TNAG-0568-FCO40-701-Planning-paper-on-Hong-Kong-1976 — Page 144

7386 D073815 140M 5/74 Cr.P.C. Gp.839/3

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on most matters relating to the Colony's affairs; and therefore has much greater access to confidential

information than, say, Members of Parliament. In his view LegCo is more analgous to a Cabinet, or body

of Ministers, than to a Legislature on the Westminster model. Until there is representation from organised labour, however, it would be impossible for the

Secretary of State to convince the TUC and NEC that proper account is taken of working class interests. There appears to be some lack of communication here, with little prospect of either side giving ground

without a Ministerial decision. }

19. At the non-governmental level, a conspicuous feature of Hong Kong is the weakness and fragmentation

of the trade union movement and the absence of

collective bargaining on any significant scale. Total trade union membership is only 20% of the working population. This is in part due to the fragmentation of industry: out of some 25,000 establishments in 1974 only 118 employed more than 500 people and no less than 15,000 employed less than 10. It is also in part due to differing political allegiances, with pro-Communist trade unions representing nearly three quarters of the total membership (231,000); pro-Taiwan unions representing 37,000 and politically non- aligned unions mainly in the public sector representing 48,000. Various attempts have been made by the British and international trade union movements to stimulate the growth of trade unionism and collective bargaining in Hong Kong but without success. Some of the failure is attributed by the TUC to unnecessary restrictions in the Hong Kong Trade Union Ordinance on such matters as federation of unions and the payment of paid officials: but the Hong Kong Government have maintained that practice in these respects is more liberal than the letter of the law suggests. We suspect that deeper sociological, economic and political factors militating against normal growth and activities of a trade union movement are at work and a study is being commissioned to

/investigate

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