2.6 Industrial Employee Relations

(HL ONLY)

Agents: Lawyer or trade union → representative on their behalf

Collective Bargaining: The process by which pay and conditions of work are settled by negotiations between employers and a group of employees

Individual Bargaining: Negotiating bargains between an employee and their employers

Negotiations: A bargaining process whereby 2 or more parties attempt to achieve a mutually acceptable result

    • Focuses more on terms and conditions

Extreme actions taken by disgruntled workforce include strike or rioting.

Employee and Employer representatives deal with sources of disputes on behalf of their members and conflict resolutions

Labour Unions: Organizations whose members unite to protect their rights and welfare

What do Labour Unions do?

  1. Negotiate wages

  2. Improve conditions

  3. Support members with legal advice

Strength of Bargaining Factors:

  1. Level of experience and skills of the negotiator

  2. Media and public opinions → support on either side can determine the stronger

  3. negotiating power

  4. Government involvement → Government rules and regulations

Employee-Employer Relations

Employer Representative → Employer’s associations

Employer’s associations: Organisations that represents the management team in the collective bargaining process

  • Represents the general view and interests of all businesses

Industrial/Employee relations methods used by employees

Workers have mixed objectives that they wants to achieve:

  1. Increase pay/ preventing pay cuts

  2. Improve remunerations i.e fringe benefits and paid holidays

  3. Better working terms and conditions i.e working hours and rest breaks

Employer - Employee Relations Objectives:

An employers objectives are:

1. Lower productions costs to remain competitive

2. Improved productivity levels

3. Lower absentee rate

4. Higher staff retention

5. Lower labour turnover

Conflicts & Resolutions

Conflict: Refers to a situation of friction or mutually exclusive goals between two or more parties

Conflicts can cause a major problem because it can:

  1. Hinder productivity

  2. Reduce level of staff morale → added stress and anxiety

  3. Inappropriate conduct → unethical behaviour

  4. Fuel internal politics

  5. Hamper opportunities for collaborative teams

Conflict Resolution: The course of action taken to resolve conflict and difference in opinion

Reasons why people are resistant to change:

  1. Self interest takes priority over organizational objectives

  2. Low Tolerance of change happens because people prefer familiarity

  3. Misinformation causes misunderstanding because purpose isn't communicated properly

Trade Unions

A trade union is an organisation which represents the interests of the workers who are its members.

Tactics employed by employees:

  • Collective bargaining

  • Slowdowns

  • Strike action

Tactics used by Employers:

  • Collective bargaining

  • Threats of redundancies

  • Changes of contract

  • Closure

  • Lock-outs