ENG-1951 — Page 35

Council was invited to send a representative, but declined on the grounds of expense. They contrived nevertheless to send their secretary and an interpreter to the annual meeting of the I.C.F.T.U. at Milan. After this meeting they were enabled, through the kindness of the British Trades Union Congress, to visit England where they met English labour leaders and discussed various labour problems.

In November a delegation consisting of the Secretary of the Employers' Federation, an official of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Trades Union Council and a Labour Officer attended the seminar on labour statistics organized by the International Labour Organization at New Delhi.

Labour Disputes and Stoppages

The year has been noticeable for the comparative absence of any major disputes or stoppages.

Unfavourable trade conditions and the consequent threat of increasing unemployment have, no doubt, served to prevent disputes being pushed to extremes.

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, Ltd., which own some of the largest hotels in the Colony, were compelled through unfavourable business conditions to dispense with the services of a number of their employees during the course of the year.

The Union of Chinese

Workers in Western Style Employment,

Employment, whose members were principally affected, fostered a Committee to "Safeguard Employment and Avoid Unemployment". The committee, which was composed of workers in the hotels concerned, had a series of meetings with the Managing Director who tried to explain the reasons for reduction of staff. The committee refused to accept these explanations and pressed for the immediate reinstatement of all the workers, if necessary by introducing a rotational system of work, or, failing reinstatement, the payment of a substantial discharge bonus. At the same time certain sections of the local Chinese press published grossly distorted versions of the meetings and the reasons for retrenchment. The result was that the

company, which could not accept the workers' demands, broke off all negotiations with the committee. The committee then appealed to the Labour Department to arrange joint meetings but by this time no mediation of this kind was possible. The committee were advised to refer the negotiations to the Union, on the grounds that it was essentially the business of the Union officials to take up such matters on behalf of their members and, if they could not secure an entirely favourable settlement, to advise their members on the proper policy to be adopted by the Union. The Union, however, consistently refused to accept this responsibility, and merely reiterated that it was the duty of the Commissioner of Labour to instruct the employers not to dismiss these men.

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