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2
The information requested in paragraph 3 of your Circular Despatch of 17th January is contained in the following paragraphs.
Existing arrangements for consultation
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Any member of the Hong Kong Civil Service except a member of the Police Force is free to be a member of any association or trade union which will admit him under its rules of membership.
5.
Although all recognised associations have the right to make representations on behalf of their members, three Associations only, namely the Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants' Association, the Senior Non-Expatriate Officers' Association and the Association of Expatriate Civil Servants are afforded the facility of joint consultation at central level, because they are the only ones whose constitutions enable them to represent civil servants irrespective of occupational class, grade or department,
6.
In June 1968, Government concluded an agreement with the three main Staff Associations which provided for the establishment of central consultative machinery and for reference of certain disputed matters to an independent Committee of Inquiry, subject to certain conditions and
limitations.
The Agreement has the following basic elements:.
(a)
An undertaking by the Government not to make any considerable change in conditions of service which affects & substantial part of the Service as a whole, or of the members of one or more main Staff Associations, without prior consultation with the appropriate Association(s).
(b) The creation of a Senior Civil Service
Council with the dual object of improving the efficiency of the Fublic Service and securing the well-being of those employed.
(c)
An undertaking by the Government to adhere to any agreement which has been reached between the Official Side and the Staff Side of the Senior Civil Service Council, subject to any decision thereon of the Governor-in- Council and/or the Legislative Council or the Finance Committee theraf whenever the Governor considers that reference to any of these bodies is necessary.
/(a).......