TNAG-0092-FCO40-128-Ministry-of-Public-Buildings-and-Works-Future-of-locally-eng-1967 — Page 16

2.

The

Thirdly, he wished to send a team under Mr. Stretton to talk to the Hong Kong Government about arrangements for taking over the work, and the possibility of extending the transfer to all works services for the Forces in Hong Kong, as well as the staff

the staff problems. teams would include a Ministry of Defence representative. incidence of the Chinese New Year made it important that the team should go to Hong Kong next week. The Governor appeared to reject the need for such a visit.

The

Mrs. Hart said she recognised M.P.B.W's anxiety to get the best terms for their staff; although many of these had long service they were classed as unestablished. It was essential to seek precedents for the transfer of unestablished staff with their seniority and gratuity rights safeguarded. For her part, she knew of no such precedent in the U.K. M.P.B.W. appeared to be asking the Hong Kong Government to give more generous terms than the U.K. Government would grant in similar circumstances. The dockyard case was only techni- cally different from the present one. The U.K. Government had then closed the dockyard when they had no further use for it, and granted such poor terms to the staff rendered redundant that the Hong Kong Government had stepped in and offered employment to as many as possible.

Mr. Reynolds said he thought the U.K. Government's policy was to follow good employment practice in such matters as establishment and gratuities in overseas areas. A similar problem had arisen over the Territorial Army in this country, where industrial grades had been transferred with the job but temporary clericals had been discharged.

Mr. Prentice said he believed parallels could be found with the Atomic Energy Authority and the Airports Authority, but the essence of the argument was that no M.P.B.W. staff in Hong Kong had been established. He felt they should have been, and it would be inequitable to seek precedents based on the treatment of unestablished staff in this country who normally formed part of a labour force some of whom were established and some unestablished. We ought to treat Mrs. Har t the Hong Kong employees as if they had been established. said this would place the Governor in a very difficult position with the unions representing Hong Kong Government employees, since they would object to M.P.B.W. staff retaining seniority at their expense. The first step was to get officials to find out the facts, and the

It would be Treasury should be a party to these discussions. impolitic to issue an instruction to the Governor in these matters where the financial burden would fall upon the Hong Kong Government.

Mr. Reynolds thought the team under Mr. Stretton might go out to Hong Kong in advance of a decision about the transfer of staff, since they had other matters to discuss. The two sets of negotiations should be kept separate - the arrangements for handing over the job and the conditions of transfer for staff. On the latter point, the team might assist in establishing some of the facts, particularly about D.E.L., and the number of those who would prefer to take their gratuity rather than transfer to the Hong Kong Government.

/Mr. Prentice