XN000022-1973-10-31 — Page 31

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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