TNAG-0571-FCO40-704-Planning-paper-on-Hong-Kong-1976 — Page 36

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HALL 210/8

(d)

CONFIDENTIAL

(b) Statutory Public Holidays with Pay

Sir M MacLehose said that the Legislative Council had already approved a proposal to increase the number of statutory public holidays from six to ten.

(c) Statutory Annual Holidays with Pay

Sir M MacLehose said that there had been a preliminary discussion of this measure in the Executive Council and he foresaw no particular difficulty in introducing it. The Hong Kong Government and some employers already gave paid annual holidays to their staff. The intention was to provide for seven working days' paid leave but it had not yet been agreed whether these should be consecutive or not. Mr Hurst said that the ILO favoured paid annual holidays in the form of consecutive days; and it was his understanding that this was the practice in some of Hong Kong's Asian neighbours, eg Singapore. (a) Prohibition of Employment of Minors under 14 by 1979 and'

under 15 by 1980

HKK214/4

Lell

Sir M MacLehose said that he could not yet be sure whether the timing of this reform was correctly stated in the Planning Paper. Timing was dependent upon the provision of secondary school education for 13 and 14 year olds and the Director of Education had advised that full provision might be made a year later than envisaged. He would · prefer to see the children all in school before deciding on a precise timing for this reform, but certainly it will be achieved within the five year period.

(e) Safety Legislation

H14/(211/623/15

It was noted that implementation of the legislation listed in paragraph 1 (7) of Annex D would not enable Hong Kong, to apply

additional ILO conventions.

(P). -1141234/1

(8) 1

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(f) Improved Sickness Benefit and Redundancy Payments

the

(h)

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Sir M MacLehose said that he hoped to cover these measures in 1976/77 legislative programme.

Further consideration of the Introduction of Statutory Minimum Wages for Low Paid Occupations

Consideration of the Introduction of Limitations on Hours of Work for Adult Males and of Overtime Rates

Sir M MacLehose said that he accepted that consideration must be given to a statutory minimum wage. But there were very real difficulties and certainly, even if these could be overcome, it was an item that could only be introduced at the end of the five year period. Mr Hurst suggested that Hong Kong might benefit from either an expert study of the matter or the establishment of a tripartite

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4

/minimum