TNAG-0647-FCO40-795-Study-of-labour-relations-in-Hong-Kong-by-Professor-H-A-Turn-1977 — Page 124

4.

one locality by a number of factors: they may depend on localised

information and recruitment networks (particularly casual labourers);

they may rely on contacts and material support from a restricted

network of kin and friends; and, when several members of a family

are pooling incomes (especially when part of that income comes from

highly localised self-employment like hawking, factory putting-out systems, etc), it is harder for one member (even the main bread-

winner) to move to a new job and residence without disturbing the

earning capacity of other members.

All of this combines to restrict the range within which

workers may seek alternative employment and to encourage the develop-

ment of locally segmented labour markets. This tendency will be

increased by expansion into the New Territories, reduced possibly by

developments in communications like the MTR. While touching on this

subject, it should be remembered that new arrivals are coming in

from China all the time, that circulation of personnel between HK

and China is relatively easy and that consequently rural-urban

migration on a substantial scale is not ruled out by the political

barrier between HK and Kwangtung Province.

Employers' attempts to 'commit' labour:

To what extent is it in the interests of HK's employers to

encourage the development of a highly volatile labour force?

How,

assuming that they would want to, can and do employers seek to

'commit' labour? Obviously, firms whose product market is stable

will want to reap the benefits of a loyal, stable and therefore

more effective labour force; firms whose product market is subject

to wide and rapid fluctuations (manufacture of consumer goods,

construction, transhipment of trade goods,etc) will emphasise

impersonal contract, so that they may hire and fire labour

relatively easily. The survival of labour subcontracting in some

sectors may be attributed to the need of certain employers to

maintain a flexible 'reserve army' of casual labour. Here the

burden of committing workers lies with the sub-contractor who must,

like the proprietor of a small enterprise, rely on the adequacy of

the wage offered and on his face-to-face relations with employees

to secure a regular supply of labour. But the common pattern in

HK, reinforced no doubt by employers' perception of a chronic

shortage of certain kinds of labour in the long run, has been for