}
BACKGROUND NOTE
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THE HONG KONG SOCIAL WORKERS GENERAL UNION
1.
The Union, on its registration (6 February 1980) had a declared
membership of 242 (including menial workers), out of a total of some
2,700 social workers employed by voluntary agencies in the social
welfare field.
2. Between October 1979 and February 1980, before its formal estab-
lishment, the Union sent four letters to the Governor of Hong Kong
and to the Chief Secretary criticising the Hong Kong Government for
not including voluntary sector staff in the Welfare Class Review of
the Social Welfare Department (SWD), which came into effect on
1 April 1979. The Union's demands were for comparability in salary and structure as between SWD and voluntary agency staff, and for
representation on the Steering Committee and Working Group established
on 1 February 1980, to review the voluntary sector.
3.
The Secretary for Social Services replied to the effect that the Welfare Class Review was essentially an internal exercise to
restructure the SWD and was not automatically applicable to voluntary
agencies; that while most of these agencies received discretionary subventions from the SWD for a portion of their activities, this did
not commit the Government to maintain voluntary sector salaries at any
particular level; that the voluntary sector already had represent-
atives on the Steering Committee and, in order to keep it at a manage-
able size, applications from other interested parties (of which the
Union is one) had been rejected, though they were at liberty to make
written representations to the Committee.
4.
The Union put their case to the Unofficial Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils (UMELCO) in May and were advised to make
written representations to the Committee as suggested by the SWD. UMELCO also advised the SWD to seek a dialogue with the Union to allay
their fears of being discriminated against.
Hong Kong and General Department
31 October 1980
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