INTRODUCTION
Background of study
Maintaining healthy industrial relations in an organization is a pre-requisite for organizational success. Strong industrial relations are required for high productivity and organizational satisfaction. One can equally argue that industrial relations is a major factor that affects directly or indirectly, productivity through managerial competence, workers motivation, institutional backup and environment.
Thus, the term "industrial relations" refers to "relations" between employers and employees in "industry. According to Englama (2001), industrial relations refers to the combination of interactions that take place between the employee and employer in an organization. He believed that the fundamental problem
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Industry refers to any productive activity in which an individual or a group of individuals are engaged. Relations refer to the relationships that exist within the industry between the employer and his workmen.
Industrial relations are broadly concerned with bargaining between employers and trade union on wages and other terms of employment. The day-to-day relations within a plant also constitute one of the important elements and impinge on the broader aspects of industrial relations - C.B. Kumar, development of industrial relation 1961, p (ix)
Basically, industrial relations sprouts out of employment relation. Hence, it is broader in meaning and wider in scope. Industrial relations are dynamic and developing socio-economic process. As such, there are as many as definitions of industrial relations as the authors on the subject.
According to Dale Yoder 1972, industrial relations is a designation of a whole field of relationship that exists because of the necessary collaboration of men and women in the employment processes of
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Board Conciliation [Sec.5]. Courts of Inquiry [Sec.6]. Labor Courts [Sec.7].
Works committee.
According to Section 3 of the Act 1947, the appropriate government is empowered to require an employer of any industrial establishment where 100 or more workmen are employed or have been employed on any day in the preceding 12 months to constitute Works Committee.
The committee consists of representatives of the employer and the workmen engaged in the establishment so that the number of representatives of the workmen is not less than number of the representatives of the employer. The duty of the works committee is to promote measures for securing and preserving amity and good relations between the employer and the workmen.
Conciliation officer.
According to Section 4 of the act 1947 the appropriate government may, by notification in the official gazette, appoint such Conciliation Officers, charged with the duty of mediating in and promoting the settlement of industrial disputes.
They investigate the dispute and all matters affecting the merits and the right settlement thereof and may do all such things as he thinks fit for the purpose of inducing the parties to come to a fair and amicable settlement of the
Deery, S. , Plowman, D. and Walsh, J. (2000), Industrial Relations, A Contemporary Analysis, McGraw Hill, Roseville.
Blanpain, R and Bamber, G J. (2010). Comparative Labor Law and Industrial Relations in Industrialized Market Economies: Xth and Revised Edition. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International.
Goal: pacify and secure a stable and predictable work force for modern capitalist industry (today, workers are no longer needed, so need to regulate even more efficiently)
WE can however, accommodate mechanisms which operate as additional or subsidiary processes in the discharge of sovereign responsibility. These enable the court system to devote its precious time and resources to the more solemn task of administering justice in the name of sovereign." Street, The language of alternative dispute resolution' (1992) 66 Australian Law Journal, 1994.
A man who investigates complaints and mediates fair settlements, especially between aggrieved parties such as consumers or students and an institution or organization.
... with the aggrieved worker and representative meeting with the supervisor involved, followed by an appeal system with strict time limits and ultimately ending in binding arbitration. When management and the union cannot resolve a grievance submitted by a union, the union must decide whether to proceed to the final step of the grievance procedure: arbitration. Arbitration is an adversary proceeding like a trial in court. An arbitrator’s function is usually to interpret the collective bargaining agreement between the parties, not to apply his or her standards of what is right in a given situation. The courts have sought to compel labour and management to a peaceful resolution of grievances through arbitration. The Supreme Court has given support to the arbitration process in a series of decisions, and judicial deferral to arbitration has become a basic tenet of national labour policy.
Dunlop(1958) argues that in the system of industrial relations, there are 3 major components in the system. There are the actors, the context and the common ideology. The actors consist of the employers and their organizations and employees and, if present, the groups that represent them and the state or government agencies. The second major component, the context, is the situation or environment that influences any decision or activity, this is usually technology, market constraints or distribution of power in the wider society. The common ideology, under which the purpose of this essay falls, can be seen as a binding idea or theory which the actors share for the purpose of stability in the system. Under the common ideology component, there are various conflicting theories or frames of reference.
The relationship between employer and employees plays a pivotal role in the performance of the organization. Employers and employees have certain responsibilities towards each other which facilitate a fair and productive workplace. Positive work relationships create a cooperative climate with effort towards the same goals. Conflict, on the other hand, is likely to divert attention away from organizational performance.
Trade Unions is essentially pluralistic in outlook, it covers not only the relations between employer and employee, but also the relations between employers and unions and between them. TU theory, practice and institutions traditionally focus more on the collective aspect of relations. This is evident from the central place occupied by labour law, freedom of association, collective bargaining, the right to strike etc.
Employment relations refer to the relationship between the employer and the employee. Employment relations are governed by the provisions of the employment contract and/or collective agreement where applicable, common law principles and legislative provisions governing specific situations. Many factors in the external environment have an effect on the employment relations within an organization, which they need to monitor and possibly adapt to the necessary changes. The external environmental factors that would influence employment relations are political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental.
...sfied with the outcome and resolution from the mediation session, the parties are given liberties to engage with a court procedure.
According to John Dunlop -“An industrial relation system at any one time in its development is regarded as comprised of certain actors, certain contexts, an ideology which binds the industrial relation system together and a body of rules created to govern the actors at the work place and work community.”
There are many different approaches and theories regarding industrial relations nowadays. In order to mount an opinion on which is the ‘best’ or most appropriate theory of industrial relations, each theory will have to be analyzed. The three most prevalent theories of industrial relations which exist are The Unitarist theory, The Pluralist theory and The Marxist theory. Each offers a particular perception of workplace relations and will therefore interpret such events as workplace conflict, the role of trade unions and job regulation very differently. I will examine each of these theories in turn and then formulate my own opinion regarding which is the ‘best’ or most appropriate theory.
The Marxist approach looks at industrial relations from a societal perspective. It views industrial relations as a small-scale version of a capitalist society. This approach surrounds itself with the assumption that industrial relations under capitalism are unavoidable, and thus would be a source of conflict. According to Marxist, industrial conflict is central to industrial relations, however actual altercations are uncommon. The approach also sees this as a form ...