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That is very strange, perhaps, but that is the request they have made and are making with increasing force and reason as years pass by."
The speaker?
Winston S. Churchill.
8. It would be strange if sixty years later the Hong
Kong worker should differ very markedly in his aims and desires from other workers, or, if a European comparison is inapt, from his Chinese compatriots in, for example, Singapore. The plain fact is that the Hong Kong worker
has virtually no voice or influence on his conditions of life and work; there are serious dangers in deriving
from the docility of Hong Kong workers in the past placid assumptions about their objectives and conduct in
the future.
9. At a meeting held on 14th October between the Governor and the Minister of State, it was agreed that the proposed six stage reduction by twenty minutes a year
was unacceptable and that a further meeting should be held with the employers' representatives with a view to obtaining agreement on a reduction of hours to 48 a week
by four stages of half-an-hour a day a year. If agree- ment could not be reached, then the proposal should be forced through Executive Council and the Legislature. It was accepted that flexibility as regards overtime was essential and that a relaxation rising to 300 hours a year
by stages as normal working hours were cut would be
acceptable.
10. In the event, an agreement was reached for a five stage programme as follows: December 1967 - half-hour; December 1968 - half-hour; December, 1969, 1970, 1971 -
twenty minutes in each year. This programme, which I do not conceal I regard as inadequate, will be incorporated
in legislation. The aim of policy must be to reduce over-
time to 100 hours per annum as quickly as possible at the end of the transitional period. For this purpose, it
would be valuable if the incidence of overtime could be
analysed at the end of each twelve month period and a report rendered to the Commonwealth Office.
If an opportunity should occur of reviewing overtime maxima in advance of Dccember 1971, then this should be taken. Such an opportunity would occur if, as expected by the
Commissioner of Labour, a large majority of employees
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