CO129-600-4 Salaries Commission- comments on report 12-10-1947 - 15-12-1947 — Page 42

Mr. Barltrop

SUMMARY & comments

HONGKONG SALARIES COMMISSI CN 1947

My comments in some detail are attached. may be summarised as follows:-

To

41

Briefly they

(a) in general, the Commission appears to have taken great care not propose salary changes which would have repercussions outside Govt. service. Judging from the information given in the report therefore there appears to be no comment on the proposals from this aspect.

(b) With regard to the "Labour Office" staff, it is difficult to comment without knowing

(i) the Commissioner's own proposals and views; ii) the nature of the duties the staff are ex-

pected to perform;

but, guessing at (i) with the S. of S.'s remarks regarding "prestige" in mind and assuming much of (ii) from the known legislation and from general knowledge of other labour departments, the following points appear to require attention:

(1) Womer Labour Officers are to be treated much less favourably than senior women in other departments;

(2) Male Asst. Labour Officers are expected to start lower than similar officers in other departments;

(3) Labour Inspectors (all) appear to be individuals of very low status. The Chief Labour Inspector seems not to be allocated a grade commensurate with his re- sponsibilities

while the starting points of his male and female staff are so low that they

so low that they can scarcely attract educated and intelligent Chinese and certainly cannot confer any "prestige" on the officers, who will doubtless have to deal with employers among others. There seems to be some error in the proposals for Women Labour Inspectors, as they do not follow logically or bear much relation to those for men. It is suggested... that the views of the Labour Commissioner on these grades, if not already known, should be considered.

Sheila Ann Ofiture

15:x:4)