Subject Matter
1. Miscellaneous factory matters such as: Factory registration and inspection; appointment of factory inspectors; the efficient guarding of machinery and the provision of fire, health and safety precautions in factories. 2. Regulation of certain contracts
of service.
3. Assistance
to
Asiatic Emi- grants in transit through Hong Kong to work elsewhere.
4. Regulation of certain forms of
female domestic service.
5. Provision for and regulation of Industrial and Reformatory Schools.
Hong Kong Legislation
Factories & Workshops Ordin- ance, 1937.
Employers' and Servants' Ordin- ance, 1902. Asiatic 1915.
Emigration Ordinance,
Female Domestic Service Ordin- ance, 1923.
Industrial & Reformatory Schools Ordinance, 1932.
During the current year the only significant legislative change was a further amending Ordinance (No. 44 of 1947) to the Factories and Workshops Ordinance, 1937. The amending Ordinance extended control over a number of small factories and workshops previously exempt from registration and gave wider powers to the Commissioner of Labour to make special regulations for the safety and health of workers engaged in occupations involving special risk of bodily injury. Under the same Ordinance regulations have been made governing the conditions under which women may be employed as shift workers in industry.
Legislation in various stages of preparation includes:-
(a) The Trade Unions and Trade Disputes Bill. This Bill is awaiting introduction into Legislative Council; it will provide for the compulsory registration of trade unions and the establishment of arbitration machinery for voluntary arbitration in cases where a settlement by other means has not been obtained.
(b) A Workmen's Compensation Bill. In draft.
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