20
The Financial Times Friday September 25 1970
Other
(ટ
Hong Kong tightens up
Overseas union legislation
News
Uttar Pradesh coalition may fall
By Our Own Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Sept. 24. THE FALL of the coalition government in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous and politically important state which Premier Indira Gandhi to belongs, became imminent to lay when Chief Minister Charan Singh asked ministers belonging
·0 Gandhi's Congress Party
resign.
Mr. Singh himself belongs to he Bharatiya Kranti Dal Indian Revolutionary Party)
With
'BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
THE Hong Kong Government has drafted new trade union legisla tion which 'threatens to sour industrial relations in the colony. The most controversial clauses in the new Bill seriously reduce the right of strikers to form effective picket lines,
Employees will be forbidden to picket a person's private resi- dence. Some officials are already complaining privately this could cause trouble as frequently the smaller employer lives in the saine building as his factory or workshop.
Even more pop is the creation of a new offence making it illegal for stribers to block or cause any obst long road
or street.
and vigorously enforced, picket If this provision is enacted
lines outside a factory will be virtually banned altogether.
Significantly officials feel uncomfortable about several senior these proposals. They feel the existing Public Order Ordinance
already gives the police such sweeping powers to deal with all forms of pulic gatherings, and any hint of intimidation that changes in the trade union law also beginning to show signs of are unjustified. The workers are restlessness about the measure.
Bosses' side
The present laws governing strikes and labour unions have been strongly attacked recently as far 100 restrictive. The workers also feel always end up supporting the the police management in a strike. bitterly resent the current situa
They tion in which the employee sees the Administration firmly on the bosses' side.
from serious strikes.
Hong Kong is relatively free With a working population of around lost through industrial disputes 14m. only 40,000-man-days were last year. Over the last decade the number of disputes has fluc-
h-- ཀlཧ-4:ཤསལ
ל
HONG KONG, Sept. 24.
ร
tuated but has shown no overall tendency to rise. Chinese workers prefer to settle grievances with as little fuss as possible. This means when a strike takes place running very high. tempers on both sides are already
The effect of the new Bill will probably be the adoption of Com- munist tactics by the work force. Several instances have occurred, of employees trying to force the management's hand by camping out on the factory floor. This strategy makes it almost im- fere and also prevents the use possible for the police to inter- of strike-breakers.
danger of angry workers damag- However, also creates the ing equipment.
Ugandan groups' to dismiss many Kenyans
By Our Own Correspondent
KAMPALA, Sept. 94 SEVER AT