Trade Unions in HK Receive Warning Letters about Online Comments 

2 mins read

Several more unions in Hong Kong have received warning letters from the Registry of Trade Unions, indicating suspicion that the unions violated their union charters or contravened the Trade Union Ordinances.

Activities targeted in the letters included comments on social media about: the arrest of the 47 pro-democracy figures for their participation in the pro-democracy primaries, the Hong Kong National Security Law, the Tiananmen Square Incident of 1989, and the Government’s pandemic restriction. The letters stated that if such activities involved the use of union funds, the unions would have violated the Ordinances’ prohibition on the use of union dues for political purposes. The Registry demanded that the unions in question immediately adopt measures in keeping with the Ordinances and union charters, declaring that it would not rule out the annulment of the unions’ registration. 

A New Round of Warning Letters

Since the National Security Law went into effect in 2020, the Registry has sent out several rounds of letters to union organisations aimed at collecting information and conveying warning messages. In early 2022, the Labour Department acknowledged that since 2020 it had sent letters to five unions demanding that they submit documents explaining their activities that were suspected of violating the Ordinances. After receiving one of these letters, the General Union of Hong Kong Speech Therapists was stripped of its status with the Registry last October. This June, the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance announced its dissolution. In addition, the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Hong Kong White Collar (Administrative & Clerical) Connect Union both stated that they had received such letters.  

This 2022, more unions received warning letters from the Registry, including the Hong Kong Accounting Bro’Sis Labour Union (香港會計手足工會). That union announced on its Facebook page that it had received such a letter, responding, ‘Our union officials would like to thank the Registry for this reminder that we should not forget our original intention. We will continue our efforts on behalf of our members and the accounting sector’. Since then, the Registry has sent warning letters to several other unions.  

Government Calls for Strengthening Enforcement

Last year, while Chris Yuk-han Sun (current Secretary of the Labour and Welfare Bureau) was serving as Labour Department Commissioner, stated in a telephone interview that the Department would strengthen its enforcement of the Trade Union Ordinances by stripping unions of their registration if they participated in activities beyond the scope specified therein. He also said that if the Department received reports that a union had commemorated the Tiananmen Square Incident, it would be required to follow up. When asked whether union commemoration of the Nanjing Massacre of 1937 violated the Ordinances, however, Sun responded that such activities were ‘patriotic events of national importance and should be observed’. Last month, the Legislative Council approved the allocation of funds for the Labour Department to establish a new post, titled Chief Director of Labour Affairs, tasked with leading the Trade Union Registry in ‘actively monitoring and collecting intelligence from’ unions.  

UN Concern for Freedom of Speech and Assembly

Since the National Security Law went into effect, the Government has carried out ever more restrictions upon and surveillance of unions. Last month, the United Nations Human Rights Committee published a report on Hong Kong’s implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, expressing special concern for the mass dissolution of trade unions, student unions, and civil society organisations since the Law’s promulgation in 2020. The report also drew attention to the persecution of unions and civil groups on the basis of their writings or ‘speech crime’, noting that the Labour Department had used the National Security Law and the charge of ‘sedition’ to take legal actions against such organisations, and that the discourses of public safety and national security had been used to monitor student and trade unions and obtain documents from them to an excessive degree. In addition, after a series of Hong Kong-wide strikes in 2019, the Government repressed targeted unions by cancelling their registration, prosecuting their leaders, and attacking their ties with overseas labour organisations. The report stated that these were incompatible with the International Covenant’s guarantee of the freedom to assemble, and it called on the SAR Government to end its measures restricting union activities and functioning.

再有多個工會因網上評論收警告信

3 mins read

再有多個工會收到職工會登記局發出的警告信 ,質疑他們違反工會章程或抵觸《職工會條例》。被針對的工會活動包括在社交媒體評論警方拘捕參與民主派初選案人士、反對《港區國安法》、六四事件、政府防疫措施等。消息指,職工會登記局在信件中表示,如這些工會活動涉及工會經費,亦是違反《職工會條例》有關會費不得用於政治用途的規定。登記局要求有關工會立即採取措施遵守條例及會章規定,並聲言不排除取消涉事工會的登記。 

新一輪警告信 

職工會登記局自國安法實施以後,已針對工會組織發出多輪調查或警告信。勞工處在今年年初承認,自2020年以來曾向五個工會發出信件,要求他們提交資料解釋涉嫌違反《職工會條例》的活動。其中,香港言語冶療師總工會在收到信件後於去年10月被當局取締,醫院管理局員工陣線則於本年6月宣佈解散,另有香港記者協會、香港白領(行政及文職)同行工會亦表示收到信件。 

本年5月,再有工會收到職工會登記局發出的警告信,其中包括香港會計手足工會。該工會在臉書專頁表示收到警告信,對事件只回應「本會理事感謝職工局的提醒,我們會毋忘成立工會初心,繼續為會員和會計界努力」。 直至近日,職工會登記局再向多個工會發出新一輪警告信。

當局明言加強規管 

現任勞福局局長孫玉菡在去年擔任勞工處處長期間,曾於電台訪問中表明,處方會加強執行《職工會條例》規定,若工會從事工會範疇以外的活動,會被取消工會註冊。他又說,如收到投訴工會悼念六四事件,處方即有責任跟進。但當被問及以工會名義悼念南京大屠殺有否違例時,他則說這是「涉及愛國情懷或民族重要性,按常理也會關注」。上月,勞工處更獲立法會通過撥款,開設一名首席勞工事務主任,帶領職工會登記局對工會進行「主動監察及搜集情報」。 

聯合國關注以言入罪及結社自由

自國安法實施後,政府對工會施加愈來愈多限制及監控。聯合國人權事務委員會在上月發表香港落實《公民權利及政治權利國際公約》的報告,委員會特別關注大量香港工會、學生會及公民社會在2020年實施國安法後解散。報告同時關注工會及公民團體被以言入罪的情況,指出當局以國安法及煽動罪檢控工會及其他公民團體,同時以公眾安全及國家安全之名監視學校及及工會,及過份截取工會資料。此外,在2019年一系列全港性罷工以後,政府以取消註冊、檢控工會領袖及攻撃跟外國工會聯繫等手段打撃被針對的工會。報告指以上做法違反國際公約對自由結社的保障,並促請特區政府取消限制工會活動及運作的措施。