TNAG-1727-FCO40-2440-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 151

3-

the employers always have the upper hand. So I do not

think the employees can reach an agreement

on an equal

footing with the employers. In short, if the employees

are not on equal

footing with the employers,

they will

have to accept the new arrangements.

has not ensured in law that a fair

The Administration

agreement should be

reached between the employees and employers.

Moreover, the Women and Young Persons

Glunid

(Industry)

(Amendment) Regulations 1988 'has shown us that the

Administration

has only looked at the benefits of the

employers and not the employees. Actually, employees are

looking for better quality of life and they want longer

holidays. Therefore, the five-and-a-half-day week as well

as the alternate five-day or six-day weeks are welcomed by

the employees. I think we follow at Singapore, one of the

four dragons of Asia, to adopt the 44-hour week. For

flexibility, you can introduce an 88-hour fortnight and

the normal working hours for everyday could still

be

eight hours. Employees should be given overtime pay for

work in excess of eight hours. Hong Kong employees are

now more and more educated, skilful and their output is

、,!ས། also high. Therefore we should reduce

should reduce the weekly hours.

This is the appropriate time to do so.

1