OCCUPATIONS, WAGES AND LABOUR ORGANIZATION
Labour Officer visited Australia, Ocean Island and Nauru in connexion with conditions of service for Chinese workmen.
The Commissioner of Labour is also Registrar of Trade Unions and administers the Trade Unions and Trade Disputes Ordinance.
Advice on trade union management, internal organization and accounting procedure is given by a Labour Officer who also organizes classes on the basic principles of trade unionism.
Mention should be made here of the Labour Advisory Board which comprises representatives of employers and workers, four from each group, two of whom are elected and two nominated by the Governor. The Commissioner of Labour is ex-officio chairman of the Board and a Labour Officer acts as secretary. The Chief of Staff, British Forces, representing the three Services, attends meetings of the Board as an observer member.
In 1953, the full Board met at the end of June to discuss the draft Workmen's Compensation Bill and to consider the report of the Committee on Apprenticeship and the draft Apprenticeship Bill, which formed part of the report.
Industrial Relations
Labour Organization. The number of trade unions con- tinues to increase and by the end of the year there were no less than 300 on the register of which 227 were workers' unions, 69 were employers' associations, and 4 were mixed unions of both employers and workers. It is obvious that for a popula- tion of approximately 24 millions this number is far higher than is necessary and it is believed that the number of trade unions per head of the population is one of the highest in the world. There have been no amalgamations during the year, and unavoidably the excess of unions in the same trades
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