OCCUPATIONS, WAGES AND LABOUR ORGANIZATION
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necessitate a reduction in the strength of the locally entered per- sonnel of H.M.S. 'Tamar', the Royal Naval shore establishment in the Colony. During the year, 226 men were discharged as redundant, almost all in the period April to July. By the end of the year all but 27 of these persons were known to have found fresh employment, 178 through the Employment Liaison Office. All personnel discharged were eligible to receive gratuities, but the size of these gratuities for men with less than 9 years service gave rise to dissatisfaction, and groups of discharged personnel made representations to the Labour Department and prominent local citizens in this connexion.
Canadian Tools Limited. The management of this company suspended operations in their factory in Kowloon on 4th February so as to enable the works to be removed to new premises in Shau Kei Wan. Some 29 workers were needed to supervise the move- ment of the machinery but there was no work for the other 115 workers, mostly female, until the factory reopened. The manage- ment decided to take the opportunity presented by the move to get rid of certain workers with whom it was dissatisfied by dis- charging all those for whom work could not immediately be found and then re-engaging only those whose work had, in its opinion, been satisfactory. A notice was posted in the factory on 4th February informing the workers that they were discharged, and requesting those interested in resuming work at the new factory to give their names to the foreman. The workers at once protested against this action and demanded the re-engagement of all the workers dismissed and the payment of some form of wage over the period of the transfer of the works. Negotiations between the management and the workers' representatives were unsuccessful; and on 25th February the workers called at the Labour Depart- ment to request intervention to settle the dispute. The manage- ment agreed in principle to pay a gratuity to those not re-engaged. A series of lengthy and acrimonious meetings was held in the Department between the management and the workers' repre- sentatives and a settlement was finally reached on 14th March whereby a gratuity of 31 days at a standard rate of $4 a day was paid to all those not re-engaged at the new works.
China Dyeing Works, Tsuen Wan. At the beginning of August the management took steps to introduce a three 8-hour shift