CONFIDENTIAL
4
Paid Annual Leave
10.
There has been considerable interest in the paid annual leave legislation which came into operation on 1st January 1978. It gives workers the entitlement to seven days consecutive leave annually, in addition to rest days and statutory holidays. A survey conducted by the Labour Department in February/March 1978 showed that about 60% of employers in the manufacturing sector granted annual leave to their employees during the Lunar New Year period by combining annual leave days with the three statutory holidays at the Lunar New Year period, and in some cases together with a rest day, in order to comply with the consecutiveness requirement. Thousands of workers and employers took the opportunity to visit neighbouring territories, China in particular. On the whole the legislation is well received and has been working satisfactorily, but we intend to review the legislation later this year.
Trade Union Membership
11.
The communist trade unions' policy with regard to membership during 1977 was to consolidate rather than to recruit, although there were the usual recruiting targets and year-end drives. As a result their gain in membership in 1977 was just over 3%, much lower than in previous years. The following table shows increases of the combined declared and estimated paid-up total member- ship of unions affiliated or friendly to the communist Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU):
Combined estimated
Increase
As at 31st December
Combined
declared
Increase
membership
paid-up
membership
1968
104,187
(no calculation)
69,374
(no calculation)
1969
109,337
+ 5,150 or 4.9%
81,104
+11,730 or 16.9%
1970
130,139
+20,802 or 19.0%
93,100
+11,996 or 14.8%
1971
147,794
+17,655 or 13.6%
109,118
+16,018 or 17.2%
1972
174,675
+26,881 or 18.2%
129,008
+19,890 or 18.2%
1973
209,565
+34,890 or 19.9%
158,117
+29,109 or 22.6%
1974
231,343
+21,778 or 10.4%
184,452
+26,335 or 16.7%
1975
268,243
+36,900 or 15.9%
204,991
+20,539 or 11.1%
1976
287,959
+19,716 or 7.4%
237,994
+33,003 or 16.1%
1977
297,479
+ 9,520 or 3.3%
256,169
+18,175 or
7.6%
CONFIDENTIAL
/12.
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