CODE 18-77
SS 10/76
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NOTE FOR THE FILE
Reference_#LK_212/5+g!
HONG KONG: PROFESSOR TURNER'S STUDY OF LABOUR RELATIONS
1. Professor Turner, accompanied by Dr Fosh, called on Mr Stewart on 8 June at the end of his visit to London for consultations with the TUC and the CBI about the second stage of his study.
TUC/CBI Attitudes
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2. Professor Turner said that he was generally quite pleased with his meetings with the TUC on 3 June. Mr Jack Jones, as expected, had urged the need to move ahead with the introduction of a minimum wage in Hong Kong. Professor Turner explained, as he said he had done to Mr Jones, that the principal difficulty was the lack of data about earnings. He would try to see what could be done to make good this deficiency and mentioned, in this context, a new kind of survey being used by the Department of Employment. He did not think that the problem of enforcing a minimum wage would be as great as the Hong Kong Labour Depart- ment argued. Publicity would help. There would no doubt be adverse reactions from employers but these ought to be surmount- able. Large firms in Hong Kong, which paid lower wages than smaller firms, might actually welcome the introduction of a minimum wage in order to have a better chance of obtaining man- power in a full employment situation. Frofessor Turner said that the Governor of Hong Kong had told him that he would probably be ready to make mention of the need for a minimum wage in his speech. at the opening of the 1978 session of the Legislative Council.
3. Mr Hargreaves had raised the question of trade unions in Hong Kong being represented on statutory advisory and consultative bodies concerned with the development of social services. Frofessor Turner did not think that this was a realistic prospect. The major trade union organisation, the Peking-dominated Federation of Trade Unions, would not be prepared to involve themselves in this way.
Professor Turner said that the British TUC found it difficult to accept that the FTU was a Chinese communist mass organisation in Hong Kong which was not interested in pursuing normal Western-style trade union objectives. The FTU could not participate in the government-making process in Hong Kong without the approval of the authorities in Canton. They were only interested in maximising economic advantages in Hong Kong for China's benefit and did not wish to take any step that would risk rocking the financial boat.
The CBI had only been concerned to stress the point that employers in Hong Kong should be consulted at each and every stage when matters affecting their interests were under discussion. Professor Turner said that since the employers were fully
represented on all important bodies in Hong Kong there would be no problem about meeting the CBI's point.
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