Industrial Relations, Decline in Strike Activity - Coursework Example

Running head: Industrial Relations; Decline in Strike Activity Student’s name Institution Course Professor Date The fundamental strategy available to workers and their respective organization to promote and protect the economic and social interests is through the right to strike. It champions the right to have better working conditions, pursue collective occupational demands and seek solutions concerning economic, labour and social policy problems. Strikes and other forms of industrial action have been involved in resolving deadlocks in collective bargaining between the employees and employers (Van der Velden, Dribbusch, Lyddon and Vandaele, 2007). Workers and trade unions are at liberty to collectively bargain with the right to strike on wages and conditions, industry development decisions and management prerogative decisions. Industrial actions are destined to protect and advocate for occupational, economic and social interest of the workers in any organization. Industrial relations are involved in the theory and practice that is related with the management and regulation of the employment relationship (Briggs, 2004) The Workplace Relations Act (1996) objective was to weaken the position of the union negotiation through encouragement of direct negotiations with the employees. For instance, strike action was not allowed especially when negotiating non union agreements. The conditions of enterprise bargaining agreements prohibited employees taking advantage of cyclical improvements in economic conditions especially in wage claims. The disputes are settled under the Fair Work Act with the employer giving an obligation to bargain under good faith bargaining arrangements. Under the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act (2005) outlawed the right to strike of both construction and building workers. Under the former Workplace Relations Act (1996) and the Trade Practices Act (1974), organizing strike action legally was dangerous (Forsyth, 2007). The major characteristic of Work Choices industrial relations regime was the government mechanism to legally suppress the strikes. The new Work Choices industrial relations arrangement involved the following; pattern bargaining strikes were made unlawful, the minister has new unprecedented power to stop strikes and the strikes to be outlawed at the life of the agreement. It curtailed any industrial actions at the state made a shift to a stronger corporate bargaining rather than collective union position. Furthermore, the change in roles of settling dispute by the Australian Industrial Relations commissions (AIRC) made the union collective bargaining underrated (Forsyth, 2007). Workers who are involved in industrial action are liable to be ordered to return to work, fined or dismissed from the workplace by the management team. The apparent changes in the Work Choices raised the employers’ powers and protection of the third party whereas declining the right to strike for those employees participating in collective bargaining. Strikes action is prohibited in the event of collective agreement better known as the peace obligation. The neo-liberal institutional reforms have made the antipodean industrials relations such as the labour conflict, thus resulting to the drastic fall in strikes. A more diverse employment landscape is created by the advent of new forms of employment management such as human resources management, declined trade union power, greater individualization and flexibility in labour management (Bukarica, 2007). Under the unitarism perspective of employment relations, trade unions are viewed as either unnecessary or illegitimate. The management team has the freedom to operate in accordance with the state of the market. The shift from a manufacturing to a serviced based economy has eroded the trade union activity and membership (Hodgkinson, 2004). Australia has moved rapidly to decentralized enterprise bargaining back from a centralized award based wage determination system. This led to a substantial declined in the strike activity among the workforce. The shift to productivity from inflation as the foundation of wage determination was followed by a move towards a decentralized enterprise bargaining. With the introduction of The Workplace Relations Act 1996 marked a considerable change in the institutional framework meant to determined wages. Indeed, productivity replaced the labour flexibility as the main aim of industrial relations policy (Hodgkinson, 2004). The management team was able to negotiate with their workforce in terms of workplace pay and conditions without passing through the union representation. Therefore, these institutional changes were characterized by sustained reduction in strike action and furthermore lost of working days from the industrial action process. The trade disputes were adequately reduced especially when trade unions are incorporated into government decision making and managerial process. Such problems like unemployment, inflation and adjustments to international trade growth were solved (McCrystal, 2010). The inclusion of trade union bodies within the national decision making process ensured that both monetary and social incomes for every worker were maintained at an acceptable level. Thus, it resulted in the decline in strike activity. Consequently, the decline in union density resulted in less workers involved in the unions and thus not able to strike. For instance, the workforce covered under enterprise flexibility agreements. Keating government introduced a protected industrial action (McCrystal, 2006). The unions had a privilege to organize to undertake strike activity in the event of enterprise bargaining without the risk of fines and common tort damages. In that circumstance, the employees in enterprise bargaining industrial action were assured protection from dismissal at the workplace. In addition, with the Howard government’s Workplace Relations Act (1996), the right to undertake protected action was circumscribed. This made the right to strike narrowed and the scope of protection declined (Creighton & Stewart, 2005). To the employers, the legal sanctions were utilized to secure orders and injunctions to stop any strikes and fines the union for any damages caused. Most of the management team has employed stringent human resources management practices that substituted the works of the trade unions (Hodgkinson, 2004). These included; use of welfare policies, utilization of both formal and informal channels of communication and appropriate terms and conditions of the employment of the workforce. As a result, favourable employers’ practices have rendered unionism unnecessary in the workplaces. There are some processes and structures that have empower the employers both directly and indirectly to contribute to decision making of the organization (Gollan & Wilkinson, 2007). The recognition of trade union declined because most of the employees were involved through established management forums and communication channels. The national collective bargaining in the public sector has dropped since most of the employers have decentralized bargaining to workplace level so that degrees of flexibility in negotiations can be increased (Hodgkinson, 2004). The institution conditions such as legislative changes and power relationships among the government, management team and trade unions offer predominant influence on the volume and incidence of strike activity. The social partnership model for the management team in United Kingdom has enabled them to engage with employees and trade unions in a new form of dialogue (Briggs, 2005). The reduction of industrial disputes provided a practical rationale for any consultative procedures between the trade union, the government and the management team. The decentralization of the industrial relations allowed the establishment of suitable mechanisms for consultation and negotiation. The Australian government adopted the processes for consultation of employees with a concern to technological change and efficiency in legislation. However the decline in union representation caused a serious problem during the development of cooperative workplace relations. The government was involved in the formation of joint consultative committee of both employees and employers based on a legislative model. The European countries experienced with the techniques of consultation in the workplace provided Australian government with a useful model for the development of new techniques of employees’ representation through unions (Gollan & Hamberger, 2002). Conflict resolution through arbitration and conciliation process promoted the existence of cooperative workplace arrangements both at the federal and states levels. Furthermore at the national government institutions that develop both economic and labour policies were created to address the industrial relations in Australia. Among the notable institutions were; joint consultative committees and consultation over redundancies. Consequently, the social partnership model guaranteed new form of employee cooperation that minimizes the industrial conflicts. The Work Choices legislation restricted Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) dispute resolution aims into three areas; collective bargaining disputes, disputes under the model dispute resolution process and disputes arising from under workplace arrangements. Australia’s Fair Work Act 2009 contains tough rules for the industrial action (McCrystal, 2006). Industrial action will only be protected if it has been authorized by a mandatory secret ballots and having meet all other requirements in the act. An employer can lock out employees who participated in the industrial action. The implementation of new domestic industrial relations legislation was able to reinforce the managerial prerogative and constrained any industrial action either directly or via Australian Industrial Relations Commission. The Workplace Relations Act 1996 allowed the development of individual worker agreements, collective worker agreements and prohibition of intervention in non union awards (Hodgkinson, 2004). The Dunlop’s industrial relations systems had a concern in the manner in which the outcomes reflected needs imposed by objective constraints in the environment of labour management relations. Indeed it favoured an analytical approach that was based on comparisons rather than problem solving approach that was built on description. In the some countries such as Sweden and Britain have expressed low strikes making their trade unions and relevant officials relatively free of the pressures of the employer resistance, internal disunity and decentralized competitive bargaining. Due to increased labour management accommodation in the United States made a considerable contribution towards the disappearance of overt industrial conflict. The state is able to influence the economic welfare of the workers through the tax policy, economic planning, public spending and social welfare legislation (Perry, 2005). Consequently, political actions was determined to be effective than strike since the unions found it to be less costly in term of organization and finances. The organization and its scope of national collective bargaining determined the behavioral variations for example differences in the level and character of strike action among the workforce. In other instances, management teams have carefully designed system of collective bargaining that will minimize to a greater extent the likelihoods of strikes (Forsyth, Koran & Marshall, 2008). Because of the decentralized bargaining structure in the US, wildcat strikes are more prevalent and thus have promoted factionalism within the unions. With the privilege of employers imposing normative regulation and the existence of a strong association of employers favoured the institutional suppression of the overt conflict. A drop in the rate of strike, the workforce were absorbed into the policy thus no need of strike action as a way to press their political demands. Under the leftist form of government, the interventionist economic and social policies are pursued made strikes to wither and thus the government moved the locus of class struggle into political process from the labour market (Perry & Wilson, 2001). With the advent of global financial crisis in 2008, the employers were able to cut costs, wages and conditions and make workers redundant with unemployment incidences. The capacity of the trade unions to exercise their collective bargaining in terms of employment conditions and organizing against unjust ruling is constantly weaken with threats of dismissal and redundancy. The decline in strike numbers and blue collar militant indicated that the right to strike less prevalent (Romeyn, 2008). Therefore low strike action provided appropriate period to have industrial relations reforms. Most of the workforce is not in any organized trade unions; therefore the right to strike for them is irrelevant. Moreover, other employers make their employees into contractors so that they will not participate in any industrial action such as strike activity. They are not in a position to exercise their rights to strike collectively. There has been a decline in strike activity over the last 30 years in Australia with respect to strikes over hours, wages and leave. This is associated with direct proportion between the drop in the rates of disputes and a declined union density. Changes in real Gross Domestic Production, union density, profitability, inventories and inflation have a positive association with the industrial disputes (Morris &Wilson, 1999). The Accord had a considerable negative consequence on the strikes by reducing it by an average of 38 per cent. Indeed, the accord longevity brought up changes in the strike behaviour which went beyond the defeat of the Keating government. Consequently, other factors that led to decline in strike activity included; the collapse of Stalinism in the Soviet Union, worldwide capitalist ideological offensive that affected the trade union and existence of anti-trade union laws (McCrystal, 2006). References Briggs, C., 2004. The Return of the Lockout in Australia: A profile of Lockouts since the Decentralisation of Bargaining, Australian Bulletin of Labour, 30 (2). Briggs, C., 2005. Secret ballot or secret war: Proposed laws on strikes and lockouts tip the playing field further against employees, Australian Policy On-line www.apo.org.au Bukarica, A., 2007. Secret ballot: Applications under the Workplace Relations Act, Law Society Journal, February 2007, pp.75-76. Forsyth, A., 2007. Dispute resolution under Work Choices: The first year. Labour and industry: a Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work, 18 (1). Forsyth, A. & Smart, H., 2009. Third Party Intervention Reconsidered: Promoting Cooperative Workplace Relations in the New ‘Fair Work’ System, Australian Journal of Labour Law, 22. Forsyth, A. Koran, S. and Marshall, S., 2008. Joint Consultative Committees in Australia: An Empirical Update, International Journal of Employment Studies, 16 (1,). Gollan, P. & Patmore, G., 2006. Transporting the European Social Partnership Model to Australia, Journal of Industrial Relations, 48 (2). Hodgkinson, Ann, 2004. Strike Activity under Enterprise Bargaining: Economics or Politics’? Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 7 (4). McCrystal S., 2010.The right to strike in Australia, Annandale, and N.S.W.: Federation Press. McCrystal, S., 2006.Shifting the Balance of Power in Collective Bargaining: Australian Law, Industrial Action and Work Choices, Economic and Labour Relations Review, 16. McCrystal, S., 2006. Smothering the Right to Strike, Australian Journal of Labour Law, 19. Perry, L., 2005.A Long-term Perspective on Industrial Disputes in Australia: 1913-2003, Economic papers - Economic Society of Australia, 24 (3). Perry, L., Wilson, P., 2001.The Accord and Strikes: An international perspective, Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 4(4). Romeyn, J., 2008.Striking a balance: The need for further reform of the law relating to industrial action, Australian Parliamentary Library Van der Velden, S., Dribbusch, H., Lyddon, D. and Vandaele, K., 2007. Strikes around the world, 1968-2005: case-studies of 15 countries, Aksant: Amsterdam. Read More