3
CONFIDENTIAL
3.
C.
d.
At present Hong Kong registered ships are not required to carry certified cooks nor does Hong Kong have the necessary facilities for training. Cooks for British crews are already trained in the United Kingdom. Cooks for Chinese crews are selected ac- cording to the style of Chinese cookery applicable to the area from which the crew comes. Their exper- tise is generally acquired in Chinese restaurants and there is no question as to their competence. Given the small number of ships on the Hong Kong Register (about 80 only) and the existence of adequate training facilities in the UK, there is little practi- cal benefit in setting up the necessary facilities in Hong Kong. Ship owners are known to be reluctant to finance the necessary training facilities and would prefer to send their employees for training in the UK.
We therefore propose to drop Convention No. 69 and to substitute in its place Convention No. 144, which deals with Tripartite Consultations to promote the implementation of international labour standards. This Convention was ratified by the United Kingdom on 15 February 1977. We propose a declaration of "applied with modification". The Labour Advisory Board has advised that a sub-committee be formed to deal with international labour standards. When this is formally established in early 1978, this Convention can be applied without modification.
No. 74 Certification of Able Seamen
G
The Hong Kong Merchant Navy Training Board has recently been established, to set standards of certi- fication and to advise on training, examination facili- ties and legislation. Consultation with ship owners and arrangements for a training programme are in progress. We hope to be able to make an improved declaration during 1978.
No. 94 Labour Clauses (Public Contracts)
At present this Convention is applied only to contracts of the Public Works Department. In future "fair wages" clauses will be included in all other public contracts. We expect to be able to apply this Convention without modification in 1978.
To sum up, we expect to improve our declarations under five Conventions by the end of this year, or six if all goes well with item 1(b) above. In 1978, we propose to make further improvements under four Conventions. report in about six months time.
We will send a further
CONFIDEMIAL
(Cont'd.)