TNAG-0647-FCO40-795-Study-of-labour-relations-in-Hong-Kong-by-Professor-H-A-Turn-1977 — Page 98

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appeared to have been even involved. Though we were quoted no very

recent and confirmed instances of victimisation in the sense of actual

dismissal for union activity, it was on several occasions suggested to

us that active union members suffered by transfer to more unpleasant or

arduous jobs, or to work with low promotion prospects. And we received

a definite impression in our first survey of factory workers that

respondents were sometimes unwilling to answer questions about trade

unions from fear of identification with them rather than from ignorance

(which led us to phrase our second questionnaire with particular care to

avoid this possibility's recurrence).

32. These two rival clusters of arguments involve propositions about

first, the character of the Hong Kong labour market, second the

attitudes of workers and employees, and third the effects of Hong Kong's

particular trade union situation. To attempt to resolve them we

explored each of these aspects more closely. The first question is

immediately critical because if in fact the situation of the Hong Kong

worker in the labour market is such that "all is for the best in his

best of available worlds", there is no reason to pursue the other

questions more closely.

The Hong Kong Labour Market and the General Determination of

Wage-Movements

33. On this point much (though not all) of the material for what

follows is contained in the Appendices to this report by Dr Fosh and,

particularly, Prof Hart. On the one side, the major point that has to

be made is that the picture of the Hong Kong worker as a highly mobile

and informed exploiter of multiple labour market opportunities requires,

to say the least, substantial modification. It is most true of the

younger women and girls in manufacturing, who turned out to compose some

45% of our first sample of factory workers, but are clearly a much

lower proportion of the employee population of Hong Kong as a whole.

These have clearly supplied much of the recent increase in Hong Kong's

industrial labour force, and their induction and mobility have provided

the basis both for such developments as the recent rapid expansion in

electronics and for short-term "boom-and-bust" episodes like the wig and

denim explosions.

1340 These