TNAG-0646-FCO40-794-Application-of-international-labour-conventions-to-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 116

CONFIDENTIAL

Flag E

4. The Hong Kong Government's inability to carry out their own programme for 1976 in full is unfortunate. It should also be noted that action was taken last year in respect of only one of the 3 Conventions included in Lord Goronwy-Roberts' list for 1976. At the same time, the Hong Kong Government did reach Lord Goronwy- Roberts' numerical target for 1976 and, if the improved declaration made in January on Convention No 92 on Accommodation of Crews (Revised) is taken into account, they surpassed it. Moreover, the Hong Kong Government's performance last year exceeded that in the recent past, 5 Conventions only having been applied during the 3 years from 1973 to 1975 inclusive. As the Prime Minister said in the House of Commons last December, this progress may be attributed to the direct interest that Ministers have been taking in the Hong Kong Government's performance in applying ILO Conventions. The Governor of Hong Kong has also fully recognized the need to do better in this field. He told the previous Secretary of State at his meeting with him on 22 July 1976 that the 5-year programme of labour legislation on which Hong Kong has now embarked would increase the number of ILO Conventions applied from 33 (21 in full and 12 in part) to 41 (27 in full and 14 in part).

|548/

HKK 026

1976

Flag F

5.

The Hong Kong Government's programme for the application of ILO Conventions in 1977 does not, as will be seen, contain anything different from that envisaged late last year, except for the one Convention that has had to be carried forward. The programme was welcomed by Ministers at that time. I think that it is a defensible one for this year. The risk is that, as happened last year, the Hong Kong Government's expectations may exceed their achievements. The Overseas Labour Adviser has already drawn attention to a number of questions that will need to be satisfactorily answered before we can be confident that the Hong Kong Government will complete the 1977 programme in full. The department, in consultation with the Overseas Labour Adviser, will pursue these questions with the Hong Kong Government and will report any slippage that may occur in the programme to the Standing Committee on Hong Kong.

Altaches

3

CONFIDENTIAL