53
process of election of appropriate unions as representatives.
This would
precipitate a confrontation, at the level of individual firms and enterprises,
which so far even the F.T.U. has apparently been anxious to avoid.
22.80 I think some clues to a solution of this problem are contained in
our discussion of the characteristics and attitudes of Hong Kong employees.
Otherwise, I would at present say only three things, and those again
tentatively:-
1) Hong Kong needs some kind of general legal minimum wage.
Probably of the "safety net" variety which is characteristic of the U.S.A.;
detailed
but on its principles and methods of determination, I would require further
study and consideration.
2) There is a gap in labour relations at the workplace level
itself, which seems to me absolutely critical, with which neither the major
union organisations nor the Labour Department have been very actively
concerned, but which requires a quite distinctive approach in the special
circumstances of Hong Kong. To this gap, I have at least the beginnings
of such an approach in mind, but again would require further thought (and
consultation with my colleagues) to finalise it,
of a
3) The Government's own labour relations seem to me in something
mess--and since the Government is Hong Kong's biggest single employer
and (as we previously showed) a pace-setter for much of private employment,
this is important. I am aware that there are movements both on the trade
union and official sides to correct certain deficiencies in the present
*
As regards the alternative varieties of legal minimum wage, there is some
discussion for developing countries in my "Wage Trends, Wage Policies and
Collective Bargaining: the Problems for Underdeveloped Countries" (C.U.P. 1964)