TNAG-0607-FCO40-755-Monitoring-progress-made-on-planning-papers-on-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 177

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4.

We should encourage the Governor to push on towards the goal of an extended social security programme by the end of 1980 which would comprise a non-means-tested type of social security scheme which would include unemployment and retirement benefits;

(b) while the Governor's contributory sickness and death insurance scheme is open to criticism in that it is limited in scope and offers meagre benefits, the speech, as at present drafted, might well undersell what is already on offer in the scheme as it stands. I would like to see the Governor commend the scheme as something which would be built on for the future and express the hope that employees and their organizations, i.e. the trade unions, will be drawn into a process of consultation with the Hong Kong Government about the further development of social protection in Hong Kong as well as ways in which opportunities under the present scheme can be improved.

Reference in the speech to consultation with

representative organizations in industry might well soften criticism of a lack of consultation;

(c) the Governor refers to the need for the Hong Kong Government's Labour Department to undergo a period of consolidation.

I

hope this will not preclude continuing progress in 1978 on new labour legislation; and

(a) some parts of the section on the effects of the introduction of free and compulsory junior secondary education on the numbers of 13 and 14 year olds in employment are unfortunately worded. It might be best if, for example, the Governor omitted saying (in the section on education): "The number of 13 and 14 year olds in employment at present is small, and their exclusion from the workforce would have no significant effect on our

economy".

I took the opportunity, when the Governor came in to see me on 26 September, to make all these points to him. He promised to

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