Perceptions of labour conciliation in Hong Kong and Singapore: a comparative replication

Abstract

[Extract] Conciliation has been officially acknowledged as 'one of the key institutions of today's industrial relations systems' and as having 'displaced other dispute settlement procedures as the main government instrument for maintaining industrial peace' (ILO, 1983, p. 1). In Hong Kong conciliation developed in an ad hoc fashion without legal underpinning. However, with the passing of the Labour Relations Ordinance in 1975, this changed and conciliation has become both a legally regulated and formally structured procedure. At the end of the 1970s England and Rear (1981, p. 321) noted that in Hong Kong 'ordinary conciliation remains the essential and most heavily used method for resolving disputes' and as such represents 'the central role now played by the Labour Department in Hong Kong's system of industrial relations'; a development consistent with the International Labour Office's observation of a worldwide trend. Defined as 'a procedure for the settlement of labour disputes which is aimed at helping the parties to the dispute to reduce their differences and achieve agreement' (ILO, 1983, p. 1), 'conciliation' as surveyed in the studies of both Singapore and Hong Kong reported here includes 'mediation', whereby the third party may advance new proposals for the disputants to consider rather than simply facilitate reconciliation with the existing ones.