HONG KONG MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN THE SIXTIES
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the case of labour policy. Traditionally the Government's labour policy has been enforcement of the minimum standards prescribed for non-metropolitan territories in international labour conventions, supplemented by additional measures as and when demand for such measures can be identified and the economy is thought strong enough to bear their legal imposition; 1968 saw the passage of a comprehensive Employment Ordinance, together with provisions for gradual introduction of an eight-hour working day and a 48-hour working week for women and young persons by 1971. This is likely to have wider implications for manufacturing industry as a whole than at first seems obvious, because nearly as many women are employed in factories as men, and therefore limitation of working hours for women in effect determines the hours of work for men in a number of key industries. But the most important development in regard to labour policy in the sixties has been better labour conditions consequent on the employers themselves being able to meet such conditions with more assurance than in the past.
A buoyant economy, moreover, created many job opportunities at a time when school leavers were abnormally few and not made up by illegal immigration. Labour generally, although not well organised, was able to capitalise on the situation and employers were in a position to pay higher wages. The result is demonstrated in the average increase in wages of workers in manufacturing in- dustry, which over the decade rose nominally by about 8.4 per cent per annum, 'or 5.7 per cent in real terms. It was generally accepted in 1959 that Hong Kong's industrial wage rates were third highest in Asia, after Japan and Singapore. They are now generally believed to be higher only in Japan. One corollary was that during the decade manufacturing industry was remarkably free from strikes or strife. And another was the great and steady increase in personal savings by wage earners; the figure for savings deposits with banks rose from $369 million in December 1959 to $3,367 million in the same month of 1969, a substantial proportion of which must have come from the pockets of industrial workers.
Industrial Training
Other aspects of social policy which have had their impact on industry result from greater resources devoted to education and