TNAG-0230-FCO40-266-Conditions-of-employment-of-labour-force-in-Hong-Kong-1970 — Page 120

2600224 C.S. 84

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XCR(70) 70

NOTE FOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

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Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance

(Chapter 59)

EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN AT NIGHT

Regulations 9, 10 and 12 of the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Regulations effectively prohibit the employment of adult women aged 18 years or over, and young persons under 18 years, in industrial undertakings between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m, Section 7(4) pf the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance authorises the Commissioner of Labour to exempt any industrial undertaking from any regulation made under the ordinance in such cases as he shall think fit, for such periods and subject to such conditions as he may specify. The Commissioner of Labour has, since the early 1950s, exercised his powers under this section to exempt selected industrial undertakings in such a way that women supervisors have been permitted to work, subject to certain prescribed conditions, between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a. m. The present number of women supervisors so authorised is over 1,000, of which 368 are employed at any one time in 33 factories. Apart from some minor infringements of the conditions, the system has worked satisfactorily. Up to the present, no exemptions have been granted for production workers.

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The Commissioner of Labour has recently written to the four major associations of employers, and to others who have previously written to him on the subject, that he is now prepared to consider applic- ations from managements of industrial undertakings for permission to employ adult women at night in order to help to alleviate a shortage of production workers. Such permission would be granted by extending exemptions to women production workers as well as to women supervisors in selected undertakings. The scheme would be operated for a trial period beginning not earlier than 1st March 1970 and ending not later than 30th June 1971. It would be the intention to review the position in about one year's time to decide, well in advance, whether or not to extend exemptions after 30th June 1971.

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In order to facilitate the enforcement of conditions to be attached to exemptions, the Commissioner of Labour proposes to consider initially applications from larger firms employing on all shifts 500 or more workers, both male and female, Records, as at the end of 1969, indicate that 117 firms would be eligible to apply, and these cover nearly all branches of the textile industry, the plastics industry, the electronics industry, and a miscellaneous selection of other industries.

The Commissioner of Labour proposes to impose certain general conditions on all undertakings for the sole purpose of protecting the health and welfare of adult women working at night. These would be as follows:

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