CONFIDENTIAL
SAVING DESPATCH
HKK 5/33 5/14
Noved
Hong Kong Department Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London S.W.1
Molet
By again
From the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
To the Governor, HONG KONG
10 February, 1970
No. 59
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KON
Your Despatch No.1137 of 10 October reference CR3/3051/53/V.
Trade Union Registration (Amendment) Bill
I am glad to have had this opportunity to comment on the above Bill before it is referred to your Labour Advisory Board and other interested bodies in Hong Kong.
2. The amendments you propose are, with a few exceptions, in the direction of a tighter control of unions by the Registrar of Trade Unions. I appreciate the special reasons that have made this necessary at the present time. But I consider that from time to time the statutory powers of the Registrar of Trade Unions should be reviewed with a view to relaxing the controls under which the unions operate and with the broad purpose (so far as this can be attained in Hong Kong) of encouraging normal trade union development.
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3. I have the following comments on those clauses in the Bill which are enumerated below:
Clause 3(a)
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I believe that in the new definition of "employee" the words worked under" where they appear in the first and third lines may be a misprint for "works under" (cf. the existing definition of
'workman", which is to be deleted).
Clause 12(c)
I question whether it is right to exclude from trade union office so wide a category of convicted persons. I agree with the arguments in paragraph 4 of your Saving Despatch under reference against the exclusion of persons convicted of crimes in connection with disturbances, and consider that there are as good arguments against the exclusion of persons convicted of a variety of other offences. There must be a multitude of offences which are punishable with imprisonment for a term of not less than two years, e.g., some motoring offences, bigamy, etc.; a person convicted of such charges might, because of extenuating circumstances, receive a very light sentence (possibly not involving imprisonment at all).
/ I can see