EMPLOYMENT
before the Lunar New Year. In recent years, an increasing number of employers have introduced provident fund schemes to provide improved long-term security for their employees.
A number of significant amendments to the Employment Ordinance were made during the year to improve employees' benefits. The Employment (Amendment) Ordinance 1990 came into effect on June 8. It removed the distinction between manual and non-manual employees, and as a result, extended the ordinance to cover all employees irrespective of their monthly wages. It changed the definition of 'continuous contract of employment' to mean employment with the same employer for at least 18 hours per week for four consecutive weeks or more. This new definition has brought more regular part-time em- ployees under the protection of the Employment Ordinance. The term of 'lay-off' was redefined so that if non-provision of work by an employer exceeds half the total number of normal working days in four consecutive weeks or one-third of the total number of normal working days in 26 consecutive weeks, the employee will be taken to be laid off and will therefore be entitled to severance payment.
The Employment (Amendment) (No. 2) Ordinance 1990 came into operation on July 13. It increased the paid annual leave entitlement of employees with longer service from seven days to ten days. This entitlement will be further increased by stages until it reaches a maximum of 14 days in five years' time.
The Employment of Children Regulations, made under the Employment Ordinance, prohibit the employment of children under 15 in any industrial undertakings. Children aged 13 and 14 may be employed in non-industrial establishments, subject to stringent conditions which aim to ensure a minimum of nine years' education and to protect their health, safety and welfare.
Under the Women and Young Persons (Industry) Regulations, young persons aged between 15 and 17 as well as women are permitted to work eight hours a day and six days a week in industry. However, by agreement between the employer and the women or young persons concerned, their working hours may exceed eight on one or more days in any week or 48 in a week, provided that the total number of hours worked (excluding overtime) does not exceed 96 hours in any two consecutive weeks, but maximum working hours a day (including overtime) remain at 10. Women and young persons must be given a break of at least 30 minutes after five hours continuous work.
In industry, overtime employment for women is restricted to two hours a day and 200 hours a year, while persons under the age of 18 are not permitted to work overtime. The Commissioner for Labour may, under special circumstances, increase the hours of overtime employment allowed for an industrial undertaking. As a general rule, overtime employment for women is reckoned by reference to an industrial undertaking. However, an employer may, subject to compliance with conditions imposed by the Commissioner for Labour, choose to calculate overtime by reference to different parts of his undertaking, or to different sets of women in different processes, or to the individual woman.
Women are usually not allowed to work after 11 pm and before 6 am, while persons. under the age of 18 are prohibited from working between 7 pm and 7 am. Permission has been given by the Commissioner for Labour to some large factories - mostly those engaged in cotton-spinning to employ women at night, subject to a number of stringent conditions. Women and young persons must not be employed on more than six days in any week. The regulations also prohibit them from working underground and provide that,
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