Mr Rowlands thanked Mr Batchelor for drawing his attention to the situation, and was glad for the assurance that it was not PSI's intention to try to block the implementation of Report No. 4.
He went
on to reiterate, that on the two fundamental issues (viz. the granting of negotiating rights and the setting up of a junior central council), Government had already accepted the. Standing Commission's recommendations. This had been done with the interest of the community in mind. It would now be up to the Hong Kong Government and its employees to work out how the recommendations should be implemented. He would like to seek an assurance from the staff that they would cooperate in trying out the proposed arrangements. Mr Batchelor indicated that the staff would be willing to cooperate,
but in return they would like to have an assurance that
in future, changes would be made towards the establishment
of one single central consultative council, and the granting of negotiating rights to the staff. Mr Rowlands
assured Mr Batchelor that there was no desire on the
part of Government to perpetuate the proposed consultative arrangements; if after, they had been tried out over a
Time.
period of implementation, it was found by both the
management and the staff that certain improvements should be made, they would certainly be considered.
5.
Mr Luk thought that the Standing Commission had failed to make any recommendation on one important issue and that was the provision of arbitration arrangements for resolving disputes. The Commission had clearly indicated that it did not wish to get involved in disputes between the management, and the staff, and yet it had not come up with any proposals for arbitration. On this, both Mr Rowlands and Mr Batchelor felt arbitration arrangements had been
/ tried