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From ‘Free’ to ‘Fair’ Trade: The Evolution of Labour Laws in Colonial Hong Kong, 1958–62

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 35; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03086530701337625

1743-9329

David Clayton,

China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance

Abstract By the mid-1950s the Colonial Office was working closely with officials in a rapidly industrialising Hong Kong to improve employment conditions by extending statutory rights to factory workers. From 1958 it wanted to accelerate the pace of legislative change to respond to the demands of social and business lobby groups. The colonial administration in Hong Kong was reluctant to regulate industry more stringently but, as pressure from Britain intensified, it decided that it had to act. In 1959, it amended an existing ordinance regulating the factory hours worked by women and young persons, and in 1962 introduced a new one providing every factory worker with an entitlement to holiday and sick pay. Labour-law making within Hong Kong, however, required the government to forge alliances with business groups, a drawn-out political process that allowed employers to secure significant concessions. Acknowledgements Thanks to Miles Taylor for his perceptive thoughts and much-needed encouragement and, for guidance on sources, to Nicholas White. The Leverhulme Trust provided financial assistance, and the Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, research support. Useful feedback on preliminary drafts was gained at the European Social Science History Conference 2004; at the School of Cultures, Arts and Histories, University of Manchester; at the Centre for Historical Economics and Related Research (CHERRY), University of York. Notes 1. Abbott, ‘Re-examination’; Malmsten, ‘British Government Policy’; Constantine, British Colonial Development Policy; Havinden and Meredith, Colonialism and Development; Morgan, Origins of British Aid Policy. 2. Cooper and Packard, International Development, 29. 3. Morgan, Reassessment of British Aid Policy; Havinden and Meredith, Colonialism and Development, 235–76; Butler, ‘Ambiguities’, 119–41; Krozewski, Money and the End of Empire, 29–61. 4. Harper, The End of Empire; Lewis, Empire State-Building; Harris, ‘Making Leeway’; Clayton, ‘Radio Broadcast Technologies’. 5. Cooper and Packard, International Development, 17–19. 6. Osterhammel, Colonialism, 49–69. 7. Harper, The End of Empire; Lewis, Empire State-Building. 8. Leung, Perspectives, 115–39. 9. Schiffer, ‘State Policy’; England and Rear, Chinese Labour; England, Industrial Relations. 10. Scott, ‘Policy-making’, 455. 11. Scott, Political Change, 81–127. 12. England, Industrial Relations, 15. 13. Report on the National Income Survey of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Government, 1969, 66. By the early 1960s, export/GDP ratios had reached 60–70 per cent for the economy as a whole, and over 80 per cent for the main export-orientated industrial sectors, such as textiles, garments, knitwear, electronic goods, toys and plastic products. Lin and Lin, ‘Exports and Employment’. 14. Aggarwal, Liberal Protectionism. 15. Greenhalgh, ‘Sexual Stratification’; Chu, ‘Women and Work’. 16. Clayton, ‘Labour-Intensive Industrialization’. 17. Roy, Artisans and Industrialization; Sugihara, ‘East Asian Path’, 93–107. 18. Kahn-Freund, ‘Labour Law’; Wedderburn, Labour Law and Freedom. 19. Conference of heads of labour departments, industrial relations in the colonial territories, [Sept.–Oct. 1951], HKRS41/1/6771, Public Record Office, Hong Kong. 20. Conference of heads of labour departments, CLAC (51), 48th special minutes, LC (LC) 19th minute, joint session with members of the Colonial Labour Advisory Committee, 5 Oct. 1951, HKRS41/1/6771. 21. England, ‘Industrial Relations’, 238. 22. Foreign Service Despatch from Everett F. Drumright, Consul General, to Department of State, no. 470, 10 Dec. 1955, RG4538 [box 59] (Economic, 1955–59), 846G, The National Archives, Maryland, United States; letter from E. B. David to J. B. Johnston, 9 Jan. 1957, CO 859/1160, The National Archives (formerly Public Record Office), Kew, London. 23. Oliver Lyttelton, Secretary of State, circular to the colonies, 79/52, 29 Jan. 1952 [report on the 1951 conference], CO 859/183/7. 24. England and Rear, Chinese Labour, 122–23. 25. For an overview, ‘Note on Developments of Labour Policy and its Implementation’, Sorby, 1 Oct. 1963, HKRS1017/2/2. 26. Singleton, Lancashire, 139; Briscoe, Textile and Clothing Industries, 88. 27. Singleton, Lancashire, 114–40. 28. For the early impact on Hong Kong, Miners, ‘Industrial Development’. 29. Clayton, ‘Inter-Asian Competition’. 30. Ernest Thornton, 23 May 1958, Parliamentary Debates, Commons, Vol. 588, Cols 1731–35. 31. Fowler, Cotton Textile Operatives, 129. 32. Barbara Castle, 8 May 1958, Parliamentary Debates, Commons, Vol. 588, Cols 1405–06. 33. Report on Visit to Hong Kong, 27 Aug. 1958, CO 1030/763. 34. Comments for the Colonial Office on Some Points in the Report, IV, Hours of Work, Ogilvie, 27 Aug. 1958, CO 1030/763. 35. Minute by Ogilvie, 25 Feb. 1960, CO 859/1598. 36. R. Black, Governor Hong Kong, to W. I. J. Wallace [Far Eastern Division], 10 Nov. 1960; ‘Brief for Lord Perth’, [undated], CO 859/1598. 37. See Black to Wallace, 21 Jan 1960; Black to Wallace, 22 July 1960, CO 859/1598. The Hong Kong government did not extend the right to unpaid maternity pay until 1970: see England, Industrial Relations, 175. 38. Podmore, ‘The Population of Hong Kong’, 21–55. 39. Black to Hilton Poynton, permanent under secretary of state, Colonial Office, 21 June 1958, CO 1030/751. 40. Enterprises did not have to register when they employed fewer than twenty people, did not use power-driven or dangerous machinery or employ women and children. 41. The phrase of P. Haddon-Cave, the Financial Secretary in the 1970s, that came to define the Hong Kong social policy ethos: see Leung, Hong Kong Society, 116. 42. Memorandum from E. C. Brown, Labour Officer, to Commissioner of Labour, 28 Nov. 1958, HKRS1017/2/1. 43. Minute by Assistant Labour Officer, 17 Dec. 1958 [on Ogilvie's report]; minute by Baker, 22 Nov. 1958; minute by Brown, 1 Dec. 1958, HKRS1017/2/1. 44. Comments on Miss Ogilvie's Report, [c.1958], and [her] Visit to Hong Kong [c. 1958], HKRS1017/2/1. 45. Minute by Sorby, 23 Aug. 1963, HKRS1017/2/2. 46. These policies will be explored fully in a forthcoming monograph. 47. Black to Wallace, 22 July 1960, CO 859/1598. 48. Miners, Government and Politics, 186–88. 49. The Department of Labour did not have a representative on the Legislative Council; instead the Secretary of Chinese Affairs was the de facto official spokesperson on labour affairs: see, A. Young [Governor Hong Kong] to A. Creech Jones [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 14 Oct. 1946, HKRS41/1/1438. 50. England and Rear, Chinese Labour, 12–13; Paul K. C. Tsui, Secretary for Chinese Affairs, to Commissioner of Labour, 7 July 1967, HKRS270/5/60; minute by Ogilvie, 14 Dec. 1960, CO 859/1598. 51. Lee, ‘Labour Protection’, 128; for a contemporary position: P. C. M. Sedgwick, Commissioner of Labour, to H. Angus, Department of Commerce and Industry, 21 Sept. 1961, HKRS270/5/60. 52. Clayton ‘Industrialisation and Institutional Change’, 149–69. 53. John A. Lacey [American Consul] to the Department of State, Weekly Economic Review, no.3 Jan. 22 1960, RG59 (Economic 1960–63) 846G; Far Eastern Economic Review [FEER] xxxiv, 13, 28 Dec. 1961, 581–83; J. R. Gustin, American Consul, Hong Kong, to the Department of State, Weekly Economic Review, no. 8, 26 Feb. 1960, RG59 (Economic 1959-63) 846G. 54. On policy-making: CO 1030/1177 and HKRS163/1/2/151. 55. The Chinese Manufacturers' Association, for example, merely forwarded rather imprecise demands in 1961 that ‘some flexibility and gradualness [be] provided in the bill’; that the new law would ‘open wide the door for corruption’ and create ‘rampant’ disputes between managers and workers. See C. S. Lun, President CMA, to Sedgwick, 28 Aug. 1961; Chu to Sedgwick, 12 Sept. 1961; Commissioner of Labour to Colonial Secretary, 26 Sept. 1961, HKRS260/2/14. 56. FEER, xxiv, 17 April, 1958, 52. C. C. Lee, a refugee mill-owner from China, owned South China Textiles and the Nan Sing Dyeing Works, and chaired the Hong Kong Cotton Spinners Association, one of the best organised of the textile associations: note Lacey to the Department of State, 148, 17 Aug. 1961, RG59 (Economic, 1960–63) 846G. 57. Quoted in FEER, xxiv, 24, June 12 1958, 753. 58. FEER, xxv, 13, 25 Sept. 1958, 409–10. 59. FED minutes, 16/140, 6 April 1961, HKRS270/5/40. 60. Riedel, Industrialisation, 48. 61. Black to A. Lennox-Boyd [Secretary of State for the Colonies], no. 506, 13 June 1959, CO 859/1264. 62. Black to Lennox-Boyd, no. 618, 15 April 1959, CO 859/1264. 63. Minute by C. G. Gibbs, 23 Sept. 1960, CO 859/1598. 64. Minute by G. Foggon, 24 Sept. 1958, CO 1030/763; minutes by Ogilvie, 17 June, Gibbs, 19 June and 23 July, and by Foggon, 19 June 1959, CO 859/1264. 65. Black to Lennox-Boyd, no. 618, 15 April 1959, CO 859/1264. 66. A. M. Poynton to Sir G. Myrddin-Evans, 3 July 1958, FO 371/133343; ‘Hong Kong Adjournment Debate’, 8 Nov. 1956, CO 1030/337; Hong Kong Governor to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, no. 794, 15 May 1959, [regarding parliamentary debates on ‘employment in Hong Kong’], CO 1030/751. 67. Hong Kong to London, 128, 13 Feb. 1960, CO 1030/751/1279. 68. Conditions of Employment in Hong Kong, Summary of correspondence relating to the reduction of hours of work of women and young persons, W. Swan, 8 Nov. 1963, CO 859/1715. 69. Minutes of meeting, 27 July 1960, CO 859/1598. 70. Commissioner of Labour to Colonial Secretary, 26 Sept. 1961, HKRS260/2/14; ‘Conditions of Employment in Hong Kong: Summary of Correspondence Relating to the Reduction of Hours of Work of Women and Young Persons’, W. Swan, 8 Sept. 1963, CO 859/1715. 71. England, Industrial Relations, 173. 72. Commissioner of Labour to Colonial Secretary, 26 Sept. 1961, HKRS260/2/14. 73. Legal Department to the Commissioner of Labour, 28 Sept. 1961, HKRS260/2/14; England, Industrial Relations, 173–74. 74. Commissioner of Labour to Colonial Secretary, 7 June 1961, CO 859/1599. 75. See Sedgwick to J. W. D. Hobley, Crown Counsel, 14 Sept, including a report from a survey of the sick leave provision in fifty, randomly sampled factories, HKRS260/2/14. 76. Ibid. 77. Minute by Ogilvie, 25 Feb. 1960, CO 859/1598. 78. Sedgwick to Colonial Secretary, 12 Aug. 1961, HKRS260/2/14. 79. C. B. Burgess to E. Melville, Colonial Office, 18 July 1961, HKRS260/2/14. 80. Sedgwick to Hobley, 14 Sept., HKRS260/2/14. 81. Sedgwick to Colonial Secretary, 12 Aug. 1961, HKRS260/2/14. 82. They also insisted that workers be denied the right to challenge the diagnosis of doctors in the courts: see C. B. Burgess to E. Melville [Assistant under-secretary] Colonial Office, 18 July 1961, CO 859/1599. 83. It was estimated that 240,000 workers (60 per cent of the industrial workforce) would qualify for paid sick pay: see Commissioner of Labour to Colonial Secretary, 7 June 1961, CO 859/1599; Sedgwick to Hobley, 21 June 1961, HKRS260/2/14. 84. Minute by Gibbs, 13 Dec. 1960, CO 859/1598. 85. Minute by Ogilvie, 14 Dec. 1960, CO 859/1598. 86. Sedgwick to Colonial Secretary, 12 Aug. 1961, HKRS260/2/14; England, Industrial Relations, 173–74. 87. Scott, Political Change, 73. 88. Arrowsmith, ‘Working Times’. 89. Thompson, Customs in Common.