TNAG-0230-FCO40-266-Conditions-of-employment-of-labour-force-in-Hong-Kong-1970 — Page 207

(c) Material conditions should be examined in

each factory for which an application to

employ women at night is made, and condit-

ions brought up to standard before the

Commissioner of Labour gives approval.

(a)

Careful reinspections should be made

subsequently, in particular during night

hours.

I agree that these are safeguards that the Minister might

properly lay down.

W. 3. Carter

(w.S. Carter) Hong Kong Department

31 December, 1969

I have discussed the submission above with Mr. Foggon, and

he drew my attention to the Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons on 15 December about factory night work for women. (The relevant Hansard is attached.) The safeguards which he has in mind, and which are mentioned in paragraph 6 of the submission,

are by and large those which are mentioned in the speech of the

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Employment and Productivity. I think as a general principle we should have in mind Mr. Walker's remark (column 1097) "I am bound

to say, however, that my Right Honourable Friend Mrs. Castle

believes that the disappearance of the special restrictions on

women is perhaps an inevitable part of the general and

irreversible advance towards complete equality between the sexes,

of which the advance towards equal pay is another limb."

In

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