OCCUPATIONS, WAGES AND LABOUR ORGANIZATION
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display at the 15th Annual Exhibition of Hong Kong Products held in December. The display aroused interest and the opportunity was taken to spread more knowledge of the department's activities among local employers and workers by means of numerous hand-outs, by organizing film shows and displays at the Exhibition, and by radio broadcasts.
The Registry of Trade Unions, which was established as a separate department in December 1954, is now responsible for the registration work formerly carried out by the Labour Department under the Trade Unions and Trade Disputes Ordinance. It deals with applications for registration by new trade unions, with applications by registered unions for registration of alterations of rules, of change of name or of amalgamation, and with dissolutions.
Registered trade unions are required by the Ordinance to transmit to the Registrar annual returns before 1st June, and their audited accounts within one month of presentation to members. During the year 15 unions were prosecuted for transmitting their annual returns late, while the registration of two workers' unions was cancelled for failure to transmit
accounts.
The year ended with 307 unions on the register as against 304 in December 1956.-Twelve new organizations (all of workers) were registered but nine (seven of workers and two of employers) were removed from the register. Of the workers' unions five had ceased to exist, while one em- ployers' association was dissolved and one became a limited company. The 307 unions consisted of 230 workers' unions, 67 organizations of merchants and employers, and 10 mixed organizations of employers and workers.
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Labour Organization. The number of workers' unions on the register at the end of the year was still far in excess of practical needs. Most of the trade unions in the Colony