2
4.
No union is allowed to affiliate with any international organisation
without permission.
5. Union membership is effectively confined to full-time workers, casual,
part time or seasonal workers are excluded.
6.
8*
9.
There is no permanent machinery for joint negotiation. Such as goes on is on an ad hoc basis, and only a score of firns out of 14,000 practice
collective bargaining.
All political partics are banned.
No trade unionist is represented on any of HK's 3 legislative bodies (LEGCO, EXCO and the Urban Council) (6)
The following international Labour Organisation conventions that are ratified for the UK are not operativo in Hong Kong:
No. 2,10,12,17,24,25,32,35-40,44,56,68,70,74,94,95,97,98,99, 100, 101,
102,120,122,124 (7)
Membership
In such circumstances it is hardly surprising to find that trade union membership is very low in HK. Official figures are, if anything, inflated (duo to undercalcula- tion of the size of the workforce, leaving out children under 14, and a proportion of family based workers who contribute to household incomes by, for instance, anking up plastic flowers at home), A rough estimate would be about 6-7%. Manufacturing had 5.5% in 1966, and significantly, the major growth industries of the last decade, i.e, garments, shirts plastics and electronics, are virtually un-unionised (8). In sum, trade unionisn in IK is not only weak, but 'is growing woaker in proportion to the working population' (9). Over half of all HK trade unions in 1969 had a membership of loss than 251: (10) The Labour Department's Concilliation Section (the only resort in cases of industrial disputes) had a staff of nino which dealt with 4,000 cases in 1968-69. (11)
Results
In this situation, we find that 52% of all employees work ten hours a day or more and that 60% work seven days a week (12) There are no laws limiting tho bumber of hours a week worked by nales over 18. With travelling time included, the working honds of households in Hong Kong are mostly absent from home 12 hours a day, seven days a week. (13) Those are the worst working hours in South East Asia. Wagos havo failed to keep pace with inflation (particularly since the increase of local food prices consequent on currency ro-arrangements by the People's Republic of China) and rocent disputes (og the blind workers, 1971) have actually demanded to
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