16.
CONFIDENTIAL
(ii) The concept of a compulsory cooling-off period in
any dispute damaging to the national interest is gaining increasingly wide acceptance.
(There may
(iii)
(iv)
be a case for increasing the cooling-off period where this is set at 14 anys to, say, 28 days or longer.)
Compulsory arbitration in such disputos is a weapon of last resort: there is a need for some flexibility, og the Governor (or Minister) to have discretion whether or not to apply it in particular casos. This appling oqually to the imposition of a cooling-off period.
There cannot be any guarantee that work will be resumed when a dispute is sent to arbitration, or a cooling-off period imposed; nor can it be assumed that any award handed down by an Industrial Court (or arbitrator) will be accopted. Compulsory arbitration raises the question of sanctions in a somewhat more acute form then does the imposition of the "cooling-off" period.
In the circumstances of Hong Kong, the choice may lic botween:-
(i)
(ii)
A general power placed upon the Governor to impose
"cooling-off" period in any strike likely to endanger the national economy following the new United Kingdom practice (it has long been the practice in the United States).
A more restricted power to enforce a "cooling-off" period in defined essential services.
(See also paragraphs 5-7 of report).
Overseas Labour Adviser Foreign and Commonwealth Office
20 December 1971
CONFIDENTIAL