CONFIDENTIAL
E
by
Memorandum for Labour Advisory Board
Hours of work for women and young persons in industrial
employment
The Factorios and Industrial Undertakings Regulations, which limit the hours of work to a maximum of 10 a day and 60 a week and provide for one rest day in every week for women and young persons in industrial employment, came into force on 1st January, 1959. In introducing this legislation, Mr. Sedgwick, then Commissioner of labour, said:
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"The now regulations will not bring hours of work for women and young persons in Hongkong completely into line with internationally accepted standards and, as I have already suggested, positive advances will have to be made in due course...
The regulations now before Honourable Members nevertheless represent a considerable step forward (even if it is only the first step) in Hongkong's labour legislation."
Since 1959, exhaustive consideration has been given to the problems of taking a second step to bring hours of work for women and young persons more into line with internationally-accepted standards. Over the past eight years, many discussions have been held with various organisations and representatives to find a solution to these problems. More recently, a working party consisting of representatives from the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Hongkong Industrios, the Employers' Federation of Hongkong and the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hongkong, was convened in May, 1965, under the chairmanship of the then Commissioner of Labour.
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The report of the working party was completed in June, 1966, and subsequently presented to Government. Briefly, members, apart from the chairman, strongly opposed any amendments to existing legislations. They considered that, as about 20% of women industrial workers, apart from those in the building trade, already worked an 8-hours day, and as this had been achieved almost entirely on the initiative of the employers, a general 8-hours day could be brought about by education of other employers and that industrialists should form a committee to encourage a reduction in those industries where women and young persons work more hours. As far as is known, no such committee has been formed. The chairman dissented from these recommendations and recommended that hours of work should be reduced, by statutory order, in those trades which were already working 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week.
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During the past eight years, there has been considerable criticism from international and national organisations and from individuals, including members of Parliament in the United Kingdom, of the maximum statutory hours of work in Hongkong. Whatever the motivos for this criticism, it is undeniable that the maximum statutory hours of work are more than those acceptable to international opinion. The International Labour Organisation adopted a convention in 1919 to limit the hours of work in industrial undertakings to 8 a day and 48 a week for both men and women. In 1935, the International Labour Organisation adopted another convention setting a standard of a 40-hours week. In 1962, it adopted a recommendation involving the progressive reduction of normal hours of work from 48 to 40. Paragraph
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