2600027 C.S. 20A
SAVING DESPATCH
SAVINGRAM
From the Governor, Hong Kong
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
To the Secretary of State for the Colonies
Repeated to:--
Repeated to:-
My Reference.
5th March, 1969. CR 169/65 IV
COMMONWEALIN
FOREIGN AND C
10 MAR 1949
Your Reference.
No.
241
No.
No.
Employment of Women at Night in Industrial Establishments
Industrialists in Hong Kong have drawn the attention of the Commissioner of Labour to an article on page 68 of The Economist of 15th February, 1969 entitled "The unions : farce unbounded". It is stated in this article that, out of 2,667,000 women workers employed in Britain in productive industries, 4.4% or 117,286 are covered by special exemption orders under the Factories Act to permit them to work during "men-only times in factories". The implication from the article is that "men-only times" are after 8 p.m. on weekdays and 1 p.m. on Saturdays.
2.
The position in Hong Kong at the end of 1968 was that the Commissioner of Labour had granted special exemptions to 426 women under the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance to work as supervisors between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. This represents less than 0.18% of the total work force of 239,462 Women employed in industry. The distribution of these exempted supervisors was as follows :
Industry
Textile :
Cotton spinning
Cotton weaving
No. of Factories
No. of Women
20
329
11
76
Silk weaving
1
7
Wool spinning
2
9
Bleaching & Dyeing
1
5
35
426
3.
I should like to know if the report in The Economist is accurate and the circumstances in which women workers are exempted, the nature of the work permitted, the conditions imposed for exemptions, and the distribution of exempted women between industries.
! RECEIVED IN
VIS No.31 1 1 MAR 1969
HKRS/2
19
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.