CO129-623-1 Rubber Industry- report and correspondence on the labour situation 1-4-1950 - 31-1-1951 — Page 37

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workers would be paid off on Saturday, August 12th, and would receive one day's pay in lieu of notice. In making this announcement, there is no doubt whatsoever that the Factory Manager was acting under the direct orders of the Managing Director transmitted to him from Kuala Lumpur. The local management had no say in the matter at all. There is reason to believe that the Factory Manager knew of the decision to close the factory between two and three weeks before the closure was put into effect. He was, however, expressly debarred from giving any advance notice to the workers because the Managing Director feared that damage might be done to the machinery. He states that he endeavoured to secure relaxation of this order but that his efforts were in vain.

13.

Inevitably, this sudden closure of a long- established and well-reputed factory caused considerable consternation among the workers and it appears that they regarded this closure as a lightning lock-out. An immediate appeal to the Labour Department resulted in both sides meeting to discuss the situation, but the workers' representatives - particularly those representing the Hong Kong Rubber Shoe Workers' Union - refused to accept the statement of the management that closure was due not to any labour dispute but simply to lack of business. As a consequence of this attitude they would not accept their pay and they picketed the factory in order to prevent any of the other workers being paid off. It was a clash between these pickets and some workers who insisted upon drawing the money due to them which led to police being stationed in the vicinity of the factory to keep the peace.

14.

Between August 9th and the present date, 28 meetings between workers and factory management have been arranged by the Labour Department, during the course of which various suggestions have been made for resuming work, all of which have failed because the factory manage- ment state categorically that they are not permitted, and are not in a position, to re-open the factory. During the last three weeks vigorous representations made to the local Manager by the Commissioner of Labour have resulted in securing agreement on the part of the Managing Director to the payment of one week's wages to all workers employed at the time when the factory closed, This offer will probably be accepted by the workers who are members of the Hong Kong & Kowloon Rubber & Plastic Workers' General Union, but the representatives of the Hong Kong Rubber Shoe Workers' Union have so far refused to consider it and continue to demand immediate re-opening of the factory.

15.

The fact of the matter is that the long record and high standing of this factory makes it very difficult for the workers to realise that the closure is in fact due to economic causes over which the local Factory Manager has no control. In this connection, I have received information from a most trustworthy source that the closure is due not merely to a steady decline in business but to the fact that the firm is virtually bankrupt following speculation in the rubber market in Malaya. I regret that I must request that this information, which was given to me in Executive Council, be treated as strictly confidential, though it is possible that you may be able to obtain independent confirmation from Kuala Lumpur.