52
a) A social security scheme which was linked in some way (as I
gather has recently been done in Singapore) with the acquisition of accomo-
dation rights. For instance, one in which workers', employers' and official
contributions were, after a period of accumulation, acceptable as the
personal
L
deposit on purchase of publicly-constructed housing.
b) A reform of the educational system, involving not merely an
earlier raising of the school-leaving age, but a structure in which access
to superior educational opportunities was much less obviously related to
"ability to pay".
I do not myself have any doubt, both that Hong Kong could afford
these things and that they would contribute to its economic efficiency and
social harmony.
70:78
As regards the question of industrial relations in the narrower
sense, the problem is more difficult. There is clear evidence in our
surveys of workers and employees of a need for change. The dilemma is that
the available trade union movements, majority and minority, will not or
cannot fulfil that need. On the other hand, it is impossible for the
administration to meet it completely (or even much more than two-thirds, say
of the way); while the alternative, erecting a new "neutral" trade union
movement in the private sector, would (even if practicable) be likely to
provoke a political confrontation.
71.
go
The Hong Kong T.U.C. has proposed a system in which (i) employers
would be compelled by law to recognise and bargain with trade unions; and
(ii) collective agreements would be legally enforceable. Of these two
points, the first is critical. If, as the T.U.C. perhaps hopes, the choice
of recognition between Left and Right lay with the employer, the effect
would be to create an almost totally unrepresentative position to which the
F.T.U. would be virtually obliged to react. The alternative would be some