16-JAN-1989 16:47
EDUCATION & MANPOWER BR
852 5 868 5916
P.03
DRAFT
Question No. 1
Reply by the Honourable R G B Bridge, OBE, JP Secretary for Education and Manpower
to a question by the Honourable TAM Yiu-chung in the Legislative Council on 18 January 1989
Question: Article 7(a)(i) of the International
Answer :
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provides that men and women shall be entitled to equal pay for equal work. The United Kingdom Government, on ratifying this Covenant in 1976, reserved the right to postpone application of Article 7(a)(i) in So far as it concerns the private sector in Hong Kong. Will the Government inform this Council why the application of Article 7(a)(i) has been postponed in relation to Hong Kong since 1976 and what steps will now be taken to improve this situation or inequality ?
sir,
I
it accepted the principle of
understand that when the Hong Kong Government
considered this issue in 1976 it
equal pay for equal work, but felt that to apply Article 2 of
the Economic Covenant without
reservation would cause
practical problems.
At that time the
Government
felt that any
between men and women were
differences in conditions of work between
mainly due to the differences in the positions they held,
rather than to discrimination. However, in order to be sure
of full compliance in the private sector the Government would
have had to legislate. The Government was not convinced that
this was necessary and therefore asked the UK Government to
make the appropriate reservation.
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