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Sex Discrimination Ordinance
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph W P Wong, in moving a motion to amend the Sex Discrimination Ordinance in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move the motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.
The Sex Discrimination Ordinance, enacted on 14 July 1995, renders sex discrimination unlawful in the employment field. The women-specific protective employment restrictions laid down under the Women and Young Persons (Industry) Regulations are exempted from the application of the Sex Discrimination Ordinance for a period of one year from the date of enactment of the Ordinance. The purpose of this resolution is to extend this grace period for another year.
The objective of the Women and Young Persons (Industry) Regulations, made under the Employment Ordinance, is to safeguard the health and welfare of female (and young) workers in industry. The Regulations prohibit women from working in dangerous trades [e.g. boiler chipping, manufacturing process using arsenic, lead, mercury, etc.], restrict their working hours and prohibit them from working on rest days. Section 57(3) of the Ordinance provides for a one-year grace period to exempt these provisions from the application of the Ordinance. To allow time for the Administration to review and to take appropriate adaptive measures, Section 57(4) further provides that this grace period may be extended for another year by resolution of this Council.
During the current one-year grace period the Labour Department has conducted a thorough review of the Women and Young Persons (Industry) Regulations and assessed the implications of removing those women-specific provisions which are incompatible with the Sex Discrimination Ordinance. As the exercise required extensive and time-consuming research and analysis of similar employment legislation in other countries, and Hong Kong's obligations under various International Labour Conventions, the review was only completed in April this year. The report on the review by the Labour Department was put to the subcommittee set up by this Council for the purpose of examining my present motion at its meeting on 19 June 1996.