Industrial Relations

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Industrial Relations

• A look at the employment relationship.

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Where does this fit in?

• BOM
• - Paper 1 Section A One question
• - Designed to wet your appetite
• IRHRM
• - Year 2 Semester II compulsory
• - Will explore the issues in more depth
• The Human Resources Stream
• - Year 3 specialisation you decide

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Industrial Relations

• has acquired a deserved reputation for being
  dull
• because it has too often failed to relate in
  any meaningful way to the reality of peoples
  working lives, how these were formed, how they
  are constrained and how they might be changed.
• (Blyton Turnbull, 1998)

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HEADLINES

• Mass redundancies
• All-out Strike
• Co. X refuse to implement
• Labour Court Recommendations
• INO says No to Talks Breakdown
• 3 Pay Offer
• Nurses Strike
• Bus Drivers Vote for Unofficial action

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Some Basic Facts

• Work dominates the lives of most men women.
• Vast majority of those who work are employees
  rather than employers
• Of central importance to employers are
• - market exchange
• - managerial relations

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• Management of employees is a central feature of
  organisational success over
• - product innovation
• - technological change
• - efficient utilisation of energy/materials
• 5. Common interest between management and
  workforce cannot be assumed. Interdependence
  does not equate with common interest.

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The Employment Relationship

• an economic, social and political relationship
  in which employees provide manual and mental
  labour in exchange for rewards allotted by
  employers.
• (Gospel palmer 1993)
• permanent/temporary/full-time/part-time/casual
• Private/public/voluntary sector
• Unionised/non-unionised

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An Exchange Relationship

• Rewards
• - economic
• - social
• - psychological
• Effort
• - Skilled/unskilled
• - controlled/free

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Different Interests

• Employer Employee
• - efficiency - pay
• - productivity - job security
• - profit - career development
• These interests are not assumed to be equal.
• Therefore will lead to conflict
• ?
• Disputes

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Industrial Relations is

• the consecrated euphemism for the permanent
  conflict, now acute, now subdued, between capital
  and labour.
• (Blyton Turnbull, 1998)

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Workers Are Subordinates!

• Through the employment contract
• The worker agrees to sell his/her labour in
  return for payment
• The worker submits him/herself to the authority
  of the employer

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The Employment Relationship

• Continuous
• Dynamic
• Open-ended
• all subject to managerial prerogative

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The Power Factor

• Unequal distribution
• Tipped in favour of the employer
• Workers can organise themselves collectively
• Exercise of power ? resistance ? conflict
• Exercise of power ? accommodation ? co-operation

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Individual Issues

• Contract of employment
• Discipline
• Grievance
• Redundancy
• Discrimination

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Levels of IR Analysis

• Workplace, office, factory
• The organisation
• Industry or national
• Societal

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Substantive Issues

• Substantive the what including
• - pay
• - working hours
• - holidays
• - benefits
• - training
• - redundancy

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Procedural Issues

• how substantive issues get dealt with
  including
• - Who decides?
• - How are the decisions made?
• - What influence to trade unions have?
• - What role does the State have?
• - How will contentious issues be handled?

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Key Players

• GOVERNMENT
• INDEPENDENT 3RD PARTIES
• EMPLOYEES EMPLOYERS

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Trade Unions

• Continuous association of wage earners for the
  purpose of maintaining and improving the
  conditions of their working lives.

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Decision to join a union?

• Reward Motive
• benefits outweigh costs of membership
• Collective Motive
• power in numbers
• Social Motive
• peer pressure to join in

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Decision not to join a union?

• Mobility
• Negotiating power
• Protective legislation
• Ignorance suspicion
• Fear of employers reaction
• (Business Finance 27 January 2000)

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The Coal Commission

• In the past workmen have thought that if they
  could secure higher wages and better conditions
  they would be content. Employers have thought
  that if they granted these things the workers
  ought to be contented. Wages and conditions have
  been improved but the discontent and the unrest
  have not disappeared.

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William Straker 1910

• The fact is that the unrest is deeper than
  pounds, shillings and pence, necessary as they
  are. The root of the matter is the straining of
  the spirit of man to be free.

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Workers interests in employment

• How much s/he gets
• Whats it for
• How s/he is treated
• What s/he actually does
• (Goodrich The Frontier of Control)

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Basic Assumptions (employee)

• Ill get a fair days pay for a fair days work.
• If I treat people with respect Ill be
  respected
• Most capable person will get the job
• My employer will make the workplace safe.
• Ill be judged by my competence

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Trade Union Objectives

• Replace individual bargaining with collective
  bargaining redressing the balance of power in
  favour of employees
• Facilitate the development of a political system
  where workers have more influence on political
  decisions
• Achieve satisfactory levels of pay and conditions
  of employment and provide members with range of
  services.

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More Radical Aims of Trade Unionism

• the reconstruction of the social order
• the abolition of the dominating role of profit
• the establishment of workers control
• the humanisation of work
• the elimination of inequalities in standards of
  living and conditions of life
• Etc.
• (Hyman 1975)

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Employer Associations

• Formal groups of employers set up to defend,
  represent or advise affiliated employers and to
  strengthen their position in society at large
  with respect to labour matters as distinct from
  commercial matters.
• (Oechslin 1985)

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Basic Assumptions (employer)

• Workers will do the job theyre paid for
• I will be allowed to manage the business
• Were all in this together
• Profit is the bottom line

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Employer Objectives in Industrial Relations

• Preservation and consolidation of private
  enterprise system
• Maximise organisational effectiveness and returns
  for shareholders
• Effective use of human resources
• Control authority in decision making
• Good management Employee relations

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Theoretical Perspectives

• (Frames of Reference)
• are extremely valuable in explaining the
  actions, statements and behaviours of employers
  and trade unionists.
• (Rose 2001)

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Unitarism

• Management staff work for common purpose
• One source authority
• Harmony co-operation
• Conflict pathological
• Unions unwelcome

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Pluralism

• Company made up of different interest groups
• Organisation ? miniature democracy
• Negotiated order
• Conflict inevitable, legitimate accepted
• Unions recognised negotiator

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Marxism(Radical Perspective)

• Opposing interests of different classes.
• Asymmetry of power based on ownership.
• An employer can survive longer without labour
  than an employee can survive without work.
• However, employer can never secure total control
  or achieve complete power.

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Implications

• Interests
• Decision making
• Conflict
• Collective organisation

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Perspectives on Conflict

• An important element in the maintenance of
  stability within the work system
• A direct challenge to the internal order and
  stability of the work system
• A necessary prelude to the development of a new
  work system

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Call Centre Worker

• Train timetables
• Enthusiastically gives the customer detailed but
  incorrect instructions

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Blue Flu Strikes the Gardai

• Support for the one-day action among 6,500 Gardai
  was close to 100. Because the law forbids Gardai
  to strike, officers rang in sick.

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Fire Fighters Dispute

• Eight day stoppage started last Friday
• 40 pay rise demand
• FBU 94 support
• 19,000 armed service personnel operating 50 year
  old engines
• Refusal by the army police
• I will not be bullied

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Gerry Warrens Views

• It goes against what Im here for
• Its the wrong time
• I abide by the democratic vote

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Protocol for Conflict Resolution

• Stage 1
• You ? Supervisor ? Manager
• Satge 2
• Shop Steward
• Stage 3
• TU Official ? Employer
• Stage 4
• Independent Third Party

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Independent Third Parties

• Level 1
• IRO, EO, RC
• Level 2
• LRC, LC, EAT
• Level 3
• The Courts

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Processes Used

• Conciliation
• Adjudication
• Arbitration
• Formal Investigation

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So Where Are We?

• Employment Relationship
• Different Interests
• Conflict
• - Resolved or not (through negotiation)
• - Resolved or not (industrial action)

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The Negotiation Process

• Negotiation is a basic means of getting what you
  want from others.
• It is two-way communication designed to reach
  agreement when you and the other side have some
  interests that are shared and others that are
  opposed.

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Negotiation Methods

• Distributive
• Win Lose Adversarial Model
• Integrative
• Win Win Problem Solving Model
• Inevitably a combination

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The Process (3 Phases)

• 1. Preparation
• Choose your team
• Clarify your interests
• Agree objectives
• Do your research
• Assess Bargaining power
• 2. Bargaining
• - Discover positions
• - Structure expectations
• - Movement compromise

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• 3. Follow-up
• - Document
• - Action plan
• - Communicate
• - Implement
• - Review learn

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Collective Bargaining

• Features
• Negotiation compromise
• Representatives
• Collectively
• Prerequisites
• Employees free to organise
• Employers recognise unions