Stop Weaponising National Security to Crush Trade Union Rights!
The government has submitted proposed amendments to the Trade Unions Ordinance to the Legislative Council, which severely infringe upon workers’ rights to form and join trade unions and disregard the government’s obligations under the Basic Law and international labour conventions. We strongly condemn these proposed amendments and demand their immediate withdrawal.
1. Strict Political Control Over Trade Unions
Under the proposed amendments, trade unions would be subjected to stringent political surveillance, including:
- Trade unions receiving funding from foreign entities must declare it to the authorities and obtain prior approval.
- Trade unions would be prohibited from joining “foreign political organisations’’, but the term remains vaguely defined. This could arbitrarily include groups criticising Chinese or Hong Kong government policies or engaging in advocacy for human rights.
- Trade unions must retain financial documents, membership records, and meeting minutes for at least two years, making them available for government inspection at any time.
- Authorities would have the power to enter union offices without a court warrant to obtain and copy all relevant documents, posing a serious privacy threat to trade union members.
2. Lifetime Ban on National Security Offenders from Union Activities
The amendments proposed would permanently prohibit individuals convicted of national security offences from founding or leading trade unions, effectively stripping their right to freedom of association for life.
- This approach resembles the Chinese Community Party’s past political persecution tactics, where individuals deemed politically undesirable were permanently excluded from civic participation. Such measures constitute arbitrary deprivation of civil rights based solely on people’s political backgrounds.
3. No Right to Appeal if Union Registration Is Rejected
- The authorities would have the power to reject any new trade union registration on national security grounds, and individuals denied registration would have no right to appeal in court. This is a significant damage to the rule of law, granting the executive branch unchecked power to suppress independent union formation.
An Unrelenting Attack on Union Autonomy and Workers’ Rights
The proposed amendments significantly increase government control and intervention in trade unions, imposing severe political restrictions that would further destroy union autonomy.
Since the implementation of the National Security Law (NSL), over 200 trade unions have been forced to disband, and political suppression has hampered the development of independent unions. This recent legislative change intensifies the crackdown, creating an even more hostile and repressive environment for trade union activities.
Violation of the Basic Law and International Labour Standards
- Article 27 of the Basic Law guarantees Hong Kong residents the right to freedom of association and to form and join trade unions.
- ILO Conventions No. 87 and 98, which apply to Hong Kong, affirm that workers have the right to freely organise unions without undue government restrictions or interference.
- The government claims that international conventions allow national security-related restrictions on union rights, but this is a deliberate distortion of international legal standards.
- The United Nations Human Rights Committee has already stated in its reports that Hong Kong’s National Security Law has been weaponised to suppress political dissent.
This latest attempt to amend the Trade Unions Ordinance under the guise of national security further demonstrates the fundamental incompatibility between Hong Kong’s National Security Law and international human rights standards.
Future Actions
We will continue to closely monitor the development of these amendments and will pursue complaints through the International Labour Organization (ILO) and relevant UN treaty monitoring mechanisms.
February 20, 2025