EMPLOYMENT
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Placement Unit of the Social Welfare Department and the Employment Service of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service and other voluntary agencies. In stage one, which is expected to become operational in 1980, the service will provide employment assistance to physically disabled job-seekers. Its services subsequently will be extended to mentally disabled and socially disadvantaged job-seekers.
The Contracts for Overseas Employment Ordinance controls contracts entered into in Hong Kong between overseas employers, or their authorised representatives, and all manual workers proceeding overseas for employment. Such contracts must be attested by the Commissioner for Labour before workers leave Hong Kong. During the year 398 contracts were attested, compared with 461 in 1978.
Administrative measures are in force to regulate and protect the employment of domestic helpers recruited from overseas under valid contracts that must be attested by the Labour Department. During the year 5,658 such contracts were attested.
Under the Employment Ordinance, all profit-making employment agencies – unless in an excluded class must obtain a licence from the Commissioner for Labour before starting operations. During the year, the department issued 68 licences to employment agencies dealing with local employment and 12 to those catering for employment overseas.
Information on Careers
The Youth Employment Advisory Service of the Labour Department provides careers information to students and young people in a variety of ways. It has so far produced 37 careers pamphlets and 100 occupations leaflets. The service also produces a monthly careers newsletter which is distributed to secondary schools, youth centres and other youth organisations.
In 1979, officers of the service gave 264 talks on careers to some 38,000 students in 165 schools. The service also organised 16 seminars and took part in 25 other activities to provide careers information to students, teachers, parents and interested individuals.
The service operates a careers information centre in Kowloon. The centre has a careers reference library with some 800 titles on careers and related subjects as well as audio-visual facilities for films, slide presentations, cassette recordings and other resources.
The Labour Department's eighth careers exhibition was held at the Kowloon-Canton Railway terminus in Hung Hom in December. A total of 25 exhibitors from commerce, industry and government took part in the exhibition, which attracted some 120,000 visitors. During the year, 10 mini-careers exhibitions were staged on a specially-designed truck that visited housing estates, parks, community centres and schools.
Industrial Safety
The Factory Inspectorate of the Labour Department is responsible for enforcing the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance and its subsidiary legislation. These provide for the health and safety of workers in factories, on building and engineering construction sites, and at other industrial undertakings. Advice and assistance also are given to management on guarding dangerous machinery parts, adopting safe working practices, and laying out new factories to achieve better working conditions. The inspec- torate also investigates industrial accidents.
The Labour Department, in conjunction with the Government Information Services, continued its long-term publicity programme to promote industrial safety. This involved contact with the news media, television spots, and a large-scale industrial safety and health exhibition at the Kowloon-Canton Railway terminus in Hung Hom.