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That is very strange, perhaps, but that is the request they have made and are making with increasing force and reason as years pass by."
The speaker?
Winston S. Churchill.
#1
8.
It would be strange if sixty years later the Hong Kong worker should differ very markedly in his aims and desires from other workers, or, if a European comparison is inapt, from his Chinese compatriots in, for example, Singapore. The plain fact is that the Hong Kong worker has virtually no voice or influence on his conditions of life and work; there are serious dangers in deriving from the docility of Hong Kong workers in the past placid assumptions about their objectives and conduct in
the future.
9. At a meeting held on 14th October between the Governor and the Minister of State, it was agreed that the proposed six stage reduction by twenty minutes a year was unacceptable and that a further meeting should be held with the employers' representatives with a view to obtaining agreement on a reduction of hours to 48 a week by four stages of half-an-hour a day a year. If agree- ment could not be reached, then the proposal should be forced through Executive Council and the Legislature. It was accepted that flexibility as regards overtime was essential and that a relaxation rising to 300 hours a year by stages as normal working hours were cut would be acceptable.
10. In the event, an agreement was reached for a five stage programme as follows: December 1967 half-hour; December 1968 - half-hour; December, 1969, 1970, 1971
twenty minutes in each year. This programme, which I do not conceal I regard as inadequate, will be incorporated in legislation. The aim of policy must be to roduce over- time to 100 hours per annum as quickly as possible at the end of the transitional period. For this purpose, it
would be valuable if the incidence of overtime could be analysed at the end of each twelve month period and a report rendered to the Commonwealth Office. If an opportunity should occur of reviewing overtime maxima in advance of December 1971, then this should be taken. Such an opportunity would occur if, as expected by the Commissioner of Labour, a large majority of employees
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