"The standard of living is now back to where it was when I was a child," observes a 20-year-old textile factory girl who has been working ince she was 13. Some months ago ber workload was reduced from seven to three erratic days a week. Daily, she and the other employees sat in the factory hoping to be given more work. If none were available, as increasingly became the case, she received nothing-not even her bus fare, less still a minimum wage. She now no longer bothers to turn up at the factory gates.
In the past year, employers have begun openly to reduce the pay of even those impoverished workers who still hold full-time jobs. Blue-collar work in Hong Kong is usually paid at piece-rates, and some textile factories and sweatshops have moved to lower the pay per piece. With unemployment every year to form an ever-growing increasing, workers find they have no choice but to accept anything offered.
Hefty profits The Government's own statistics show that the standard of living of working people fell by more than 15 per cent in 1974, engineered in part through inflation. The colonial regime blames the world-wide recession for their worsening economic circumstances, yet the big corporations have been reporting hefty profits. Since these profits have come in good part from the 15 percent slash in the workers' real wages, it is not altogether surprising that the Government,