CONFIDENTIAL
4
11.
As a result of this disagreement, some 300 Land
and Engineering Surveying Assistants in the Public Works
Department continued to refuse to perform outdoor survey
work and, in effect, did no work at all throughout the
quarter. For a brief spell, 12 to 28 September, some of
the 1,000 strong Association of Government Architectural,
Cartographic, Engineering and Surveying Technicians,
chiefly in the Public Works Department, staged a half-
hearted work-to-rule in support of their claim for enhanced
pay scales under the new structure.
12.
On 24th August, at the same time as the Finance
Committee decision was conveyed to the major PWD staff
associations, it was also announced that the Governor
intended to appoint an independent Committee of Inquiry
to enquire into the facts of the dispute between management
and staff about the new structure and pay rates, to proffer
independent advice on their fairness or otherwise, and
to recommend to the Governor whether any amendments were
necessary.
13. The Committee of Inquiry under Professor P.G. Willoughby,
Second Professor of Law at Hong Kong University, commenced
work on 5th September and submitted its report to the
Governor on 20th October.
14.
Although the Committee of Inquiry made some criticism
of the way in which consultations with certain staff associations
/had...