TNAG-0650-FCO40-798-Study-of-labour-relations-in-Hong-Kong-by-Professor-H.-A.-Tu-1977 — Page 103

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(At least two of the] Chambers of Commerce the General and the American, also play a role in labour affairs).

interviewed were attending vocational classes outside working time;

40% of the younger factory workers were doing so, which indicates a

fairly high level of personal ambition, one would think. The

importance of the family as an economic unit and support is shown

by the fact that in our first survey the average size of the house-

hold to which the factory workers interviewed belonged was 6, of

whom 3 were income-earners.

And recent surveys by major employers'

last

organisations of workers' attitudes to the new legislation to provide

paid holidays and control young persons' overtime have shown a

distinctly negative attitude. We have considerable scepticism as to

the technical validity of this/evidence, but the general attitude was

confirmed by our own surveys: a distinct majority of our factory

workers and about half of our sample of all employees preferred more

income to statutory provision for more leisure.

31.

On the

contrary

!

side, it is also clear that employers' organisati

are much more extensive and effective in their coverage than the unions.

Although there is only one central employers' association proper, the

Employers' Federation of Hong Kong, which mainly represents British

and international firms claiming to employ about 10% of the workforce,

two other general associations, the Federation of Hong Kong Industries

and the Association of Chinese Manufacturers although primarily

concerned with business, industrial or commercial issues play some

role in labour affairs (having expressed themselves strongly and

publicly on recent labour legislation, for instance) and have a

substantial coverage. The FHKI claims firms employing 70% to 80% of

T

the industrial workforce: the CHA represents smaller firms in the main,

but nevertheless has more than 1900 members, including subsidiary

associations as individuals. That a reluctance by workers to take

collective action was, at least, far from universal is suggested by

the occurrence of occasional large spontaneous stoppages (like that