HC Deb 02 June 1967 vol 747 cc79-80W
Mr. Thornton

asked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs what are the normal working hours per day and per week for adult males, for women and young persons, at the Kowloon plastic factory where the lock-out of workers led recently to violent disorder.

Mrs. Hart

The dispute referred to concerned only the injection moulding department of the factory in question. The workers in that department were all adult males whose normal working hours were seven hours a day or forty- nine hours a week. They worked eight hour shifts with one hour off for meals and rest, seven days a week.

The normal working hours for adult males in other departments of the same factory varied between 9 hours and 10½ hours daily according to the nature of the work; they worked a normal working week of seven days.

Normal working hours for women and young persons of 16 years or over at the same factory were 10 hours a day or 60 hours a week, with one rest day each week. Normal working hours for other young persons were eight hours a day or 48 hours a week with one rest day each week.

From the information available it appears, however, that the dispute had no connection with hours of work, but arose on other questions.