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Recruitment of Staff
The Hong Kong Productivity Centre, the Hong Kong Management Association and a number of manage- ment consultancy firms can assist employers to recruit suitable staff. Most personnel recruited in this manner are technologists and technicians, professional men, clerks and secretaries. The charges are moderate, usually at the rate of one month's remuneration. Other methods of recruiting staff include advertising in the leading English and Chinese language newspapers, and use of the placement services of the universities, the Polytechnic and the technical schools.
The Local Employment Service of the Labour Department provides a free placement service to all job-seekers, and assists employers to recruit staff. In addition the Service maintains a register of local graduates and of Hong Kong students who have returned from overseas after completion of tertiary education.
Salaries and Wages
There is no minimum wage law in Hong Kong. Levels are determined by supply and demand. An indication of salary levels is given in Table 9.
Industrial wages are calculated on daily, monthly or piece rates. Many production-process operatives are paid on piece rates, whilst pay scales for most other semi-skilled and unskilled workers in manufacturing industry are daily rated. These categories of workers are customarily paid weekly or half-monthly. Supervisors, quality control examiners and junior management are usually monthly rated. Daily and monthly rates of pay for men are generally higher than those for women, but usually no difference is made in respect of piece rates. Wage rates in certain sectors of manufacturing industry are given in Table 11.
Fringe Benefits
It is usual for factories to pay a Chinese New Year bonus equivalent to one month's pay to all employees at the operative level. It is also common to pay a good attendance bonus. It is the practice to pay a larger bonus to management staff, the amount depending upon the company's profits for the preceding year. Other bonuses and allowances that may be granted include long service bonus, efficiency bonus, cost of living allowance, meal allowance and night shift allowance.
Many of the larger factories also provide free medical treatment in their own clinics. A few provide free or subsidised accommodation.
There are no statutory deductions to be made from wages for social security or for any other purposes.
Holidays and Working Hours
Under the Employment Ordinance, all manual workers and those non-manual workers earning not more than HK$3,500 (US$700) per month are entitled to ten statutory holidays a year. These holidays are with pay if the worker has worked continuously for his employer for three months preceding the holidays. These workers are also entitled to sickness allowance at two-thirds of a day's wages, at the rate of one paid sickness day per month of service, which can be accumulated up to a maximum of 36 paid sickness days.
Every employee who has worked for the same employer under a continuous contract for over four weeks is entitled to one rest day a week. The Employment Ordinance also provides for seven days' annual leave with pay for workers if they have worked continuously for an employer for 12 months.
There is no legal restriction on the hours of work for men over the age of 18. Consequently, many men work ten hours a day, with a rest period of one to two hours. Three-shift working, enabling machinery to be run 24 hours a day, is common.
Children under the age of 15 may not be employed, except young persons engaged as apprentices regis- tered with the Labour Department. Young persons under 18 employed in industry are limited to eight hours of work a day, 48 hours a week, and may not work overtime. Women may work eight hours a day, plus two hours overtime a day, up to a total of 200 hours a year. Women's working hours are limited to 48 a week. Women are not allowed to work at night, except with the specific permission of the Commis- sioner for Labour. Young persons between 16 and 17 may not work at night. A half-hour break in the case of women and young persons of 16 and over, and of one hour in the case of those aged under 16, must be given after five hours of continuous work. All women and young persons must be given one rest day a week.
Industrial health and safety standards are carefully observed.
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