TNAG-0338-FCO40-374-Report-of-visits-of-Overseas-Labour-Adviser--G-Foggon--from--1972 — Page 12

CONFIDENTIAL

It is a matter for concern, therefore, that a proposal to improve sickness pay and extend to non-industrial workers entitlement to paid holidays and sick allowances put forward by the Labour Commissioner, with the support of the Labour Advisory Board and the four principal employer organisations, could be held up for over a year at official level and be prevented from coming up for consideration in Executive Council. (This extension to non-industrials was under discussion and recommended from London as far back as 1961.)

Legislative Programme

7. Legal drafting no longer represents a difficulty in the preparation of new legislation which can now be put into proper form without unreasonable delay as soon as the principles and purposes of the legislation have been agreed and drafting instructions prepared. The Departmental Programme of Legislation as at 3 December 1971 contained no less than 18 items in various stages of preparation. The majority of those items represent useful regulatory changes, but there are four items of major importance which are discussed in the following paragraphs. These are (a) the Employment (Amendment) ( No 2) Bill 1972; () legislation to deal with disputes in essential services; (c) legislation on severance pay; (d) legislation to provide for labour

courts.

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Employment (Amendment) ( No 2) Bill 1972 (see also paragraph 2)

Lope The purpose of this Bill is to extend holidays with pay and sickness allowances to non-industrial workers, to amend the qualifications, and to provide for improved entitlement to sickness allowances for both industrials and non-industrials. It was considered by the Labour Advisory Board in March 1970 and the text of a fairly lengthy bill was subsequently prepared; but as already mentioned it was the subject thereafter of differences of view at official level. The Employment (Amendment) (No 2) Ordinance 1970 granting four rest days a month became effective on 1 April 1970 and some of the effects attracted attention for example the closing of all rice shops on the same day. Anxieties about inflation, increased business rents, etc began to show themselves about the same time and as a consequence the climate for further labour standard improvements deteriorated. Particular doubt was expressed at official level about the proposal to increase sickness allowances from half pay to two thirds (although this had already been agreed by the employers' representatives in March 1970) With the wisdom of hindsight it might have been tactically better for the Labour Commissioner to propose an across the board extension of existing conditions for industrial workers to non-industrials, leaving the question of improving sickness pay to a later stage as a separate operation. This is the course now recommended; it seems to have marked advantages over a proposal to deal with holidays in a separate piece of legislation and later to deal with sick pay. This latter

course would involve the re-writing of a Bill which is the product of a good deal of work over many months. (Two problems

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CONFIDENTIAL