CO129-626-3 Labour Department- report to Labour Commissioner 1-3-1951 - 30-6-1952 — Page 38

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serious offence and when we are altering our law, I should like to see that included among the stipulated offences. I do agree, however, that there are certain objections to the principle of making past offences a permanent bar to union office and I should be inclined to modify the provisions in our Ordinance so as to enable disqualification to be imposed for varying periods.

I am in full agreement with para. 28.

Paras. 29 & 30.

Levies.

I agree generally with the substance of these

two paragraphs. In this connection I think it would be

most valuable if we could have some form of definition as to what exactly constitutes the funds of a trade union.

Para. 31. Entrance fees and deduction of trade union dues.

I agree.

Paras. 32-37.

Audit.

I am fully in favour of tightening up on the audit of trade union accounts. I entirely agree that at least one of the auditors should be an authorised auditor, provided the union is of sufficient size to enable it to bear the expense. It must, however, be realised that a large number of the smaller unions cannot afford to pay the fees demanded by authorised auditors. I feel that in the case of these unions Government should make pro- vision for auditing their accounts whether or not a union was qualified for free audit by the Government would be a question for the Registrar.

I should like to introduce the Malayan system of a running audit but, as pointed out in para. 34, this is largely a question of staff. It would, however, be part of the duties of the two Assistant Registrars, whom I have mentioned previously, to carry out audits in respect of the smaller unions. I do not think that we could well adopt a six-monthly audit in Hong Kong.

I am strongly in favour of the production of a simplified form of account book as recommended in para. 36.

Para. 38. Secret Ballot.

The introduction of a system of decisions by secret ballot is one which we have long been trying to get the unions to adopt. I am in favour of making it compulsory, but I should not advocate extending that compulsion quite as far as is laid down in the Malayan trade union enactment.

In my opinion, if we try to force too much on the local unions by legislation, they will merely