TNAG-0647-FCO40-795-Study-of-labour-relations-in-Hong-Kong-by-Professor-H-A-Turn-1977 — Page 240

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NOTE BY OVERSEAS LABOUR ADVISER ON PROFESSOR TURNER'S

"INTERIM AND PROVISIONAL REVIEW OF LABOUR RELATIONS IN HONG KONG"

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1. It has been difficult to decide how to present this note but the format adopted draws attention to the points likely to be of particular interest to the TUC. This takes account of the under- standing of the TUC (and the CBI) that they will be consulted on this review. For example, at a meeting between the then Secretary of State, r Callaghan, and members of the TUC's International Committee on 8 December 1975, the Secretary of State expressed the view that "there was a clear case for a researcher .. to undertake the main outlines of the study and then

to look at what part the TUC

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and the CBI might be able to play. Consultation predicates that further action will be advocated by way of enquiries in Hong Kong and it is note-worthy that Professor Turner has designated his study as "an interim and provisional review" and that his three main conclusions (para.81 of his review) all call for further work.

TUC Interests

2.

The review rebuts the Hong Kong employers' contention that trade unions are not needed in Hong Kong to secure improvements in wages and terms of employment since labour market forces and employers' paternalism mean steady increases in real wages and "a share in evident prosperity" (paras. 27, 28 and 33-47). On the contrary, employers are at an advantage compared with workers in determining wage movements (para. 47) and the workers are at a particular disadvantage and might "in some cases be paid less than their market value" (para. 48). Professor Turner goes on to conclude that workers might not have shared appropriately in Hong Kong's prosperity (para. 74(c)).

3. The review also rebuts the second argument often advanced for the ineffectiveness of Hong Kong's trade unions, i.e. that Hong Kong workers are individualists and "anti-collectivists". Although only a small minority see any hope in collective bargaining by the present trade unions (paras. 52 and 56), Hong Kong workers nevertheless see, for example, paragraph 57 and the conclusions drawn in paragraph 58. fact is that existing trade unions have failed to meet the aspirations of their members in particular and workers in general. The failures of the unions are described in paras. 59 - 66.

para 52/ favour collective (i.e. trade union) action:

The basic

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