Published in the South China Morning Post on July 30, 1970.
THE RIGHT TO STRIKE
In this article JOHN REAR, Lecturer in Lew in the University of Hong Kong, examines the lows of Hong Kong governing the right to strike. Tomorrow, in a second article, the writer takes a look at the problem of peaceful picketing and suggests some changes in the law.
The right to strike is crucial to the improvement of wages and
conditions of work. An individual employee has no power; if he refuses
to work he can easily be replaced. Only by acting together with his
workmates can the worker counteract the employer's economic strength.
As one English judge said: "The right of workmen to strike is an
essential element in the principle of collective bargaining."
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In Hong Kong the right to strike is limited and the restrictions
on the right to picket are so severe that it is virtually impossible
to exercise this right without. breaking the law or giving the police
a justification for intervening.
J
There seems to be a general impression that so far as striking
and peaceful picketing is concerned, our law is the same as English
law . This belief seems to have been given some official encouragement.
When the Trade Union Registration Bill was introduced in 1961 the
memorandum accompanying it said: "Part VII deals with picketing,
imtimidation and conspiracy by members of a trade union in furtherance
of a trade dispute. The contents of this part closely follow the
corresponding standard provisions of the United Kingdom legislation ..."
This was a half-truth. Hong Kong's law was then end is now different
from English law on this subject.
The difference between English and Hong Kong law
The first difference is that in Hong Kong we have an Illegal Strikes
and Lock-outs Ordinance which was modelled on the English Trade Disputes
and Trade Unions Act 1927. This repressive piece of legislation was
passed one year after the General Strike and was repealed in 1946, some
two years before Hong Kong's first Trade Union and Trade Disputes
Ordinance. In Hong Kong, therefore, we have some legislation long
since rejected as unacceptable in the place from which it originated.
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