TNAG-0650-FCO40-798-Study-of-labour-relations-in-Hong-Kong-by-Professor-H.-A.-Tu-1977 — Page 57

LABOUR RELATIONS IN HONG KONG

I. Introduction

1.

My terms of reference for this study were as follows:

"In collaboration with the University of Hong Kong

and with the assistance of the Hong Kong Government

Departments:

(a) 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;

(c) to draw any conclusions; and

(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

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discussions with government officials or individual academics.

also held, with Dr. Fosh's guidance and organisation, a "pilot survey"

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