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EMPLOYMENT
A consumer price index, intended as an indicator of the effects of price changes on household expenditure, was published through- out the year. It varied from 106 to 121 (base of 100-period Septem- ber 1963 to August 1964). In December 1967 it stood at 112. The 1965 Salaries Commission, recommended that a special index based on the expenditure of households spending less than $600 a month should be published and used as the basis for monthly adjustment in the salaries of minor staff in government service. In accordance with this recommendation, a separate index, known as the Modified Consumer Price Index, was devised. A proportion of the wages of minor staff (Scale 1), in the public service, is adjusted monthly by reference to this index.
T
The Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance is the basis for the control of hours and conditions of work in industry. On December 1, amending legislation came into force which reduced the maximum standard working hours for women and young peo- ple, aged 16 and 17, to nine-and-a-half hours a day and 57 a week and requires hours of work to be reduced in stages over four years until, by December 1, 1971, the maximum standard hours for women and young persons employed in industry will be 48 a week. In addition to providing for maximum daily hours, regulations made under the ordinance provide for limited overtime, weekly rest days and rest periods for women and young persons.
The Industrial Employment (Holidays with Pay and Sickness Allowance) Ordinance provides for six annual holidays to be given to workers in industrial establishments and for sickness allowance up to 12 days a year.
Young persons between the age of 14 and 16 may work only eight hours a day, with a break of one hour after five hours con- tinuous work. Children under the age of 14 are prohibited from working in industry, and no woman or young person is allowed to work at night or underground in any mine.
There are no legal restrictions on hours of work for men. Most men employed in industry work 10 hours a day or less. Government employees and those in concerns operating on western lines work eight hours. The restrictions on the hours of work for women which
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