TNAG-0650-FCO40-798-Study-of-labour-relations-in-Hong-Kong-by-Professor-H.-A.-Tu-1977 — Page 90

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13.

II. Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining

The major facts of the trade union situation can be set out

At the last count,

without excessive detail for immediate purposes.

registered trade unions claimed just over 360,000 members. As a percent- age of all wage and salary earners, union membership (after having been stable, at least in paid-up terms, through the 1960's) would appear to

have been increasing fairly steadily for several years since, as follows*:

% of estimated

employees

Year ending

Nominal Membership (1000's)

195

16

1970

1971

221

17

1972

250

18

1973

296

21.

1974

1975

317

361

22

24

14.

At least two reservations (and there are others) must be

made to these figures. First, paid-up membership (as estimated in the

Registrar from union accounts) is substantially lower, and is apparently

declining as a percentage of claimed membership. Between 1974 and 1975

alone the percentage of paid-up members fell from nearly 82 to 78

implying that as a proportion of all employees union membership rose by

less than 1% although this was a year of economic recovery. In 1970,

the percentage of paid-up membership appears to have exceeded

....

Percentages from 1973 onwards are taken from the Annual Departmental

Report of the Commissioner of Labour; those for previous years are a

private estimate. In 1972, the Commissioner's report stated the

percentage of union members to be 15% of the "total workforce",

presumably including the self-employed. Earlier figures can be found summarised in England & Rear's Table 9. (Chinese Labour under "British Rule", which much of the factual data in this review updates).

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