TNAG-0127-FCO40-163-Illegal-strikes-and-lockouts-ordinance-1969 — Page 58

NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN

W(B)L 51-7406

It is difficult to argue that Hong Kong's

approach to essential services legislation

should be on the positive lines recommended by

the Labour Advisory Committee in the direction

-

of negotiating machinery when the Colony has

to contend with the two difficulties of ineffec-

tive trade unions and the threat of a hostile

political element which it would be naive to

suppose could be educated up to a sense of

social responsibility. Much of the procedure

recommended by the Committee is based on the

premise that the workers concerned have reached

a stage of organisation where the trade union

is accepted as the normal vehicle for communica-

tion between themselves and their employers on

matters affecting their contractual relation-

ships.

10.

Nevertheless it is evident that there are

policy objections of substance to the amending

Bill in its present form although it is not

necessarily easy to determine the weight of

those objections in the special circumstances

of Hong Kong. But the proposals also present

legal difficulties. These reinforce the case

for returning the Bill to Hong Kong for re-

examination.

1. One legal difficulty is that the existing

Ordinance contains a safeguard clause that no

person shall act in furtherance of a strike or

lock-out, provided that no one shall be deemed

by reason only of

to have committed an offence

/ his

...