TNAG-0454-FCO40-519-Application-of-international-labour-conventions-to-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 86

is given to the provisions of this Convention and that a declaration of full application could now be made. The particular provisions to which the Government has drawn attention would

certainly appear to make an improved declaration possible, but doubt has arisen in regard to other aspects of the Hong Kong law on which no satisfactory conclusion has been drawn as yet. Difficulty arises in regard to the definition of "wages" in Employment Ordinance No 38.68, which is not completely in line

with the definition in Article 1 of the Convention in that

the Hong Kong law omits the condition that wages should be "fixed by mutual agreement or by national laws or regulations". This would seem to have the effect that there is no safeguard against an undue proportion of the remuneration of a worker being in kind rather than in money terms. Payment in kind is specifi- cally excluded by Section 2 of Ordinance No 38 of 1968 and Section 22 provides that no person shall enter into employment without being informed in writing of the conditions with regard to wages under which he is to be employed. These provisions notwithstanding, there would seem to be nothing in the Hong Kong law which would ensure that the requirements of Article 4 are met. Article 4 is concerned with measures necessary to ensure that where there is partial payment of wages in kind, these are restricted to a fair and reasonable value and are appropriate to the personal use and benefit of the worker and his family. This Article further provides that such partial payment should be authorised either by national laws or regulations or by collective agreements or arbitration awards.

The Hong Kong Government would no doubt argue that by reason of Section 2 of Employment Ordinance No 38 all such payments are in addition to and not instead of wages, but given that there is no statutory or voluntary control of wage rates, this provision could be meaningless in fact.

Having regard to the apparent absence of measures for fixing wage rates, it is doubtful whether Article 8 would be regarded as being properly implemented since this requires that deductions should also be permitted only to the extent prescribed by national laws or regulations or as fixed by collective agreement or arbitration award. Section 21 provides that permitted deductions from wages may include payment for meals and accommodation provided by the employer.

This would not be

/objectionable