TNAG-0232-FCO40-268-Legislation-relating-to-registration-of-trade-unions-in-Hong-1970 — Page 64

Published in the South China Morning Post on July 30, 1970.

THE RIGHT TO STRIKE

In this article JOHN REAR, Lecturer in Lew in the University of Hong Kong, examines the lows of Hong Kong governing the right to strike. Tomorrow, in a second article, the writer takes a look at the problem of peaceful picketing and suggests some changes in the law.

The right to strike is crucial to the improvement of wages and

conditions of work. An individual employee has no power; if he refuses

to work he can easily be replaced. Only by acting together with his

workmates can the worker counteract the employer's economic strength.

As one English judge said: "The right of workmen to strike is an

essential element in the principle of collective bargaining."

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In Hong Kong the right to strike is limited and the restrictions

on the right to picket are so severe that it is virtually impossible

to exercise this right without. breaking the law or giving the police

a justification for intervening.

J

There seems to be a general impression that so far as striking

and peaceful picketing is concerned, our law is the same as English

law . This belief seems to have been given some official encouragement.

When the Trade Union Registration Bill was introduced in 1961 the

memorandum accompanying it said: "Part VII deals with picketing,

imtimidation and conspiracy by members of a trade union in furtherance

of a trade dispute. The contents of this part closely follow the

corresponding standard provisions of the United Kingdom legislation ..."

This was a half-truth. Hong Kong's law was then end is now different

from English law on this subject.

The difference between English and Hong Kong law

The first difference is that in Hong Kong we have an Illegal Strikes

and Lock-outs Ordinance which was modelled on the English Trade Disputes

and Trade Unions Act 1927. This repressive piece of legislation was

passed one year after the General Strike and was repealed in 1946, some

two years before Hong Kong's first Trade Union and Trade Disputes

Ordinance. In Hong Kong, therefore, we have some legislation long

since rejected as unacceptable in the place from which it originated.

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