TNAG-0230-FCO40-266-Conditions-of-employment-of-labour-force-in-Hong-Kong-1970 — Page 78

with room and board-this is expected to be worth about 10 U.S.A. dollars per month. To institute new industry manufacturers are able to obtain finance from a loan company at the appropriate rates of interest. These loans have to be repaid within five years and most manufacturers accept that it is impossible to pay back all the loan within 2 years.

There were 21 circular machines working in the factory at the time of our visit and there were 8 knitters working these machines. This was a well laid out factory, light, airy and with plenty of space around the knitting machines. We were told by the company that they anticipated further growth and their policy was to plough back all surplus monies for the purchase of new machinery and they worked on the philosophy of modern machinery and a well laid out but sparsely decorated factory, feeling that frills in decoration were not necessary or essential to the company's future. The workpeople were paid one week's holiday per year and the employer told us that he had tried to encourage the growth of trade unionism in his factory but this had not been very successful. It may be that the lack of success was due to his idea that they should try and work on the American Trade Union method rather than the old established principles which we have in the United Kingdom.

This company was fully booked with orders until June 1970 and we had no doubt that with the type of machinery, all of which was modern, this would be a very thrustful organisation in the future.

We were told by the management that they were of the opinion that the Full Fashioned Outerwear machines required too high a skill for the operative and they thought in Taiwan that the training required for the operation of these machines would be too long and arduous for the manufacturers to undertake, having regard to the rapid return of capital when using circular machines.

There appeared to be more people employed in the factory than one would expect in a similar factory in this country. When we raised this matter with the management they did not feel that they were under-employing labour and the large number of people were there in anticipation of an expansion to the factory and we were told that with the factory expansion they would continue to employ the same number of people, pro rata, as at the present time.

Factory (ii)

The second factory we visited manufactured Half Hose and Ladies Seamless Hose. The company had 67 machines-5 Japanese, 29 Italian and 23 Bentley machines. They employed 300 people and the knitting plant was working three shifts, of 8 hours, six days per week. Both males and females were operating the knitting machines, one knitter working 3-6 machines. The female knitter was paid about 40 U.S.A. dollars per month and the male knitter about 60 U.S.A. dollars per month.

The majority of the production in this factory was exported to the Middle East and both the ladies hose and the socks were linked. In this factory we saw two girls linking with skill and ability that would be remarkable in any country in the world but the average was 40/50 dozens per day for which they were paying about 1.50 U.S.A. dollars per day plus board and lodgings.

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