4.
(b)
Commission's advice that the existing
consultative arrangements should be improved and fully developed before negotiating procedures could be considered, although management realized that the
latter was perhaps the staff's long-term goal;
the future of the SCSC: this concerned
whether the Staff Side representation should be broadened to include all staff except Police officers. On this particular point, many representations had been received and carefully examined by the Commission; it was the Standing Commission's conclusion that rather than expanding the existing Senior Civil Service Council, a separate central council for junior staff should be set up to look after the interests of junior officers at present not represented on the .SCSC.
On the granting of negotiating rights, Mr Batchelor thought that the Hong Kong. Government had been less than fair to the Standing Commission in that in its submission to the Commission, it failed to draw attention to the provisions of ILO Convention 98 concerning the application of the principles of the right to organize and to bargain collectively. Despite the assurances given by the UK Government upon the ratification of the Convention, the provisions of the Convention had never been complied with in Hong Kong. In his view, the Standing Commission should have been made aware of this situation. Mr Batchelor emphasized that in raising this particular point, his sole purpose was to try to improve the negotiating procedures, and not to create a nuisance for the Hong Kong Government.
Mr Rowlands