Union disciplinary actions from a human resource perspective in health care - Research Paper Example

Union disciplinary actions from a human resource perspective in health care Introduction Unions are organizations that bring employees together withthe aim of pursuing common objectives under a collective bargaining principle. The unions, with the main aim of facilitating better working conditions for workers ensure a balance between employees and employers’ interests as well as the relationship between the union and its members. As a result, unions have established a set of rules that governs members’ conducts and relations with other parties.

This forms the basis of union disciplinary actions. This paper seeks to discuss union disciplinary actions as perceived by human resource in the health care industry. Union disciplinary actions Developments in legal frameworks have led to the recognition of unions as separate legal entities with legal agendas. This is contrary to the initial common law perception that only identified unions as organizations that sought to undermine trade. The developed legal principles that only render unions’ initiatives illegal if those initiatives are repugnant to justice or inconsistent with established rules of law means that unions have legal authority to undertake activities in their roles that involves protection of employees’ interest as well as ensuring discipline among members.

A union is particularly granted legal powers to discipline its members in accordance with its existing regulatory provisions. Such disciplinary measures may be undertaken through “fines or forfeitures, or wish to expel a member” but must be exercised in accordance with the law that provides for application of a union’s existing rules (Selwyn, p. 550). As a result, union’s disciplinary actions facilitate fair treatment of employees within the unions. The impacts of these treatments are however far reaching and are felt within the employee’s work environment.

Psychological effects of unfair disciplinary actions against an employee by his or her union impacts the working status of the employee and hence the employer. As a result, a health care human resource is significantly affected by the union’s disciplinary actions towards a perspective (Selwyn, p. 550). Another aspect of a union’s disciplinary actions that directly influence the health care of human resource is the legal scope of the unions with respect to disciplinary actions. Legal provisions, and as supported by judicial processes through implementations, ensure legal and social fairness in implementation of disciplinary measures.

Rules against which a member can be disciplined must for example not be retrospective and must be legal. Similarly, unions are expected to adopt ‘well-defined’ procedures to be followed in disciplining their members (Selwyn, p. 550). Arup further explains that one of the union’s objectives is the creation of similar regulatory rules within an industry. Such objectives are achieved through establishment of standards for relations. Similarly, democratic and legal processes in determination of cases towards discipline such as adoption of arbitration processes have majorly facilitated fairness within unions (Arup, p. 269). A Human resource department’s perspectives within its administration and beyond its scope are that a disciplinary action against an employee should meet specific essentials.

Human resource management in a health care institution, like in other industries, advocates for fairness in disciplinary actions against employees. Within organizations, the human resource ensures that managements are sufficiently advised about all relevant factors that should be considered before administering a disciplinary action. The human resource particularly highlights legal and psychological factors to the management with the aim of protecting the organization from legal liability as well as lost resources through psychological humiliation of the disciplined employee.

The human resource therefore ensures that an employee to be disciplined is subjected to a fair process and that employees are accorded appropriate allowance for adjusting and rehabilitating their conducts. This is based on the primary objective of human resource management that strives to ensure social and psychological stability among employees (Goyal, p. 105). Fallon and McConnell further argue that the human resource of an organization is critical in disciplinary processes and actions against its employees and should be incorporated in the disciplinary process.

This is because the human resource department is sufficiently equipped to offer an informed opinion for disciplinary actions. As a result, disciplinary policies that are developed or approved by a credible human resource management would be effective in achieving positive disciplinary objectives. Therefore, a close relationship exists between approved disciplinary initiatives in health care human resource that ensure fairness and allowance for change and the principles of union disciplinary actions.

This means that human resource management in health care approves of the disciplinary actions within unions due to consistency as the unions approach also ensures fairness with predetermined rules to allow members time to change their behavior (Fallon and McConnell, p. 412). Conclusion While union disciplinary actions are governed by rules and regulations of individual unions and laws, such actions correspond to health care’s human resource management approach to disciplinary measures. Therefore, Human resource in healthcare approves of union disciplinary actions because the two are governed by similar underlying principles of fairness and impacts of actions on employees.

Works cited Arup, Christopher. Labour Law and Labour Market Regulation: Essays on the Construction, Constitution and Regulation of Labour Markets and Work Relationships. Sydney, Australia: Federation Press, 2006. Print Fallon, Fleming, and McConnell, Charles. Human Resource Management in Health Care: Principles and Practice. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2007. Print Goyal. R. Hospital Administration And Human Resource Management 4Th Ed. New Delhi, India: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd., 2005.

Print Selwyn, Norman. Selwyn's Law of Employment. 14th Ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print