32
EMPLOYMENT
unions has grown beyond practical needs and divergent loyalties have prevented those with common interests from amalgamating into effective organisations.
The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions supports the Chinese People's Republic. Most of the members of its 65 affiliated unions were concentrated in shipyards, textile-mills, and public utilities. A further 18 unions, nominally independent, are friendly with the federation and participate in its activities. The other trade union federation, the Hong Kong and Kowloon Trades Union Council, sympathises with the policies of the Taiwan authorities. Most of the members of its 71 affiliated unions and of the 23 nominally independent unions, which generally support the Trades Union Council, are employed in the catering and building trades. The Trades Union Council is affiliated to the International Confedera- tion of Free Trade Unions. There are 77 independent unions, some of which continued to make improvements in their internal_admin- istration and in the services offered to their members.
The Labour Relations Division of the Labour Department dealt with 3,085 disputes, of which 513 involved large wage claims. This compared with 418 last year. There were a further 2,572 minor disputes compared with 2,536 in the previous year. Altogether there were 27 strikes and the number of man-days lost in all disputes was 39,911 compared with 8,432 in 1968. Major disputes in the year were due mainly to disagreement over piece rates (particularly in the woollen knitting industry), redundancy, dismissal and in- solvency.
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By the end of the year the Labour Department had recorded a total of 56 joint consultative councils and committees set up by 24 establishments. Most of these were working smoothly and achieving the object of bringing management and employees together to improve relationships and allow each to benefit from the experi- ence of the other. Similar committees established in certain govern- ment departments discuss a wide range of administrative, welfare and organisational problems. Another development has been the increase in the number of firms which issue handbooks detailing conditions of service. During the year a large dockyard, a gas works, an elevator engineering company and several woollen knitting and electronics factories issued such booklets to their