ENG-1980 — Page 83

EMPLOYMENT

Employment Agencies

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The Employment Agencies Regulations made under the Employment Ordinance require all profit-making employment agencies unless they belong in an exempt category to obtain a licence from the Commissioner for Labour before starting operation. From July 1, employment agencies dealing solely with domestic helpers, which had previously been excluded, were brought under the control of these regulations. During the year, the department issued 98 licences to employment agencies dealing with local employment and 12 to those catering for employment overseas.

Information on Careers

The Youth Employment Advisory Service of the Labour Department provides careers information to students and young people in a variety of ways. It has so far produced 38 careers pamphlets and 100 occupations leaflets. The service also produces a monthly careers newsletter which is distributed free of charge to secondary schools, youth centres and other youth organisations.

In 1980, officers of the service gave 253 talks on careers to about 40,521 students in 182 schools. The service also organised 13 seminars and took part in 34 other activities to provide careers information to students, teachers, parents and interested individuals.

The service operates two careers information centres, one on Hong Kong Island and the other in Kowloon. Both centres have a careers reference library with approximately 1,100 titles on careers and related subjects, as well as audio-visual facilities for films, slide presentations, cassette recordings and other resources.

The Labour Department's ninth annual careers exhibition was held at the City Hall in November. Altogether, 20 exhibitors from commerce, industry and the government took part in the exhibition, which attracted some 100,612 visitors. In addition, four mini-careers exhibitions were staged on a specially-designed truck which visited housing estates, parks community centres and schools.

三

Industrial Safety

The Factory Inspectorate of the Labour Department is responsible for enforcing the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance and its subsidiary legislation. Together, these regulations provide for the health and safety of workers in factories, on building and engineering construction sites, and at other industrial undertakings. At the same time, advice and assistance are given to managements on guarding dangerous machinery parts, adopting safe working practices, and laying out new factories to achieve better working conditions. The inspectorate also investigates industrial accidents and other dangers.

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The Factory Inspectorate, in conjunction with the Government Information Services, continued its long-term publicity programme to promote industrial safety through ex- tensive use of the news media. In March, an Industrial Safety Conference for Senior Management - organised by the Labour Advisory Board Committee on Industrial Safety and Accident Prevention became the first conference of its type to be held in Hong Kong. To promote safety on construction sites, the department and the Construction Industry Training Authority jointly organised a construction safety exhibition at the authority's training centre at Kwun Tong in August. Then, in September, the department launched an industrial safety competition under the sponsorship of a local Chinese news- paper and a television station.

Throughout the year, the Industrial Safety Training Centre provided courses for students and workers from various industries.