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5
and that design in new construction allowed for improvement in accommodation as and when pressure on the accommodation
permitted.
Labour and Trade Unions
11.
Mr Parry fully accepted that, as a result of political affiliations there would be no progress in Hong Kong towards the establishment of a strong Trade Union Movement on British lines.
H.E.
confirmed that this was correct but added that one could not
Just leave it at that. The situation imposed a certain obligation on the Government to ensure adequate labour conditions. Labour legislation had been greatly improved. as the T.U.C. already agreed, and it should reach a standard at least as good as anywhere else in Asia within four years. A Trade Unionist had been appointed to the Legislative Council in order to encourage the Trade Union Movement. While I E. was sceptical of this result, the man in question was well versed in labour legislation and he expected his value to be more in this field.
12. Mr Parry asked why minimum wage legislation could not be introduced and C for L replied that in an economy where real wages had increased by an average of 3.5 percent per annum since 1964 and 8 percent between September 1975 and March 1976 and by at least another 8 percent since then, it would be quite impossible to administer such legislation since the gap between minimum and
real wages would be increasing all the time. The problem in
Hong Kong was shortage of Labour and at present there were 40,000 reported vacancies. Policing would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, because in times of recession there would always
be people prepared to undercut the minimum in order to get
employment.
In response to a question from Mr Parry,
C for L said that in March 1976 average wages had been just over $30,00 per day which produced an average low wage of about $600 per month, but this had to be seen in the context of
Hong Kong's tax structure where, for instance, a married man with two children would have to be earning the equivalent of
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/2.900
}