TNAG-0296-FCO40-332-Legislation-for-registration-of-trade-unions-in-Hong-Kong-1972 — Page 6

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Mr Lambert

TRADE UNION REGISTRATION (AMENDMENT) ORDINANCE

1. I am sorry that I have kept these papers so long but as I explained earlier a detailed examination of this law in relation to International Labour Conventions had to wait until the work accruing to the 56th International Labour Conference was more or less out of the way. Then, in its Report to the 56th session the ILO's Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommenda- tions indicated that Direct Requests were to be addressed to the Government of Hong Kong concerning the application of Convention 84 (Right of Association and the Settlement of Labour Disputes in Non-Metropolitan Territories) which has been declared fully applied to Hong Kong, and Con- vention 87 (Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize) which is applied with certain modifi- cations. As these Direct Requests could be expected to relate to provisions of the Trade Union legislation, it seemed worth waiting to see what they would say.

2.

The Direct Request relating to Convention 84 reads:

"Hong Kong

The Committee notes with interest that the Bill to amend the Trade Union Registration Ordinance, which seeks, inter alia, to make it clear that no person shall be refused membership of a trade union on the ground that he is casually or seasonally employed in the trade, industry or occupation with which the trade union is directly concerned, has formed the subject of consultations between the Government and the Labour Advisory Board and other interested organisations. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would keep it informed of the progress of this legislation".

3. As stated in paragraph 7 of the Legal Report with the Amending Ordinance (Enclosure No.2) one of the objects of the amendment to section 9 of the Principal Ordinance is to achieve the end desired by the Committee of Experts. No further action appears to be called for but in case the Committee of Experts should raise the matter again, a copy of notes setting out Hong Kong's position in regard to Convention 84 is attached for future reference.

4.

With regard to Convention 87 a number of modifica- tions have been entered in respect of the application of this Convention to Hong Kong, which take account of the limitations of the law and as it turns out the Direct Request does not concern the trade union registra- tion legislation but the Emergency (Principal) Regula- tions (Cap.241) and reads as follows:

"Hong Kong

F

The Committee notes the information sup- plied by the Government in its last report.

A

The Committee further observes that

1.

DD 737719 557664 500M 2/71 GM 3643/2