Confederation of Trade Unions received grants from US-based NGO according to files sent to media

A labour rights group that backs Occupy Central has received grants from a US-based NGO, according to files shared with the media.

The files sent to the South China Morning Post purport to show that the Confederation of Trade Unions, one of the city's biggest labour organisations which advocates for democracy, sought money from Solidarity Centre, a Washington-based non-profit-making body that promotes workers' rights.

Mung Siu-tat, chief executive of the CTU, said Solidarity had given HK$600,000 to the confederation in each of the past seven years. Mung said the money was granted for advocacy projects seeking collective bargaining rights and standard working hours in Hong Kong. There is no law barring non-profit-making organisations from receiving money from overseas.

Mung dismissed the release of the documents as the latest step in a smear campaign against the Occupy Central movement that seeks democratic elections in Hong Kong. The secretary general of the CTU is pro-democracy lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan.

"It's not a secret. We have received subsidies from Solidarity,'' Mung said.

Solidarity, with an annual budget of about US$32 million in 2012, funded nearly US$3.4 million worth of projects in East Asia and the Pacific region that year. The leaders of some of the country's biggest unions sit on the board.