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XIV.
ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.
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270. In view of the almost total absence of established voluntery joint negotiating machinery in local industry, differences are bound to arise between workers and their employers which cannot readily be settled. As a result of this considerable amount of the work of the Commissioner of Labour and of the Labour Officers is devoted to conciliation and mediation in disputes.
271. There is no doubt whatever that the Department of Labour has been instrumental not only in preventing a number of unnecessery strikes but also in bringing workers and employers together in order that they may negotiate agreements governing terms and conditions of employment in industry.
272. The normal method by which the Department of Labour renders assistance in the prevention and settlement of indus- trial disputes is by way of conciliation; although there is provision for arbitration, but this has been used on one occasion only.
275. thiru me thoa which has not yet been used in Hong Kong, and for which there is as yet no legal authority, but which is strongly recommended in this report is that of formal inquiry (Courts of Inquiry). See Chapter XVII and Appendix 5.
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274. Conciliation is well conducted with patience sympathy and understanding of a high order but it has been my impression that the workers organisations are inclined to expect rether too much of the Department of Labour and do not hesitate to air their views, in this respect, in the press. This is no doubt due to the more arbitrary methods adopted by those in authority in other countries, of which they hear. Firmness, rather than more democratic methods, seems to appeal to the workers at the moment although there is no doubt that, in time they will come to appreciate the fairness and impartiality displayed by officers of the Department.
275.
The workers organisations have yet to learn to rely on their own efforts and not to fall back on the Department of Labour whenever they fail to get their own way. On the other hand employers will have to realise that the workers constituting the human factor in economic activity, are not always motivated by logical considerations in their approach to labour problems, and must make allowances accordingly.
276. The Government of the Volony is not entirely altruistic in developing trade unions as an aim of policy. It is their hope that us a sound, well led, trade union movement develops collective bargaining and voluntary joint machinery will be built up and operated with the minimum of intervention by the Department of Labour.
277. When methods of conciliation 1ɛil arbitration is available provided both siacs agree to this procedure. The Department of Labour is opposed to the early introduction of any system of compulsory ar.itration and with this view I agree. Even where arbitration is agreed there may well be strong reluctance on the part of the workers to accept the award of a Tribunal. Such an attitude was manifest after the publication of the award by the only Industrial arbitration Tribunal set up in the Colony in connection with the Dairy
rm dispute, and would, no doubt, more readily occur where an arbitration tribunal to be imposed without the consent of either party to a dispute. The position may of course be different if there was a fixed wage policy in the Colony and
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