concessions.
Up to now, the operation of the SCSC has been cloaked in
secrecy. Staff side officials are prohibited from publicly discussing the
minutes of meetings or PIU data. This information and the hitherto shadowy
......
influence of business interests could well be subject to much more
wideranging scrutiny.
Yet even the-fiction of joint consultation is proving increasingly
difficult to maintain. The CSC's vulnerability to government and business
interests was amply demonstrated by the Covernor's refusal to allow. an
independent inquiry into the 1975 pay pause which overruled the Civil
Service Secretary's recommendation. The CSB is also hampered by its lack of
colonies.
experience in-dealing with emergent unionism in an industrialised society
with somewhat unique political considerations not found in primarily rural
Those few officials with expertise acquired locally and overseas
are no longer with the branch. The CSB is enslaved.in a staff relations
structure/philosophy patently out of step with Hong Kong's industrial and
social development.
The simple weight of numerous unions acting independently
...
has stretched the already overloaded resources of the PSD. The CSB's genuine
attempt to establish good personal relations with unions won't resolve-
fundamental disagreements over conditions of service where the official side
of the SCSC has no power to bargain and the staff side no'right' to.
- p
Indeed, existing pressures make an amicable compromise between the
The rapid expansion of the civil
government and unions extremely difficult.
service during the decade to 1974 has aggravated salary administration problems
and created a level of expectations which would be difficult to 'buy of£'.
Considering the rapid economic growth of Hong Kong and its uncertain political
future it cannot be argued that such problems are restricted to the civil
service. Hence, the belief often expressed in government circlès, that union
claims should be dismissed (parochially) as the direct result of overinflated
expectations, offers little hope of a satisfactory compromise being reached
in the near future. At a theoretical level, it indicates the unitarist
ideology of the government side by implying present problems are a consequence