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Kr. Hopetop Novéton
Parliamentary Office Parliamentar
The attached Parliamentary Question by Mr. Ernest Thornton, P.,
is for written answer tomorrow, Friday, 14 February. The draft reply is based on Hong Kong telegram No.142, copy attached.
2. Mr. Thornton is one of a group of Members of Parliament who for several years past have taken a close interest in the conditions.
of work of women and young persons in Hong Kong industry.
It
must be assumed that Mr. Thornton is referring here to the
employment of women and young persons on night work, which is generally prohibited in Regulations made under the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance. There is, of course, no prohibition of the employment of women and young persons in textile (or other) factories, as the wording of the question tends
to imply.
It
3. While the Regulations prohibit night work, Section 7(4) of the Crdinance provides that the Commissioner of Labour can exempt any industrial undertaking from compliance with the Regulations. is possible therefore to relax the prohibition without further legislation. Requests for relaxation have in the past been refused.
4. In the past two years there have been repeated requests and representations by and on behalf of employers for a relaxation of this prohibition. Its enforcement has impeded the employment of women and young persons in industries where shift-work has been introduced, particularly in certain sections of the textile industry. The most recent representations (which have been raised in the Colony's Legislative Assembly) are directed towards a limited relaxation in selected textile factories (i.e. those on shift work)
and the intention appears to be that it might be introduced on an
experimental basis.
5.
Mr. George Foggon, the Labour Adviser, recently visited Hong Kong in the course of a Far East and Pacific tour from which he has not yet returned. He discussed the current proposals with
/the Hong Kong ...
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