TNAG-0650-FCO40-798-Study-of-labour-relations-in-Hong-Kong-by-Professor-H.-A.-Tu-1977 — Page 94

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unions are associated with the F.T.U., and the smallest are found in the

"neutral group". Indeed, it is clear that much of the recent growth in

the number of unions has occurred in the public service, where a more

tolerant attitude towards union membership and activity has apparently

helped to promote a proliferation of small organisations. Three-

quarters of the 40 or so new employee organisations registered in the

four years to end-1975

were in the public service proper, and several

of the rest were in semi-public occupations such as teaching and

hospitals. The multiplication of civil service organisations appears to

be accelerating: for the year 1975/76 the annual Report on the Civil

that

Service recorded/their number rose from 66 to 86.

19.

It has been said to us on several occasions that less than 5%

of the employed labour force of Hong Kong is covered by collective

agreements. I know of no systematic basis on which this figure could be

calculated if only because the term "collective agreement" is itself

J

open to wide interpretation. But if taken to mean that wages, pay

structures and conditions or terms of employment are negotiated in

detail between firms or employer organisations and trade union represent

ives and embodied in signed agreements which are regularly revised,

I should think the figure, if anything, an exaggeration. It is true

that unions may occasionally reach understandings with employers which

oover a much larger number of workers than the union's own membership.

On the other hand, many of these negotiations are of an ad hoc character, arising out of specific disputes, and there appears a general reluctance

on the part of private employers to actually sign agreements.

20.

One or two signed agreements between employers' associations

and trade unions which I had translated appeared to me of the most elementary character, covering merely basic minimum wage-rates and over- time payment, with very few associated conditions of a minor character.

..../