TNAG-0232-FCO40-268-Legislation-relating-to-registration-of-trade-unions-in-Hong-1970 — Page 160

Published in the South China Morning Post on July 31, 1970.

PEACEFUL PICKETING

In this second article JOHN REAR, Lecturer in Law in the University of Hong Kong, discusses the law concerning the right of strikers to picket and makes some suggestions for changes in the law.

It is the fact that the workers' strength derives from their solidarity

that makes picketing important, for it is one of the means by which those

on strike try to persuade others to join them and not to render the strike

ineffective by working for the employer. When the trade union movement is

strong and the workers are united, the importance of picketing is reduced.

When, as now in Hong Kong, the unions are struggling for recognition and

the ordinary workers can ill afford to be out of work even for short periods,

its importance is enhanced.

In yesterday's article I pointed out that the Hong Kong law on

picketing was different from and more restrictive than the United Kingdom's.

However, it must be emphasised that the English law itself only permits

picketing within the most stringent limits, for the right to picket has to

be balanced against other equally fundamental rights: the right to go about

one's business and the freedom to choose to work for an employer without

molestation

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to say nothing of the right of the employer in a capitalist

society to seek to operate his business on terms and with labour of his

own choosing.

Because of the conflict of interests involved, limitations on the right

to picket must necessarily be accepted. The question is one of degree.

The English law on picketing is to be found in the Conspiracy and

Protection of Property Act 1875 and the Trade Disputes Act of 1906. The

equivalents of these provisions in Hong Kong are section 46 (without the

proviso) and section 47 (without subsection (2)) of the Trade Union

Registration Ordinance. In Hong Kong we also have some additional provisions

borrowed from England's post-General Strike emergency legislation, the

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