INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

MBA423 Human Resource Management Suva

Trimester 3, 2008
Prepared by Feue Tipu MBA
April 10, 2013 1

APPROACHES TO INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Some perceive industrial relations in terms of class conflict, others in terms of mutual cooperation and others still in terms of groups with competing interests. Human resource managers need to understand these varying approaches because they provide the ideological underpinning for much of the debate about IR reform and the role of HRM.
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UNITARIST APPROACH
Workplace conflict is seen as a temporary digression, resulting from poor management, employees who do not fit with the organisations culture or trade union activity. Trade unions are regarded as competitors for the employees commitment and cooperation. The underlying assumption is that it is to the benefit of all to focus on common interests and promote harmony. Conflict in the form of strikes, therefore, is regarded as not only unnecessary, but destructive. Advocates of the unitary approach seek a radical overhaul of the industrial relations system. Emphasis is on enterprise IR and direct negotiations with employees.
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Main Features of the Unitarist Perspective

ASPECTS
General Philosophy

UNITARIST PERSPECTIVE
Every workplace is an integrated and harmonious entity that exists for a common purpose.

Role of Management To provide strong leadership and good communications. Role of Employees Unions To be loyal to the organization and its management in recognition of their common objectives. Unions are seen to compete for the loyalty and commitments of employees. Conflict is not inherent in the workplace. Conflict is seen to be the result of faulty communications, the work of agitators or a failure of employees to grasp the commonality of interests.

Industrial Conflict

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PLURALIST APPROACH
In contrast to the unitary approach, the pluralist approach sees: organisations as coalitions of competing interests, where managements role is to mediate among the different interest groups trade unions as legitimate representatives of employee interests stability in industrial relations as the product of concessions and compromises between management and unions.
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Main Features of a Pluralist Perspective

ASPECTS PLURALIST PERSPECTIVE
An enterprise contains people with a variety of different interests, aims and aspirations. Power is said to be evenly diffused among the main bargaining groups in such a way that no party dominates the others. Regarded as the impartial guardian of the public interest whose role is to protect the weak and restrain the power of the strong.

General Philosophy

Role of the State

Should not expect blind obedience or suppress any ideas or aims that conflict with their own. The aim is to reconcile Role of Management conflicting opinions and keep the conflict within acceptable bounds so that it does not destroy the enterprise. Unions Industrial Conflict
April 10, 2013

Unions are viewed as the legitimate representatives of employee interests at work with the right to challenge the right to manage.

Conflict is inevitable and legitimate consequence of the variety of interests in the workplace.
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MARXIST (RADICAL) APPROACH

Marxists, like the pluralists, regard conflict between management and employees as inevitable. However, where pluralists see conflict inherent in all organisations, Marxists see if as a product of a capitalist society. Adversarial relations in the workplace are simply one aspect of class conflict. The Marxist approach thus focuses on the type of society in which an organisation exists. For the Marxist, therefore, all strikes are political.
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Main Features of a Radical Perspective

ASPECTS RADICAL PERSPECTIVE
There is a fundamental and inherent conflict of interest between workers and employers, a conflict that derives from the unequal distribution of income and wealth in a capitalist society. Those who owns the means of production have power superiority over those who sell their labor for wages. The state plays an integral role in protecting the interests of those who own the means of prodcution. The vulnerability of employees as individuals leads them to form worker collectives. Unions challenge the control of management and the distribution of national product.
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General Philosophy

Power

Role of the State

Unions

April 10, 2013

The key weapons in adversarial industrial relations (unions)

Strike: refusing to work Bans: refusing to undertake particular jobs or work with certain people Boycott: preventing others from doing business with the company Picket: preventing other employees, customers and suppliers from entering the work site Industrial tribunal: union seeks assistance of an industrial tribunal such as the Industrial Relations Commission

April 10, 2013

The key weapons in adversarial industrial relations (management)

Lockout: employees are not allowed to enter the workplace Injunction: company obtains civil court order to stop union from undertaking some form of industrial action Strike breakers: company uses non-union members to fill jobs of striking union members Employer associations: company uses employer association to exert its influence on the union Industrial tribunal: company seeks assistance of an industrial tribunal such as the Industrial Relations Commission
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PARTIES IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Three major parties - government, employer associations and trade unions. The unique system of compulsory arbitration that requires the grouping of employers and employees into registered organisations has fostered the growth of trade unions and affected employer approaches to industrial relations. Competitive pressures, legislative changes, the continuing decline in union membership, increasing demands for deregulation of the labour market and a less centralised industrial relations system have seen the established system of compulsory arbitration revised and come under threat.
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TRADE UNIONS
The old system of compulsory arbitration encouraged trade unionism. Union concerns have traditionally focused on pay rates, conditions of work and job security. Increasingly, however, unions are moving away from these bread and butter issues and adopting an approach of strategic unionism that includes industrial democracy, social welfare, training, industrial policy and taxation. Moreover, because most awards, determinations and industrial agreements set only minimum rates and conditions, unions also seek to negotiate above-award concessions from employers. Some unions see enterprise bargaining as being limited to just that.
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Trade Unions (cont)

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is the major peak trade union organisation. The present economic industrial and political climate raises the possibility of an employer-led and government supported assault on unions, that , if successful, could destroy the power of the trade union movement. The reality is that most unions have not adapted well to the loss of privileges that they enjoyed under the old centralised wage setting system. Regardless, there is an increasing realisation among some union leaders that Australia must be internationally competitive and that the key issue is how to make the cake bigger, rather than how to divide it.
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Reasons Why Employees Join Unions

Compulsion Protection Social pressure Political beliefs Solidarity Tradition Pay and conditions Communication Health and safety
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