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2.6 Industrial/employee relations By: Lucía Mencía - Coggle Diagram
2.6 Industrial/employee relations
By: Lucía Mencía
Trade union(labor union)
: an organization of working people with the objective of improving their pay and working benefits.
Workers Join trade unions:
Industrial Action: more people going on strike more likely employers will take the demands seriously and work on fixing them.
Experts on these subjects represent the people which can make the argument stronger and more detailed than when someone not specialized in the field does it for themselves.
Power through solidarity: trade unions are the ones to negociate which puts the workers in sronger positions.
Vocab
Trade union recognition:
when an employer formally agrees to conduct negotiations on pay and working conditions with a trade union rather than bargaining individually with each worker.
Union recognition:
In many countries it is not a legal requirement to recognize trade unions.
Collective bargaining:
the negotiations between employees’ representatives (trade unions) and employers and their representatives on issues of common interest such as pay and conditions of work.
Project champion:
a person assigned to support and drive a project forward and who explains the benefits of change and assists and supports the team putting change into practice.
Project groups
: these are created by an organization to address a problem that requires input from different specialists.
Trade Union Recognition Benefits for the employers..
The union system could provide an additional, useful channel of communication with the workers – two-way communication.
Employers would be able to negotiate with one offer from the union rather than with individual workers.
Unions can impose discipline on members who plan to take hasty industrial action that could disrupt a business – this makes such action less likely.
The growth of responsible, partnership unionism has given employers an invaluable forum for discussing issues of common interest, these will lead to increased productivity, which should help to secure jobs and raise profits.
Actions taken by employees
Go slow:
keep working at slow rate.
Actions taken by employers
Public relations
: using the media to try to gain public support for the employer’s position in the dispute.
Threats of redundancies
: might infame opinions on the employees’ side and could be looked upon as ‘bullying’ and lead to poor publicity for the employer.
Negotiations
– these aim to reach a compromise solution.
Changes of contract
– if employees are taking advantage of their employment contracts to work to rule or ban overtime, then new contracts could, when the old ones are due for renewal, be issued that insist on higher work rates or overtime working
Closure
– closure of the business or the factory
Lock-outs –
:short-term closure of the business or factory to prevent employees from working and being paid.
Work to rule:
no work outside the office.
Negotiations:
possible arbitrations
Overtime bans
: workers refuse to work more than the contracted number of hours each week.
Source of Conflict in the workplace & Resolutions
Competition
: excessive workplace competition is a cause of employee conflict. Competition that is not properly managed for the good of the whole business can result in employees sabotaging efforts by other groups or not cooperating with them.Promotes individualism.
Different values
: one cause of different values amongst employees is when a generational gap is present.
Poor communication
: poor communication can result in a difference in communication styles or a failure to communicate.
Conlfict Resolution Approaches
No- Strike Agreement:
unions sign an agreement with employers not to strike in exchange for greater involvement in decisions that affect the workforce
Conciliation:
the use of a third party in industrial disputes to encourage both employer and union to discuss an acceptable compromise solution
Single Union Agreement
: an employer recognizes just one union for purposes of collective bargaining
Arbitration:
resolving an industrial dispute by using an
independent
third party to judge and recommend an appropriate solution.
Employee resistance to change
Fear of failure: the changes may require new skills beyond a worker’s capabilities.
Self-interest – losing something of value
Interpretation of circumstances – fear of the unknown
Misinformation – false beliefs about the need for change
Low tolerance – lack of trust
Inertia: many people suffer from inertia or reluctance to change
Stategies for implenting change
Recognize the major causes of change
:
Understand the stages of the change process
: new vision and objectives, involve workerrs, plan change, communicate...
*Understand what change means
: *Change management: requires firms to be able to cope with dramatic one-of changes as well as more gradual evolutionary. It is the planning, implementing, controlling and reviewing the movement of an organization from its current state to a new one.
Lead change, not just manage
it: motivation, ensuring the accpetance of change, create visible support from senior managers
Use project champions:
appointed by management to help drive change.
Use projects groups or teams:
problem solving through team building.
Planning and promoting change:
John Kotter 8 Step process of organizational change:
establish a sense of urgency
create an effective project team to lead the change
develop a vision and a strategy for change
communicate this change vision
empower people to act
generate short-term gains from change that benefit as many people as possible
consolidate these gains and produce even more changes
build change into the culture of the organization so that it becomes a natural process.
Employee participation and industrial democracy
Workers’ control over industry, perhaps linked to workers’ ownership of the business, e.g., producer cooperatives.
Employee or trade union directors on the company’s board of directors represent the workers’ approach to major company issues at the highest decision-making level.
Autonomous work groups and quality circles lead to employee participation in decision-making and help to avoid the ‘us and them’ environment.
