TNAG-0647-FCO40-795-Study-of-labour-relations-in-Hong-Kong-by-Professor-H-A-Turn-1977 — Page 82

I

LABOUR RELATIONS IN HONG KONG

Introduction

1.

My terms of reference for this study were as follows:

(a)

"In collaboration with the University of Hong Kong and

with the assistance of the Hong Kong Government Departments:

to study and describe labour relations in

Hong Kong in the context of political, social

and economic factors and local attitudes in the

Colony;

(b)

to define any impediments to the development of

effective trade unions, employers' organisations

and the practice of collective bargaining;

to draw any conclusions; and

(c)

(d)

to submit an interim report, if warranted."

2.

In pursuance of this commission, I paid a brief preliminary visit

to Hong Kong in June (en route to Australia) to discuss the study's

arrangement with the Acting Labour Commissioner and Departments of the

University of Hong Kong. The month of August was spent in Hong Kong by

myself with Professor Keith Hart of Yale University and Dr Patricia Fosh

of the University of Bath. During this period we were particularly

assisted by the Labour Department and the Asian Studies Centre of

Hong Kong University; we conducted, together or separately, some fifty

interviews with representatives of business and employee organisations

or of major individual firms and public agencies apart from numerous

visits to small establishments and informal discussions with government

officials or individual academics. We also held, with Dr Fosh's

guidance and organisation, a "pilot survey" of the situation, conditions

and attitudes of a sample of 100 factory workers. As a result of this

it was decided to conduct a more general survey of employee conditions

and opinions, which Dr Fosh returned to Hong Kong to organise and

supervise during the month of November; this survey covered nearly

1000 workers in a variety of trades and occupations. Dr Fosh, with the

assistance of Departments of the University Bath, made computer

calculations and analyses in the UK from both surveys. In connection

with the second, I returned to Hong Kong myself in mid-November.

obliged to break off the study for a week or so to maintain commitments

elsewhere in early December, but took up discussions and data collection

subsequently. This report was mainly written during X'mas 1976.

I was

/3. As