The concern expressed by the employee representatives was conveyed to the Administration by the OMELCO Office and comments sought. There was not enough
not enough time before the
the 1985 Legislative Council elections for the necessary consultations or for any amendment to be made to the Ordinance. The matter was, however, brought to the attention of the Acting Governor who instructed that a policy should be formulated on the use of trade union funds for political purposes. The following broad principles were proposed after discussion within the Administration, bearing in mind prevailing concern in the summer of 1985 that all reasonable steps should be taken to ensure broadly-based support for the new electoral arrangements and also that no
and also that no other relevant organisation was known to be prohibited from using its funds for the purpose of Legislative Council elections:
5
(a) donation
(b)
(c)
(d)
to
of of union funds to candidates defray electioneering expenses should be permitted, but only to candidates standing for election to the Legislative Council. For the time being, the prohibition on donation of funds to candidates standing for election to other bodies, such as the Urban Council, the Regional Council or a District Board, should continue;
appropriate amendment should be made to the Trade Unions Ordinance (Cap 332) to permit donations to be made to a candidate standing in any constituency (including an electoral college constituency) established for the purpose of returning a member to the Legislative Council;
it should be specifically provided that all such donations should be
be subject to prior approval by
by a general meeting of the trade union concerned; and
in
if a similar prohibition were contained the Incorporation Ordinances of other functional constituency organisations, such prohibition should be similarly relaxed.
These proposals were approved by the Acting Governor on 4 August 1985 and a memorandum was subsequently sent to the OMELCO office by the Secretary for Education and Manpower which stated that
approval has now been given in
11
to
principle for legislative amendments to exclude donations candidates standing in any constituency established for the purpose of returning a member to the Legislative Council from the prohibition on the use of union funds for political purposes in section 34 of the Trade Unions Ordinance"