47
formal process for workers to take action where their legal
rights under employment contracts were concerned than through
the courts. In these Tribunals, procedure is quite informal
and no legal representation is permitted; employers and workers
speak for themselves, though a group may nominate one of its
members as spokesman. Officials of unions or employer organisations
may accompany the contestants as advisors; but I gather it is
unusual for this to occur. The success of the Tribunal was such
that two more have since been established. But this development
appears to have had no effect on the numbers of such grievances
settled by the Labour Department itself, which have continued to
increase :
Total cases settled
1971/2
1975
(major and minor
4161
5823
grievances combined)
By:
Labour Tribunals
Labour Department
Legal Aid Department
Courts
0
1795
3297
3894
250
127
584
5
The main effect of the Tribunals has thus been to replace the courts
as channels for worker grievances, and to create an additional route
for their expression. But the great increase in the number of such
grievances handled by both them and the Labour Department itself is
significant of the failure of unions and direct management-employce
relationships in Hong Kong to provide such a channel. It is perhaps
also significant of the need for such grievance procedures that in
/the