Annex to OLCC (1977)
SUMMARY OF PROFESSOR TURNER'S INTERIM AND
PROVISIONAL REVIEW OF LABOUR RELATIONS IN HONG KONG
The Interim Nature of the Report
1. Professor Turner stresses that the report is very much an interim one. The period available for the study did not permit consultation with his two principal collaborators.
Professor Hart and Dr Fosh (paragraph 3 of the report), and Hong Kong is a "very complex place" in terms of its industrial development (para 3); its almost total dependence on imports and exports (para 5); its slow rate of social-political develop- ment and the fact that it is very much a private enterprise economy (para 7).
2.
12):
The report therefore concentrates on three questions (para
i. Why trade unionism remains weak.
ii.
iii.
{
Why there is little pressure from employees themselves for improvement in social provisions and doubt as to their support for some recent legal innovations: eg a week's paid holiday each year.
Whether anything should be done to change matters in each of these respects.
Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining
3. The state of trade unions and collective bargaining is examined in paragraphs 13 26. Although nominal trade union membership is increasing (para 13) and now covers a quarter of the total employees, paid-up membership is apparently declining (para 14). The movement is divided into three main groups (para 15) details are shown in Annex 1 to Memorandum OLCC(1977). The group controlled or influenced by Peking continues to be dominant; the Right Wing group shows a relative decline; the minority "neutral" cluster shows a marked growth. Unions are fragmented, the average size being only 1,200 in nominal terms or less than 1,000 in paid-up membership (para 17). The biggest unions are associated with the pro-Peking FTU: the Public Service shows the greatest growth in the number of new unions (para 18).
14.
Collective