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

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.