NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
W(B)L 51-7406
It is difficult to argue that Hong Kong's
approach to essential services legislation
should be on the positive lines recommended by
the Labour Advisory Committee in the direction
-
of negotiating machinery when the Colony has
to contend with the two difficulties of ineffec-
tive trade unions and the threat of a hostile
political element which it would be naive to
suppose could be educated up to a sense of
social responsibility. Much of the procedure
recommended by the Committee is based on the
premise that the workers concerned have reached
a stage of organisation where the trade union
is accepted as the normal vehicle for communica-
tion between themselves and their employers on
matters affecting their contractual relation-
ships.
10.
Nevertheless it is evident that there are
policy objections of substance to the amending
Bill in its present form although it is not
necessarily easy to determine the weight of
those objections in the special circumstances
of Hong Kong. But the proposals also present
legal difficulties. These reinforce the case
for returning the Bill to Hong Kong for re-
examination.
1. One legal difficulty is that the existing
Ordinance contains a safeguard clause that no
person shall act in furtherance of a strike or
lock-out, provided that no one shall be deemed
by reason only of
to have committed an offence
/ his
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