TNAG-0785-FCO40-989-Study-of-labour-relations-in-Hong-Kong-by-Professor-H-A-Turn-1978 — Page 184

concessions.

Up to now, the operation of the SCSC has been cloaked in

secrecy. Staff side officials are prohibited from publicly discussing the

minutes of meetings or PIU data. This information and the hitherto shadowy

......

influence of business interests could well be subject to much more

wideranging scrutiny.

Yet even the-fiction of joint consultation is proving increasingly

difficult to maintain. The CSC's vulnerability to government and business

interests was amply demonstrated by the Covernor's refusal to allow. an

independent inquiry into the 1975 pay pause which overruled the Civil

Service Secretary's recommendation. The CSB is also hampered by its lack of

colonies.

experience in-dealing with emergent unionism in an industrialised society

with somewhat unique political considerations not found in primarily rural

Those few officials with expertise acquired locally and overseas

are no longer with the branch. The CSB is enslaved.in a staff relations

structure/philosophy patently out of step with Hong Kong's industrial and

social development.

The simple weight of numerous unions acting independently

...

has stretched the already overloaded resources of the PSD. The CSB's genuine

attempt to establish good personal relations with unions won't resolve-

fundamental disagreements over conditions of service where the official side

of the SCSC has no power to bargain and the staff side no'right' to.

- p

Indeed, existing pressures make an amicable compromise between the

The rapid expansion of the civil

government and unions extremely difficult.

service during the decade to 1974 has aggravated salary administration problems

and created a level of expectations which would be difficult to 'buy of£'.

Considering the rapid economic growth of Hong Kong and its uncertain political

future it cannot be argued that such problems are restricted to the civil

service. Hence, the belief often expressed in government circlès, that union

claims should be dismissed (parochially) as the direct result of overinflated

expectations, offers little hope of a satisfactory compromise being reached

in the near future. At a theoretical level, it indicates the unitarist

ideology of the government side by implying present problems are a consequence