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15 Hong Kong L.J. 77 (1985)
Strike at the Mass Transit Railway Corporation: Its Implications

handle is hein.journals/honkon15 and id is 103 raw text is: Strike at the Mass Transit Railway Corporation: Its Implications Ng Sek-hong* IN APRIL 1984, a trade dispute erupted for the second time within a period of four months between the Mass Transit Railway Corporation ('MTRC') and its train drivers' union, the Mass Transit Railway Operating Department Staff Union.' The conflict escalated swiftly into a full-scale strike, when the newly- recognised union2 ceased negotiations with the company on the latter's scheme to introduce flexible work rosters for its train drivers and other operations staff. A ballot taken on April 9 showed overwhelming support for a strike from the union's 300- strong membership. However, the strike collapsed after only two days when the MTRC's management announced the summary dismissal of the strikers. The strikers, with the exception of thirteen key instigators, were subsequently offered re- engagement. However, they were not permitted to retain their previous seniority of service but were placed on three month probations like any new recruit. The actions of the MTRC brought into focus the issues of legal protection of strikers, the rights of a recognised union, and the obligation of an employer to bargain with such a union in good faith. These issues are considered below. The strikers and job protection The MTRC's management invoked an extreme form of sanction against the strikers by dismissing them for breach of their employment contracts. In moral terms, such action contradicts the tacit 'rules of the game' in that 'workers and managers seldom make use of all their power potential in a strike situation.'3 When management uses its prerogative summarily to dismiss strikers for the temporary withdrawal of their labour, the question arises whether such concerted cessation of work should be treated as sufficient failure of an employee's obligation to justify the abrogation of the contract MSocSc (HK), MSc (Lond); Lecturer in Management Studies, University of Hong Kong. 'For an account of the dispute and its background, see Hong Kong Standard, Apr 20, 1984, 4; Apr 21, 1984, 2. 2 The MTRC had entered into a formal agreement with the union in the previous January to recognise it for the purpose of representing its members. 'E Batstone, I Boraston and S Frenkel, The Social Organisation of Strikes (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1978) 39.

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