TNAG-0658-FCO40-807-Policy-of-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1977 — Page 22

#KK 280/1

布政司署

香港下亞畢道

*** OUR REF.: TC 268/76 II

* YOUR REF.:HKK 280/1

Dear Dufty

INDE.<

0.51

3 GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT

LOWER ALBERT ROAD

HONG KONG

27 September 1977

REB

ملكة

See

38

You enclosed with your letter of 14 September a copy of a letter from the General Secretary of the Government School Non-Graduate Teachers' Union (GSNGTU) and asked for my comments.

I cannot accept the Union's contention that the Hong Kong Government has refused to recognise it as a consul- tative body on matters affecting its members and has refused to hold discussions with it. In 1975 we established the Education Department Consultative Council expressly to serve as a channel of communication between the Government and the various unions and associations representing the Education Department's staff. There has been considerable discussion in the Consultative Council about the future of the Government primary sector and, at the last meeting of the Council on 8 August, about the measures being taken to redeploy and even- tually to retire the primary teachers who are surplus to operational requirements. The GSNGTU walked out of the meeting of the Consultative Council on 6 July and refused to attend the meeting on 8 August.

I am anxious that the Consultative Council should continue to be the forum in which matters affecting the Education Department staff are discussed. However, in order to accommodate the Union's views, the Director of Education, together with a representative of the Secretary for the Civil Service, would be prepared to meet representatives of the Union outside the Consultative Council, in the presence of the leader of the Staff Side of the Council. This offer has been conveyed to the Union but the Union has just now replied to the effect that it is unwilling to meet the Director of Education, either within or outside the Consultative Council, and insists that any discussion should be held with the Government Secretariat, and should cover all policy questions related to the issue. The Government will consider the points the Union has raised.

Mr. T. Duffy,

Hong Kong & General Department, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London SW1A 2AH, United Kingdom.

(Cont'd.)