CONFIDENTIAL
Board which has the job of looking at new legislation. If you have
ideas about how trade union development in Hong Kong could be
encouraged, I should be glad to hear them.
In the absence of effective trade unions, wages and conditions are bad
9. I think this is an exaggerated view which does not fit the facts.
Wages have been going up steadily in Hong Kong over recent years
and if we take 1958 as the base year of 100, the index last year was
231. In the same period, the cost of living, based on a carefully prepared General Consumer Price Index, has risen by 33%. Thus, wages have gone up by between 51% and 6% in real terms each year. Apart from the rates in Japan they are now as good as any in that
area. Surely that is not too bad a picture?
It is allright pointing to statistics about rising wages. refer to the bigger employers and not the 'sweat shops'
These
10. First of all, let us be clear about one thing. Records are
kept about all industrial establishments there are some 14,500 of them. They are subject to regular inspection by the Labour and Factory Inspectorate, as I have already described. All are governed, as are non-industrial establishments, by Hong Kong's labour legisla- tion which has been steadily improved in recent years. I would
mention, in particular, holidays with pay and sickness allowance, improvements in workmen's compensation, better maternity protection, progressive reduction of hours of work for women and young persons, and now rest days for all workers, whether industrial or non-
industrial. There are bound to be black spots small factories set up in flats or in backstreets seeking to avoid registration but these are steadily being winkled out and the bigger employers in Hong Kong see it as in their interests that they should be.
11.
Increasingly, as did Japan in the past, Hong Kong is improving the quality and character of its products and moving away from some of the cheaper categories of textiles, footwear, etc. As Mr. Gibson must have seen, the best factories in Hong Kong would stand comparison with factories anywhere. What the Government of Hong Kong wants to do is to raise the level of the rest as fast as conditions
permit.
CONFIDENT IAL
/Is it not
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