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Union pact not binding in law

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A collective-bargaining agreement struck between Pacific Century CyberWorks-owned Hongkong Telecom International and its staff association was a gentlemen's agreement, binding in honour but not in law, a judge ruled yesterday.

Deputy Judge Gerard Muttrie declared an agreement between the Cable and Wireless Staff Association and Hongkong Telecom was not a binding contract and was unenforceable.

The association claimed in the Court of First Instance that workers' rights were breached in 1991 when the telecommunication giant failed to hold talks with the association before a mass dismissal in which more than 1,000 employees lost their jobs.

The association said the company ignored a 1988 joint agreement that guaranteed a mechanism for negotiation on salaries and employment conditions.

In his written judgment, Deputy Judge Muttrie said there was no suggestion in the terms of the agreement to suggest it was intended to be binding, or even to be incorporated into the individual employee's contract of employment. He said the 'climate of opinion' among academic experts and people concerned with industrial action in Hong Kong was that collective-bargaining agreements were generally not enforceable by law.

'To create a contract, there must be a common intention of the parties to enter into legal obligations, mutually communicated expressly or implied,' Judge Muttrie said. 'The procedural agreement does not, as I have found, contain any common intention to enter into legal relations, expressly communicated.'

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