisations
are much more extensive and effective in their coverage than the unions.
Although there is only one central employers' association proper, the
Employers' Federation of Hong Kong, which mainly represents British and
international firms claiming to employ about 10% of the workforce, two
other general associations, the Federation of Hong Kong Industries and
the Association of Chinese Manufacturers although primarily concerned
with business, industrial or commercial issues play some role in
labour affairs (having expressed themselves strongly and publicly on
recent labour legislation, for instance) and have a substantial coverage.
The FHKI claims firms employing 70% to 80% of the industrial workforce:
the CMA represents smaller firms in the main, but nevertheless has more
than 1900 members, including subsidiary associations as individuals.
(At least two of the Chambers of Commerce, the General and the American,
also play a role in labour affairs.) That a reluctance by workers to
take collective action was, at least, far from universal is suggested by
the occurrence of occasional large spontaneous stoppages (like that of
the shipyards in 1969/70, involving 5000 workers) in which no union
/appeared
+