TNAG-0647-FCO40-795-Study-of-labour-relations-in-Hong-Kong-by-Professor-H-A-Turn-1977 — Page 118

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"neutral" trade union movement in the private sector, would (even if

practicable) be likely to provoke a political confrontation.

79. The Hong Kong TUC has proposed a system in which (i) employers

would be compelled by law to recognise and bargain with trade unions;

and (ii) collective agreements would be legally enforceable. Of these

two points, the first is critical. If, as the TUC perhaps hopes, the

choice of recognition between Left and Right lay with the employer, the

effect would be to create an almost totally unrepresentative position to

which the FTU would be virtually obliged to react. The alternative

would be some process of election of appropriate unions as

representative. This would precipitate a confrontation, at the level

of individual firms and enterprises, which so far even the FTU has

apparently been anxious to avoid.

80.

I think some clues to a solution of this problem are contained in

our discussion of the characteristics and attitudes of Hong Kong

employees. Otherwise, I would at present say only three things, and

those again tentatively:

(1) Hong Kong needs some kind of general legal minimum wage.

Probably of the "safety net" variety which is characteristic

of the USA; but on its detailed principles and methods of

determination, I would require further study and

consideration*.

(2)

There is a gap in labour relations at the workplace level

itself, which seems to me absolutely critical, with which

neither the major union organisations nor the Labour

Department have been very actively concerned, but which

requires a quite distinctive approach in the special

circumstances of Hong Kong. To this gap, I have at least

the beginnings of such an approach in mind, but (beyond

saying that the extension of joint consultation on

voluntary or compulsory lines would not in our view

suffice to fill the gap) this again would require further

thought (and consultation with my colleagues) to

finalise it.

/(3) The

* As regards the alternative varieties of legal minimum wage, there is

some discussion for developing countries in my "Wage Trends, Wage

Policies and Collective Bargaining: the Problems for Underdeveloped

Countries" (CUP 1964).