4.3 Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining
The Hong Kong Government maintains a laissez faire attitude and adopts a passive policy to collective bargaining. Under the conditions that weak employee unions prevail in Hong Kong, voluntary negotiation and collective bargaining is almost impossible without positive promotion from the government.
The government has been using excuses such as: low union participation, multiplicity of small business, high mobility of the work force, politicized trade union movement, sustained economic growth resulting in rapid increase in wages and the steady improvement in statutory protection for workers under labour laws to argue against the appropriateness of collective bargaining. The government further explains that to replace collective bargaining, voluntary conciliation in labour disputes and establishment of joint consultative machinery (JCC)are promoted. However, JCCs are just consultative bodies and do not give workers any authentic power to defend their rights and welfare.
It was claimed that there were 89 collective agreements covering 120,000 workers in Hong Kong. However, the enforcement and the legality of these agreements raised doubts. For example, despite the well known collective agreement signed by the Cable and Wireless Company and its union, the management suddenly dismissed hundreds of workers without any prior notice in March 1991, and blatantly refused to negotiate with concerned unions on this matter.
4.4 The Right to Strike and the Public Ordinance
It is an acknowledged fact that Hong Kong workers do not have the right
to strike but the freedom of strike. The recent 17-days strike by the flight attendants of the Cathay Pacific Airways is a valid illustration. Under repeated intimidation and the threat of dismissal, they were compelled to stop their industrial action. Up to now, nearly 1,000 of them experienced wage deduction, and several activists faced demotion or other forms of victimization.
The Confederation of Trade Unions (Hong Kong) has demanded that the right to strike should be clearly stated in the labour law, with amendments to the Employment Ordinance that the employment contract should be treated as suspended and provisions of unfair dismissal should be implemented.
Under the present common law practice, contracts are treated as broken when workers resort to industrial action. Employers may even claim damages.
The legal protection of picketing in industrial action is limited. Although the right of picketing is written in section 46 of the Trade Union Ordinance with some restrictions, more harsh restrictions are imposed by the notorious Public Order Ordinance.
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