Industrial Relations Law in the UK - Essay Example

Industrial Relations Law in UK An Analysis By Devangini Mahapatra Chauhan Industrial relations are that aspect of industrial studies that deal withthe formulation of polices to promote harmonious relationships within the organisation in its operational sphere. The fundamental aspects of studying the industrial relations are to base the same on an analysis of the industrial relations law. The industrial relations laws have basically come up to give a legalised form to the association of workers with a strong focus on generating the right to strike as well as the freedom of association. Further, this will be discussed in terms of international standards in industrial relations laws. The industrial relations law of a particular country have a strong nexus with its broad policies as far as human resource management and employee satisfaction are concerned. These laws imply the state of affairs within the operation sphere where the workers are the one's generating maximum profitability and efficiency through their positive contribution. (Collins, 2005) In this regard, the industrial laws deal with areas of integrating personal and organisational interest, apart from widespread applicability of suitable measures of motivation and training which in turn will contribute to the worker efficiency and a cost effective strategy for achieving organisational goals. This paper deals with the industrial relations law that has been prevalent in the United Kingdom or UK with a focus on comparing the same with international standards in terms of its right to strike and the freedom of association. The categories in this paper will broadly include legal and sociological implications and issues of the industrial law in UK. History of Industrial Relations Law After several breakthroughs in defining the contextual implications of human resources and employee relationships, Sidney and Beatrice Webb created a stark picture of the quality of trade unionism in the 1894. This was a major revelation for the social historians of that time in context of their contribution to the analysis of the system followed in Great Britain in terms of industrial relations. This aspect of study even became a full fledged field of study at Oxford by 1908. (Hyman, 2003. p 37 to 56) It has also helped defined the right of association and strike as rights that are inherent in the employees workspace where he or she may demand a certain economic and social status depending on the level of contribution to overall productivity. This further led to the construction of a framework within which these employees can call themselves the workforce within a certain industry or organisation, and thereafter affiliate themselves with an organisation called trade union which will identify their rights and help them adopt methodologies like collective bargaining, negotiations and even strikes, if need be, to attain the same. In this regard, the trade unions call themselves the representatives of the workforce and fight for their rights. This has given rise to various theories in terms of collective bargaining as well as the formal conception of the right to associate and the freedom to strike, in industrial laws the world over. This revolution started with UK due its history of industrial development, where it has been hailed as an international pioneer of the industrial revolution. This is, therefore, the most comprehensive definition of the Right to Strike and the Freedom of Association in UK's industrial law, which provides for clauses and immunities under these rights. (Collins, 2005) In this case, it is imperative to move forward only after briefly touching upon the origin of this law. Thus, through a keen focus on trade unionism, which was major trend in the industrialisation process, by the scholars and historians of that time, Great Britain saw the birth and evolution of its industrial relations law, that helped define the context and framework within which collective bargaining and other activities like employer employee relations would be standardised. While Great Britain continued to abide by its conservative stand to approach the setting of priorities in terms of collective regulation of employment, there was a strong role play of the government and the law in deciding the direction of the industrial relations regulations and laws. This was enforced primarily on the basis of the Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800, where there was the laying of the foundation for discussing rights adhering to property and individual contracts. This has laid the groundwork for future discussions and research as far as emerging trends are concerned. (Hyman, 2003. p 37 to 56) This has laid the framework for the assumption that the industrial law in UK has come about a formalisation of the demand for legality in association with trade unions. This has promoted many scholars to rethink their stand on the state of industrial and employee relations today, in terms of trends that are seeking greater clauses and immunities in the rights and freedoms to associate and strike. (Parker, 2006) Trade Unionism and Emerging Trends Based on the assumption that modern industrial relations have arrived where they have as a result of the definition of rights in terms of legalising trade unions and the methodologies they adopt to ensure that the employees get their rightful share and pay, this section will describe trends in industrial relations. This will help lay the ground work for subsequent comparison of the industrial laws in UK with the equivalent laws in other EU countries. To begin with, the right to strike and the freedom to associate are by products of clauses that seek to protect and give equanimity to the employees or the workforce. It has also been seen that the immunities are in context of protecting workers who strike within peaceful boundaries. In this case, the major trend that has come is one of globalisation which has influenced industrial law to the degree of encouraging it to affiliate itself with human rights laws the world over. The context for further discussion and research is one based in the historical and comparative analysis of the law. It had been found in the formative years of the law, that there was a strong focus on trade union behavior and evolution. This showered some amount of relevance upon the acceptability of the consequences of the framework that the rights of trade unions. (Hyman, 2003. p 37 to 56) Unless, there had been some amount of success in its results, the British government would not have come up with the ideation of the concept of a separate law for industrial relations. Therefore, volunteerism has a strong connection with the framework adopted by the government in relation with the development of a law for industrial relations along the lines of the rights demanded by the trade unions. (Barrow,2002) In recent times, there has been a strong impetus to transform the industrial law in keeping with the emerging international standards. But the fact remains that little has changed in terms of granting rights to trade unions and employees since the birth and conception of this law in 1906. (Hall, 2006) While the immunity provided under the law is a mere excuse as it exposes the trade union members and employees indulging in strikes, to legal wrangles and even dismissal, there has been a strong movement towards providing better protection against such victimization. This has been provided to participants by the various clauses in the Trade Union Freedom Bill (2006). This bill provides various kinds of measures through its clauses that will help protect a participant who has taken part in lawful strike, besides providing the scope for the extension of time for which he or she is to face dismissal. This has shown a foray by the industrial law in UK into matters of greater global importance in terms of human rights. This bill also recognizes the various situations which may amount to unfair dismissal. Also, there has been a strong focus on the modernization of labor laws to accommodate international standards, which in turn will revise the law on legal action against the workers. In this context, the red tape practices which are prevalent in the industrial law will be eradicated in lieu of the clauses contained in the Employment Relations Act of 2004, which has important rules for bureaucratic restrictions in this regard. On this basis, UK has been compared with various states in Europe so as to learn about the underlying context within which it develops it frameworks for various laws. To begin, with there is always a strong underscore of conservatism, which has affected the UK laws and held the employees back from making breakthroughs in collective bargaining and social partner conception that furthers the cause and process of association. This has been discussed in detail in the following chapters. International Standards and Recommendations Through research, one aims to project the performance standards that are followed by various countries. This defines the very core of the business activities. While ethics and company size as well as profitability forecasts are a strong set of factors that influence the overall industrial culture in a country, there are social factors like overall economic performance of the country and its various sectors that contribute to the climate of its industrial relations laws. (Edwards, 2003. p 58 to 66) The objective of such laws must therefore, be to provide a valid base for the culmination of all its industrial aspects as well as its various allocations in terms of resources, forecasts and contribution to the economy. In case of UK, the criteria must be an informal one that promotes volunteerism and nor just trade union participation. (Barrow, 2002) In this case, it has been found that most EU countries like Austria, Finland and France, have a large base as well as large contribution of various collaborative bargaining methods owing to their recognition of trade unions in context the basic industrial relations climate. Compared to these countries, Belarus, Bulgaria and Croatia have almost no or limited scope for collective bargaining. Thus, in this case, UK and Germany have more or less sectored forms of collective bargaining that restricted to the plant and factory level. Therefore, UK needs to learn how make its collective bargaining level and process purport into all state and plant levels so as to grant more say of the workforce in the operational sphere. In this case, compared to other countries like Switzerland, where strikes are allowed in the state sector, UK needs to develop enhanced tolerance levels for dealing with the workforce and its voice. While striking with official consent is allowed in UK, there are also many legal hassles that need to be looked into. In this case, the legal protection for union members needs to stepped up as has been demonstrated in the case of Switzerland, Spain and Sweden. (Craig et al, 2006) Social partner reaction The clauses of the bill for trade union freedom depends laregely on the organisation of the information and communication base as far as trade unionism and strikes are concerned. As can be seen from the international examples portrayed above, there is a need for more institunalised and a better legal base for the organisation of such factors. The collaborative model is an appropriate one in this case owing to the fact that we are dealing basically with the right to strike and freedom to associate. Therefore, collabroative bargaining and the legal issues are the basci framewrok within which international standard improvements can be put across. This also lays the ground work for simplification of these laws in terms of their content and approach to employee problems as well as trade union issues. As far as simplification is concerned, there needs to be a strong social stand through collaborative and volunteerism tactics, so as focus on the core business activities through use of tools like knowledge and motivation. This is a matter of great regulatory concern as far as the actions of the individual organisations are concerned. (Hall, 2006) Therefore, in context of employee dispute resolution systems, the employees must have more faith in the government and employers alike - a phenomenon that can be born only out of an integrative approach to the problem, wherein the employee will be convinced that it has a strong social partner in the form of the organissation as well as the employer, both of whom understand the position of the employee. In this case, simplification will lead to definite measures as far as asserting the role of the government in case of disciplinary meausres are concerned. (Hall, 2006) These measures can be asserted on an informal basis where the government can address the concerns of the employees. This will help all parties involved, gain a substatial amount of confidence in the system, which in turn will promote efficiency in operation and goal achievement for the organisation and its employees. In this regard, these measures promote the need and scope for the government to understand and implement the relevant rulings to make the industrail relations law a prgressive one, with a strong focus on more popular policies like minimum wage, equitable distribution of various resources, as well as better time off and leave options. This will also help protect the employees against red tapism in discriminatory behaviour, so as to follow the pattern of a more progressive and less conservative social executor of such changes. (Hall, 2006) This has led to the belief that there is a requirement for more institutionalised formats as far as revealing the various gaps in the flow of information and development of knowledge are concerned in context of the clauses of the industrial law in UK. This base needs to be made stronger through the creation of an opportunity pool for each employee to experience change management tactics as well as the application of leadership skills. Structures of hierarchy within the industries in UK will show ample space and scope for the same to follow an institutionalized pattern with a strong focus on standardization of activities and various other nuances of the operational sphere. Also, the collaborative model is a relevant one here. It has been ignored by UK in its formulation of industrial relation laws, but the fact remains that there is a strong need for the collaborative efforts where personal and organizational interests are made to integrate and not conflict. (Nolan et al, 2003. p 81 to 101) Therefore, in some measure, there is a need to centre the value of performances through a measurement of activities and the efficiency level attached to each, through criteria of assessment like the convergence of economic and cultural factors. This is mainly owing to the fact that no organization in UK is complete without diversity as far as culture, economic standing and ethnicity are concerned. This integration will lead to a collective analysis of the efforts and the channels through which the same pass, so as to make sure that these channels give the employees the requisite level and direction of motivational factors and satisfaction. (Parker, 2006) Conclusion and Further Research Areas The theme of policy making of the UK government as far as industrial relations are concerned depends largely on trade union participation. This shows that there is a strong need for UK to focus on measures that will help the industrial relations law adopt emerging global trends. This will in turn, call for reforms on the basis of studies and analysis conducted along the following lines: Analysis of the effects of European integration and internationalisation on employment relations. This includes a strong focus on employment practice in multinational companies, as MNCs have come to affect economies all over the world on a large scale owing to the rapid growth of globalisation. Owing to UK's wide ranging ethnic background in any and every walk of life, there is a need to base future strategies and develop a more generic model that will focus on diversity and equality in employment practices. The policy makers need to evolve a more representative form of employee relations where there will be the scope for every employee to voice his or her opinion and apply critical thinking on a personal level to the operational activities. The government needs to focus on transforming the legal and social climate that has so far influenced the industrial relations law, in order to provide more informal and relaxed regulations that will cement the employment relationship. The employment relations must have a strong connection with the performance standards so as to cater to a more generalised behavioural pattern where pay and work is concerned. This will help eradicate discrimination and boost the performance levels within the organisation. The government must provide major research resources for the academic and practitioner communities, which must include regular online features and updates on developments in industrial relations and working conditions for the European Industrial Relations and the European Working Conditions Observatories. This will promote a more global feel to the industrial relations law in UK, with prime focus on emerging trends and the creation of awareness regarding the same. References: 1. Edwards, P K; (2003) Chapters by: Hyman, R; Nolan, P; Slater, G (2003). Industrial Relations: theory and practice. Blackwell Publishing. 2. Hall, Mark: IRRU, University of Warwick. (Dec, 2006) Government simplification plan targets employment regulation. UK Department of Trade and Industry. 3. Parker, Jane: University of Warwick. (June 2006) Unfair treatment and discrimination at work. UK Department of Trade and Industry. 4. Barrow, C (2002) Industrial Relations Law 2nd edition. Cavendish Publishing. 5. Bowers, J (2002) On Employment Law 6th edition. Oxford University Press. 6. Collins, H (2005) Labour Law Text and Materials, 2nd edition. Oxford University Press. 7. Craig, J D R; Lynk, M S (2006). Globalisation and the Future of Labour Law. Cambridge University Press. Read More