TNAG-0296-FCO40-332-Legislation-for-registration-of-trade-unions-in-Hong-Kong-1972 — Page 94

XCC(71)3

CONFIDENTIAL

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(e) Theft Ordinance (Number 21 of 1970):

section 23: blackmail

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Some crimes of violence are not included in the above list because either they are so rare in Hong Kong, for example, treason and genocide, or they fall within the existing prohibition, for example, robbery with violence. Some crimes are included which do not obviously involve violence but in which the victim may fear violence, for example, intimidation and blackmail.

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In considering the types of crimes for inclusion in the schedule, Honourable Members are invited to note that the purpose of section 17(3) of the Trade Union Registration Ordinance, 1961, which disbars ordinary members of registered trade unions from becoming officers if they have been convicted of any crime involving fraud, dishonesty, extortion or membership of a triad society, is intended to protect ordinary members from placing themselves, probably unwittingly, in the hands of undesirable officers. There are many categories of crimes which might be considered sufficiently serious to disbar a person from holding office but, taking into account the normal activities of a trade union, it seems reasonable to protect ordinary members against those who have been proved to be dishonest or untrustworthy from handling what can be the considerable financial resources of a union or who are likely to discredit the union by association with the nefarious activities of triad societies.

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At present officers are only barred if convicted of a limited number of classes of crime referred to in the section. Crimes against public order, (e.g. riot) anti-social crimes, (e. g. arson and trafficking in dangerous drugs), and sexual crimes (e.g. rape and bigamy) are not included, because it is argued that such crimes have no relevance to the holding of office in trade unions. The United Kingdom Trades Union Congress advanced a similar argument when commenting on our amended proposals, which it described as an improvement "provided that in practice there would be no disqualification for an act of violence which had no bearing on trade union considerations.

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There would appear to be three possible courses of action. First, that the disbarment of officials should be restricted to those convicted of the offences listed in paragraph 3 which relate to offences against the person (other than sexual offences) i. e. only (b) (i), (iii), (iv) and (v), (d) and (e) of paragraph 3. It can be argued that these offences are of a kind which make the convicted person undesirable as a union official. It is also suggested that only those who have been sentenced to at least six months' imprisonment should be disbarred from becoming officers of trade unions. This additional condition for disqualification eliminates comparatively trivial offences.

CONFIDENTIAL