29
Wednesday, October 31, 1973
The high inflationary rate, Dr. Chung pointed out had created much
concern particularly in export-oriented industries and among salary and
wage earners.
Although the real wage index for September 1973 was yet to be
published, he felt certain that it would show a reduction, for the first
time, in real average wages for workers in manufacturing industries during
the year.
Referring to the current labour dispute in the Cable and Wireless
Limited, Dr. Chung said that disputes of this kind like those in other
essential services such as electricity, telephone and public transport
could paralyse Hong Kong and cause "grave damages to our economy,"
In view of this, he felt that in such cases involving a 'dispute
of interest' and which drag on without a settlement, there should be
legislative power for the government to intervene and exercise "compulsory
arbitration" as a matter of principle and for the sake of overall interest.
"The interests of the people in Hong Kong as a whole are much more
important than those of the employees in a company and should be protected,"
he said.
While he appreciated that the conciliation section of the Labour
Department was doing "a good job" in assisting and persuading disputing parties
to iron out their differences, Dr. Chung felt that "there is a limit to
the work of conciliation," if one or both disputing parties refused to be
conciliated.
/"Providing