LegCo Paper No. CB(1)43/96-97
Ref : CB1/PL/MP/1

LegCo Panel on Manpower

Minutes of Meeting
held on Wednesday, 2 October 1996 at 10:30 a.m.
in Conference Room B of the Legislative Council Building

Members Present :

Hon LAU Chin-shek (Chairman)
Hon CHAN Yuen-han (Deputy Chairman)
Hon SZETO Wah
Hon Ronald ARCULLI, OBE, JP
Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong
Hon Frederick FUNG Kin-kee
Hon James TIEN Pei-chun, OBE, JP
Hon LEE Cheuk-yan
Hon CHAN Wing-chan
Hon CHENG Yiu-tong
Hon LAW Chi-kwong
Hon LEE Kai-ming
Hon LEUNG Yiu-chung
Hon Bruce LIU Sing-lee

Members Absent :

Hon NGAI Shiu-kit, OBE, JP
Dr Hon LEONG Che-hung, OBE, JP
Hon Michael HO Mun-ka
Hon Henry TANG Ying-yen, JP
Hon MOK Ying-fan
Hon TSANG Kin-shing

Clerk in attendance :

Miss Polly YEUNG

Chief Assistant Secretary (1) 3

Staff in attendance :

Miss Pauline NG

Assistant Secretary General 1

Ms Connie SZE-TO

Senior Assistant Secretary (1)5

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I. Election of Chairman and Deputy Chairman
II. Terms of Reference
III. Schedule of meetings for the 1996-97 session
IV. Items for discussion at the next meeting

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I. Election of Chairman and Deputy Chairman

(LegCo Paper No. CB(1)2135/95-96)

Members were invited to note that in accordance with Standing Order 60E(6), members who were Chairmen/Deputy Chairmen of the Government advisory bodies relevant to the Panel at Appendix I of LegCo Paper No. CB(1)2135/95-96 would not be eligible to stand for election.

2. Hon LAU Chin-shek and Hon CHAN Yuen-han were elected Chairman and Deputy Chairman respectively.

II. Terms of Reference

3. The Panel agreed that the current Terms of Reference should continue.

III. Schedule of meetings for the 1996-97 session

4. Members agreed that future meetings of the Panel would be held on the fourth Monday of every month at 2:30 p.m.

(Post-meeting note : Members were informed of the schedule of regular Panel meetings for the 1996-97 session vide LegCo Paper No. CB(1)25/96-97.)

IV. Items for discussion at the next meeting

5. The Chairman informed members that the next Panel meeting would be the policy briefing by the Secretary for Education and Manpower which had been scheduled for Tuesday, 8 October 1996 from 10:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. in the Chamber of the Legislative Council Building. Non-Panel Members would also be invited to attend.

(Post-meeting note : Notice of meeting and agenda for the policy briefing were issued vide LegCo paper No. CB(1)26/96-97.)

6. Members went through the "List of Outstanding Issues" at Appendix III of LegCo Paper No. CB(1)2135/95-96 and agreed that the following items would be discussed at the next regular meeting on Monday, 28 October 1996 at 2:30 p.m. :

1. Job opportunities of security personnel following the implementation of the Security and Guarding Services Ordinance
2. Report of the Panel’s enquiry on labour disputes relating to the Special Labour Importation Scheme for the Airport Core Programme Projects
3. Consultancy study on the Employees Retraining Scheme

   (Subject to availability of the consultancy report)

7. Members agreed that in order to allow sufficient time for discussion, only two to three items should be included in the agenda for future Panel meetings.

8. Members also agreed to include the following items into the Panel’s "List of Outstanding Issues" for deliberation at future meetings :

1. PRC nationals to work as domestic helpers in Hong Kong
   (Proposed by Hon Michael HO Mun-ka)
2. Paternity leave (Proposed member’s bill by Hon MOK Ying-fan)

9. On the review of sex discriminatory protective legislation, the Panel recalled that only one progress report had been received from the Administration LegCo Paper No. CB(1)1991/95-96 despite its promise to provide periodic progress reports on the subject. The Panel agreed that the Administration should be requested to provide a further update on the review for members’ information. In this connection, the Panel also noted that the subsidiary legislation to remove gender connotation contained in regulation 29 of the Dutiable Commodities (Liquor) Regulations (Cap. 109) was being scrutinised by the Subcommittee formed to study subsidiary legislation gazetted from 5 July to 13 September 1996.

CAS(1)3

(Post-meeting note: The Administration was requested in writing on 4 October 1996 to provide latest progress on the review of sex discriminatory protective legislation in two weeks’ time.)

10. The meeting ended at 10:45 a.m.

Legislative Council Secretariat
7 October 1996

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