XN000022-1973-06-22 — Page 4

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Friday, June 22, 1973

BETTER CONDITIONS FOR WORKERS

All manual workers and non-manual workers earning not more than

$1,500 a month will be entitled to sickness allowance and holidays with

pay, under new provisions in the Employment Ordinance.

They will become operative on July 1, 1973 and January 1, 1974

respectively.

Ir. Y.N. Yiu, acting Senior Labour Officer of the Labour Department,

said today that many employees such as restaurant workers and shop assistants

will, for the first time, enjoy statutory rights to sickness allowance

and paid holidays.

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The old ordinance the Industrial Employment (holidays with pay

and sickness allowance) Ordinance

applied only to manual workers and

non-manual workers with a monthly earning not exceeding $700 working in

industrial establishments.

Hr. Yiu, who was speaking at the luncheon meeting of the Rotary

Club of Kowloon North, said an employee will qualify to receive sickness

allowance of half his wages (excluding overtime) if he has worked for his

employer for not less than three months.

He can accumulate his entitlement at the rate of one sickness day

for each completed month of service, with a maximum accumulation of 24 days.

If an employee's sickness lasted shorter than his accumulation,

the balance could be brought forward.

/Mr. Yiu