TNAG-0749-FCO40-953-Visits-of-officials-from-Hong-Kong-to-UK-1978 — Page 28

CONFIDENTIAL

HKK, 026/5

INCLX

OFFICER

PA

Action T

NOTE FOR FILE

No

SECRETARY FOR THE CIVIL SERVICE : HONG KONG

hii

1. Mr Martin Rowlands called on me this morning. The following were the main topics discussed:-

SATA

2.

Without directly criticising his predecessor, Mr Rowlands made clear his view that the dispute should never have been allowed to drag on for so long. He was confident that the pay review in October would produce a settlement; there was no longer any heat in the issue.

Arbitration in the Civil Service

3.

After some talk about the Turner Report (he wondered whether the final version would ever appear), Mr Rowlands outlined proposals for new pay and arbitration machinery which he had put to Civil Service Staff Side representatives shortly before his departure from Hong Kong. He stressed that these proposals had not yet been discussed within Government and might not find favour, even if they were acceptable to the Civil Service unions.

4.

Mr Rowlands began by explaining that almost all Civil Service pay disputes concerned relativities within the Civil Service rather than comparisons between the Civil Service and outside employment. This meant that it was virtually impossible to consider any one dis- pute in isolation. He had therefore concluded that the right solution would be to establish a new independent body which would be responsible both for fixing salaries and conditions of service within the Civil Service and for providing consultation and arbitration machinery when disputes arose. The Chairman and members of this "standing tribunal" would come from outside the Civil Service while staff would be provided on secondment from the Civil Service branch. Under this arrangement all Government proposals to create new grades of staff or to re-grade existing staff would be referred to the new body before being approved. In the few cases where there was a difference of view between Govern- ment and Staff Side the official Secretary of the Tribunal would act as a conciliator. If he failed to bring the two sides together one of the (independent) members of the Tribunal would be asked to chair an arbitration panel whose conclusions would be reviewed by the Tri- bunal as a whole.

5. Mr Rowlands accepted that we would want to be fully consulted before decisions were taken and undertook to see that this was done.

Senior Appointments

6. Mr Rowlands said that it was becomming difficult to find people of the right calibre for the top jobs in Hong Kong. Because of the enormous expansion which had taken place in Hong Kong in recent years

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CONFIDENTIAL