TNAG-0644-FCO40-792-Employment-of-children-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 45

CODE 18 - 77

HKK 210/1

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Reference.....

Mr Milton HKGD

HONG KONG: FINES FOR ILLEGAL EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN

1. Your minute of 10 May.

2.

Paragraph 2 of the Governor's letter of 2 May is encouraging and it is probably true that the illegal employment of children is best eliminated by making education compulsory up to the age of 15: but in present circumstances I believe some dramatic step is necessary if the Hong Kong Government is to be able to convince its critics that it is genuinely seeking to deal with this problem.

3. In my opinion, this dramatic step is a minimum sentence and I am not persuaded by the Governor's arguments that this is either impracticable or wrong in principle. A minimum sentence would still leave the courts discretion to impose higher penalties for the "manufacturer who sets out deliberately to employ children for a depressed wage and takes elaborate security precautions to avoid detection". It would also be a powerful incentive to employers to make adequate enquiries about the ages of those who seek employment. I am reinforced in this argument by my under- standing that there is compulsory registration of births in Hong Kong. This being so, it should be a comparatively simple matter for employers to ask for production of birth certificates.

4.

In relation to the point made at paragraph 2 of my minute of 30 March (page 30) concerning joinder of charges, there is an interesting sidelight in Mr Thornton's letter at page 34. In the second case referred to by Mr Thornton, if the charge had been framed by way of 4 separate counts in respect of 4 separate children, it seems reasonable to suppose that the level of fines might have been nearer the HK$ 3500 mentioned in the preceding case rather than the average of HK$ 750 in the second instance. This substantiates my earlier forecast that a joinder of charges against one employer has the effect of reducing the total fine and hence the deterrent. This seems to me to work to the advantage of the employer making systematic use of child labour on a comparatively large scale.

T

45

RECEIVER IN

MREstat

RE

A. 51

2 5 MAY 1977

16 May 1977

HR G Hurst

Overseas Labour Adviser

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