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EMPLOYMENT
September 1963 to August 1964). In December 1969 it stood at 119. A special index based on the expenditure of households spending less than $600 a month and known as the Modified Consumer Price Index is also published and used as the basis for monthly adjustment in the salaries of minor staff in government service. A proportion of the wages of minor staff (Scale 1) in the public service is adjusted quarterly by reference to this index.
The Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance is the basis for the control of hours and conditions of work in industry. On December 1, 1967, amending legislation came into force which introduced a phased programme and will result in the reduction of the maximum standard hours for women and young persons to eight a day and 48 a week by December 1, 1971. The first and second stages of the programme were carried out without serious difficulties. The third phase of the programme came into force on December 1, 1969 and reduced the maximum standard working hours for women and for young persons aged 16 and 17 years to eight hours and forty minutes a day and 52 hours 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.
Young persons aged 14 and 15 years may work only eight hours a day in industry with a break of one hour after five hours continuous work. Children under the age of 14 are prohibited from working in industry and no woman nor young person is allowed to work at night or underground in any mine, quarry or since October 1, 1969 in any industrial undertaking involving a tunnelling operation.
There are no legal restrictions on hours of work for men. Most men employed in industry work ten 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 were introduced in January 1959 and which have been amended to allow for the phased introduction of a 48 hours week, resulted in a decrease in the number of hours worked by men in the same concern. By December 1, 1969, 40 cotton spinning and silk weaving mills had introduced a system of three eight-hour daily shifts, cotton weaving mills were on either two or three shifts, and it was estimated that 38,180 men and 41,544 women were
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