The Function of Trade Unions - Essay Example

Running Head: INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS Industrial Relations Name Course Lecturer Date 2) Effects of part-time and casual employments on the conduct of industrial relations In the recent years, there has been a drastic change in the composition of employment. Industrial and occupational structures of the workforce have shifted from the initial full time employment to self-employment, part-time and casual forms of employment. These changes have not been without a share of impact on the industrial relations. A notable effect is declining union membership. This has result from the dramatic move of employees to sectors, jobs and industries where the propensity of unionism is low such as the service industry. Further, there is an increasing outflow of employees from the industries and sectors where unionism is high such as the manufacturing industry. Research indicates the number of employees joining trade unions is higher than that of part-time and casual employees. Many Australian unions state that they find it nearly impossible to register and retain part-time and casual employees. This is in part caused by the nature of such kind of employees whose rate of job mobility is quite high. Besides that, they tend to have limited attachment to the labor force and lack interest in the expected utility gains offered by unions. Nevertheless, unions can also be blamed for the low membership of part-time and casual employees. They have failed to establish mechanisms that will ensure adequate representation of these workers terming the venture as expensive and effortless. Since the advent of advanced technology, human labor force gradually being replaced by machines increasing the need for downsizing. As a result, companies are shrinking in terms of the work force further accelerating contracting role of unions. Furthermore, most of the companies currently coming up are private companies which normally tend to be more decentralized and smaller than the public ones. Historically, trade unions find it complex to work with small firms or those comprising of small workforces. One major reason why trade unions retrieve from working with small and newly established companies is because they tend to be composed of hostile and difficult workers who are sometimes unmanageable. In addition, as workforces become reduced to smaller sizes due to the shift from standard to non-standard employments, the rates of grievances from workers are reducing at the same rate eliminating the need for trade union interventions (McKeown, 2005). Even with the notable difficulties in dealing with informal employees, there are several strategies being developed to represent their grievances. They include special kinds of trade unions that have separate governance from formal trade unions, member based organizations and cooperatives. These organizations are diverse in terms of geographical covering ranging from large international organizations to small local organizations. However, most of these organizations have had to operate in the name of associations as they cannot be legally registered as trade unions since they do not represent people with formal employments. These associations, which are in effect trade unions, have an equal bargaining power before national authorities as the registered trade unions. Informal trade unions are increasingly growing with the growing number of informal employees. 3a) why do people join unions The reasons why people join unions are categorized into collective and individual reasons. Individual reasons include free legal advice, training and education, financial services and industrial benefits. Collective reasons on the other hand include improved working conditions and pay, peer influence and a mere belief in trade unions. Generally, people join trade unions first, because of workplace representation. This means that the unions have the capacity of representing the interests of its members in their respective workplaces which might be in the form of representation of grievances, facilitating professional support, bargaining and consultation. The second reason why people join union is due to their regulatory function. Trade unions are involved in policy making thus will ensure that the legislative measure put in place favor their members. The third reason for joining trade unions is to benefit from a wide range of benefits provided to members who include unemployment, health and professional benefits such as legal advice (Ewing, 2005). b) Effects of declining union density on effectiveness of trade unions Amidst declining union density, trade unions have acted fast to respond to the situation and remain effective. This is contrary to expectations as they a downfall would be expected result. Although many unions experienced financial deficits at the onset of the decline, beginning 1980’s, they have managed to demonstrated tremendous recovery since 2004. The extra union incomes basically come from members who are now charged higher subscriptions. Although there is no clear evidence of the source of the rest of the incomes, it is suggested that most of them acquire it from disposal of duplicate assets following mergers. As a matter of fact, the financial positions of many unions in now healthier despite the persisting decline in membership (James, 2009). Wage dispersion and wage premium, as principal benefits of union members have fluctuating over the past 20 years. Wage premiums declined overly between 1980s and 1990s, recovered until 2002 after which they have been steadily declining. This has been contributed in part by increasing free riding which has weakened trade union’s performance in their member organizations. Unions have demonstrated negative effects on financial performance of workplaces for the last quarter century. This has is attributed to a number of reasons including reduced union wage premiums which have ultimately lowered union labor costs, unions have compromised most of the labor demarcating rules that regulated labor flexibility and unions have empowered managers in companies to practice high-involving management (HIM) consequently diluting the role of unions. Another notable effect of declining membership in unions is with regard to networks of lay representatives. These are the people that a member can first contact when they are faced with a problem. Besides that, they have the responsibility of recruiting members. While the number of lay representatives remained intact until the early 90s. In the mid 90s, the numbers had fallen to critical figures to very low number to serve the entire membership. However, the number of stewards has since remained stable and the recent fall is well in proportion with the reducing number of members (Bryson and Forth, 2010). 4) Is workplace conflict inevitable One would only successfully avoid conflict only if he works in a place without other people. Since this is not possible, conflict must be experienced in the workplace; it is inevitable. Conflict surrounds us in one way or another and might affect us directly or indirectly. Workplace conflicts though not involving all members of the organization, it has a negative effect on the overall entire organization. The different types of conflicts do not change the fact that conflict is inevitable. In actual fact, research shows that most executives spend about 18% of their work life trying to resolve conflicts in their organizations. This translates to about nine to fifteen weeks a year which is a significant time that could be used in something constructive. This therefore, necessitates proper management of workplace conflict. Of importance in managing conflict is to identify the causes of workplace conflict. Communication is an essential ingredient in any relation including working relationship thus lack of it simple misunderstandings which trigger conflicts. Workplace conflict also arises due to clash of expectation which leads to performance problems. Although internal conflict is considered healthy in achieving good results it may sometimes stir up conflicts. Discrimination has also been associated with workplace conflicts as certain categories of employees are treated favorably than others. Misunderstandings about terms and conditions of employment between the employee and the employer, is also a common source of conflict. Bullying, cultural differences, and inappropriate management styles among others are common sources of workplace conflict. Despite the fact that workplace conflict is inevitable, it should be properly managed to avoid the detrimental effects that might result. These negative effects include wastage of time during conflict and in resolving the conflict, retirement of skilled employees, restructuring of workforce to a less efficient one, lowered job motivation, absenteeism, sabotage, damage and theft. While conflict resolution techniques may be viewed as the solution to managing conflicts within an organization, they might be too costly which makes them less effective. More appropriate measures are preventative strategies that will reduce occurrence of conflicts or ensure that their severity is reduced to significantly low levels if they happen to occur. Managers and supervisors as well as other employees should be trained on conflict management in diverse workplaces. The company should also establish integrated, clear and customized policies and procedures regarding conflicts, preferably in the code of conduct. A workplace culture that recognizes responsibilities of each member of the organization should be adopted to avoid miscommunication and misunderstanding of employment terms and conditions. Employees should be trained with at least a medium level of communication skills; both oral and written. Fairness should be established in the organization where employees and managers are treated alike without favoritism. Cultural training programs can also be organized so as to ensure tolerance of employees in light of cultural diversity (Hayes, 2008). References Bryson, A. and Forth, J. (2010). Trade union membership and influence 1999-2009. NIESR Discussion Paper No. 362. Ewing, K. (2005). The function of trade unions. Industrial law journal. Volume 34, issue 1. Hayes, J. (2008). Workplace conflict and how business can harness it to thrive. Retrieved on 24th May 2012 from https://www.cpp.com/pdfs/CPP_Global_Human_Capital_Report_Workplace_Conflict.pdf. James, A. (2009). Trade Union Membership 2009, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, A National Statistics Publication. Retrieved on 24th May from http://stats.bis.gov.uk/uksa/tu/tum2009.pdf. McKeown, T. (2005). Non-standard Employment: When even the Elite are Precarious. Journal of Industrial Relations. 47(3): 276-293 . 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