4.
The majority of non-metropolitan territories apply both these Conventions in full. The condition imposed by the Colonial Development and Welfare Acts that fair wages clauses in public contracts and sound basic trade union legislation should be a condition for the receipt of aid under those Acts meant that there were laws in force which gave effect to the requirements of these Conventions. In the case of Hong Kong, the territory's financial self-sufficiency had enabled the various attempts made by the Colonial Office to persuade the government to amend or enact laws which would enable declarations to be made to be resisted. 5. With regard to Convention No.94, the Acting Deputy Colonial Secretary (Mr S T Kitt) in a letter to Mr Crowson dated 3 May 1973, indicated that partial application might be possible in the near future by virtue of regulations to be made under the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance. He was not hopeful that the major problems in the way of application of this Convention would be resolved.
6.
Nor is the position in regard to Convention No.98 very hopeful. Even if it is considered desirable on policy grounds that this Convention should be applied, it would seem that the modifications required would be so substantial as to make the value of a declaration doubtful? These are as follows:
J
Article 1 In the last report made under Article 22 of the ILO Constitution, the government stated that there was no legislation in existence which would provide the type of protection envisaged in this Article, ie protection against acts of anti-union discrimination in respect of workers' employment. This position is borne out in a letter addressed to Mr Foggon by the Chief of the International Labour Standards Department of the ILO in reply to an enquiry arising from semi-official correspondence between Mr Foggon and the Labour Commissioner Hong Kong. A copy of this letter is attached for ease of reference.
Article 2 Reference was made in the Article 22 report under
this head to the amendment to the Trade Union Registration Ordinance, No.15 of 1971, but the provisions introduced by this amendment do not appear to be adequate to meet the requirements of Article 2, which is concerned to secure adequate protection against acts of interference by workers' and employers' organisations by each other. The inadequacy of the law as a means of giving effect to this Article is also referred to in the letter from the ILO Chief of
Standards Department.
On the basis of five law as ir now stands and in the Propodala dr