TNAG-1609-FCO40-22131-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1987 — Page 137

LABOUR POLICY

7

بھر

5. coppie

Tam

**

I would like to turn now to labour policy.

Yiu-Chung called for a comprehensive

four

Mr.

long-term

policy and he spoke of areas which he felt need ed to

in such a policy be covered, These were the status of trade unions and

the right to engage

to engage in collective bargaining; a review

of the Employment Ordinance; industrial safety; and

provision for retirement.

بهار

These are all

all important subjects, but they are

not closely related, except in that they all affect

worker s and, in Hong Kong, but not necessarily

elsewhere, are dealt with by a

aand

single

government

department. To try to link them up in one comprehensive

plan would in my view delay progress,

not enhance it.

Progress on labour legislation has to take into account

the conflicting interests of employers and employees and

requires sometimes difficult negotiations with both

sides. In prasti

In prastice one cannot negotiate a comprehensive

policy One must negotiate item by item and this we

have been doing very successfully now for many years.

We have enacted no less than 274 items of labour

legislation in the

will

in the last 20 years. This is not just a

Anyone

is

Theses of us, who have lived here during this

figure.

period have

八

人

seen working conditions completely

transformed. We now

now comply in whole or in part with 48

ILO Conventions, a figure which compares favourably with