advising trade unions on matters of organisation and finance; and, in co-operation with the legal department, the constant review of labour legislation to meet local needs and to correspond with accepted international standards.
Labour Disputes.
At the beginning of the year the labour position was generally satisfactory. Most of the larger employers of labour had concluded new agreements with their employees during 1946. As the year advanced, however, the economic factor once again became obtrusive, and necessitated further adjustment in the pay-scales of various grades of skilled workers, who had not hitherto benefited from the high post-war standard of living to the same extent as the semi-skilled and unskilled workers. There were three strikes during the first quarter of the year. In each case the original demands put forward by the men concerned were unduly arbitrary and no acceptable compromise could be reached. Little was gained by the strikes since the companies concerned were able to engage new staff or re-engage their former employees on terms practically identical with those obtaining before the men had resorted to strike action.
The first in point of time was a strike by the thirty-six employees of the Peak Tramway Company. A list of demands was put forward by the employees, mainly for wage increases. These increases were, in the opinion of the Company, excessive. The management, however, was prepared to negotiate, and discussions accordingly took place, during which the Company made a number of concessions, though it was not prepared to grant the demands in full. The employees insisted on complete acceptance of their original terms. Failing to obtain this they decided to strike. Eventually, after more than five weeks of unsuccessful negotiation, inclusive of the period of the strike, the Company, after offering to re-employ those of its staff who chose to return, engaged a largely new staff with which full operation of the service was resumed.
A strike in the Hong Kong Rope Works followed a similar course. After protracted and unsuccessful negotiations lasting over two months the Company engaged new staff amounting to some 110 workers.
In March the employees of a European-owned concern, the British Cigarette Company, submitted a demand for a 100% wage increase, as well as other demands of a minor character. The management had, some nine months before, granted increases to bring their employees fully into line with other European industrial concerns, and were therefore not prepared to consider the new increase. The workers decided, somewhat rashly, to enforce their demands by strike action, but after 27 days on strike they agreed to return to work on the same conditions of service as before.
With the second quarter of the year began a more general agitation for pay increases particularly for skilled mechanics. The Chinese Engineers' Institute, the oldest craft union for this
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