192828-1932-Supplementary-Draft-Bill--Minimum-Wage — Page 1

706

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Draft Bill.

No. S 276.-The following bill is published for general information :—

C.S.O. 7 in 1259/21.

A BILL

[No. 32-28.7.32.—3.]

Short title.

Fixing minimum wages in certain

cases.

Ordinance No. 13 of 1886.

Penalty

of less than mininium

wage

INTITULED

An Ordinance to make provision for fixing minimum wages in occupations where the wages paid are unreasonably low.

BE it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Minimum Wage Ordinance, 1932.

2.-(1) The Governor in Council may, at any time he thinks fit, fix a minimum wage for any occupation in which he is satisfied that the wages paid are unreasonably low.

(2) For the purpose of instituting, making, and conducting any inquiry that may be deemed advisable in connection with fixing any minimum wage under this Ordinance, and for reporting thereon, the Governor may at any time appoint a Board of Commissioners consisting of five persons, of whom one shall be a judge or magistrate, who shall be chairman of the Board.

(3) The provisions of sections 3 to 10, inclusive, of the Commissioners Powers Ordinance, 1886, shall apply to any Board so appointed.

3. Any minimum wage so fixed shall be published by for payment Government Notification in the Gazette and thereafter, until the said minimum wage is revoked by a subsequent Govern- ment Notification similarly published, the payment of a iess wage in any occupation than the minimum fixed for that occupation shall be deemed to be a contravention of this Ordinance for which the offender shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars.

Rules for

Min mum Wage Board.

4. The Governor in Council may make regulations governing the procedure to be adopted by any Board appointed under section 2 and generally for the purposes of carrying into effect the provisions of this Ordinance.

Objects and Reasons.

Legislation on the lines of this Ordinance has been suggested by the Secretary of State, in his circular despatch of the 30th March, 1932, in order to carry out the obligations arising from Article 121 of the Treaty of Versailles in respect of the International Labour Convention concerning the creation of minimum wage fixing machinery.

C. G. ALABASTER,

Attorney General.

July, 1932.