RESTRICTED
- 2 -
on a discretionary basis, there is no financial commitment on the part of the Government to maintain the salaries of staff in the
woluntary sector at any particular level.
4. However, the Director of Social Welfare and representatives of the voluntary sector agreed on 18 January that a review of the volun- tary sector would be carried out in accordance with the principles adopted in the recent review of Social Welfare Departments' structure and salary scales. A steering committee and a working group were established on 1 February, with representatives largely nominated or elected by the voluntary sector's representatives themselves.
5. Although it would be impossible for the many individual organi- sations concerned all to be represented on the steering committee, the Social Workers' General Union have been told that they are free to make representations to the steering committee or to the working
group.
Professor Turner's Study of Labour Relations in Hong Kong
6.
Following discussions between the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, the Labour Party National Executive Committee, TUC, CBI, and the Hong Kong Government, it was decided in 1976 to commission a "low-profile" study of labour relations in Hong Kong. Professor H A Turner (Burton Professor of Industrial Relations at Cambridge) was chosen to carry out the study. His terms of refer- ence were to study and describe labour relations and to identify any impediments to the development of effective trades unions, employers organisations and collective bargaining. He was formally commissioned to carry out this study on 4 June 1976, and was to produce an interim report by the end of the year. Following this he was commissioned to carry out more detailed investigations during 1977.
7. In the event, Professor Turner's investigations were interrupted by his commitment to other projects and by intermittent ill-health. Thus, the study was not completed until this month. It is perhaps unfortunate that the report has taken so long, but we are confident that Professor Turner's final report will prove to be a comprehensive and impartial review of the subject.
RESTRICTED
14