Private Gain and Public Loss
To most people, privatisation was but a vague notion when it was first introduced twenty years ago. Few who remember that time foresaw either the real meaning of privatisation which was about to unleash big business or the tremendous negative impact it would make upon the lives of workers in both developed and developing countries. The concepts of privatisation, deregulation and corporatisation were presented with calculated spin to a public that was already critical of government waste, red tape and insensitivity.
Only after the implementation of measures which made it almost impossible to return former state-owned services to national ownership, did the public fully understand the amount of increased waste, bureaucracy and damage to the national economy and the services involved in privatisation.
Only when the public expresses overwhelming opposition to privatisation does the reason for governments’ single-minded determination to privatise become obvious. The reason is simple: it is working on behalf of the private sector, where it was either already well represented, or where it intends to become so. The private sector is in fact no more efficient at running businesses than the public sector; the only way it can save money is to sack part of the workforce, and make those that remain work ever harder. Destruction of effective labour unions facilitates this process.
Government establishments which did not draw up a privatisation programme immediately kept a watchful eye on those which had. They could see that individuals in government could become extremely rich through privatisation, and they waited until a ‘natural’ opportunity presented itself. Whatever else these establishments did, they did not have open discussion on the benefits and disadvantages of privatisation, mainly because there were no benefits in it for the general public. Information on the negative results of privatisation abroad was not publicised. This meant that when the government decided to privatise, the public was completely ignorant about what the real effects would be, and therefore not in a position to oppose it.
In 1999 Hong Kong finds itself at this point in history. The Civil Service has completed its task of ensuring the secure transition of the political and bourgeois establishment from British to Chinese colonial rule. Now it can be privatised. Asian Labour Update looks at Hong Kong’s Civil Service proposals, and the reaction of the Housing Department unions, against a background of labour’s reaction to privatisation elsewhere.
Because of the management system Hong Kong has chosen to implement its privatisation programme, this issue of ALU analyses the latest wheeze in a long record of management attempts at union busting and worker domination. This particular scheme is called Human Resource Management (HRM). HRM is a logical progression from Personnel Management and attempts to adopt its anti-worker aspects. There are differences, for example Personnel Management regards workers as costs whereas HRM sees them as assets; however both systems regard workers as expendable, and both are ready to ditch them and any union activity at the first opportunity.
HRM is particularly significant for Hong Kong’s privatisation scheme, as the authorities have the benefit of hindsight. They know that privatisation schemes are best opposed by united resistance from organised unions, and have tailored their HRM proposals to destroy unity within the unions. HRM terms, vocabulary, and concepts permeate the government proposals.
It must be reaffirmed that HRM is a strategy in its own right, devised by the private sector to manage its workers. HRM is not necessarily used to implement a government privatisation programme. Articles in this ALU will clarify exactly how HRM attempts to isolate each individual member of staff, destroy unions and avoid collective bargaining. Different meanings of privatisation are clarified, and the effects of privatisation are also examined.
Contents
Feature: Privatisation and HRM
Privatisation:
Special Report: Women Workers and Export Processing Zones 28
Labour Rights in China 32
Action Alert 33
Regional Roundup 34
Resources Update 36