27
!
38.
for men
Even in industries where short-term employment is normal
especially construction, which was widely quoted as a potential
pace-setter for the male manual labour market - there are limitations
on the worker's mobility. The general system of hiring labour through
agents, who will each generally have a pool of workers (of specialised
or varied trades) gives the latter an interest in attaching themselves
regularly to a particular sub-contractor. Both in construction and
other industries, many firms operate with a core of permanent workers and
hire others on a temporary basis. But there are two recognised types
of "temporary" worker - long-term casuals ("cheung-saan-kung") and
short-term ones ("saan-kung"). The last are often paid on a daily, as
opposed to the more usual fortnightly or monthly basis: even in our
sample of factory operatives, about a quarter of all those interviewed
fell in each of the two "temporary" categories. So that, with luck,
diligence (and the avoidance of trouble) a man may move by stages from
very casual to permanent employment by making himself regularly available
to a particular firm. To which one might add that in smaller trades,
the sources of information on alternative job opportunities accessible to
the worker are much more restricted than in the concentrated manufacturing
districts of Kowloon or the tea-house recruiting centres for construction
Smaller
labour; in such/trades, the worker relies very largely on family and
friendship contacts.
завере за креат
All this presents a picture of a much more highly segmented
labour market, with mobility restricted to certain pockets, than is
customarily drawn of Hong Kong. But finally, the labour force itself is
also much less homogenous than is usually represented. There are groups
at a particular disadvantage in the labour market: many employers, for
instance, appear reluctant to employ young men without secondary
education because the present interval of two years between the age
to which education is compulsory (12) and the minimum age for employment (14) is alleged to make them undisciplined and difficult to handle -
..../