Role of Trade Union in Employment Relations - Coursework Example

Running head: Australian Trade Unions Student name: Unit name: Course name: Submission date: Australian Trade Unions Introduction Trade unions are organised groups of employees who include workers of similar or varied descriptions. This means that a trade union may be formed by workers in similar professions or it may be combination. The trade unions main mandate is the regulation of work relationships between the employers with the aim of ensuring mutual benefit for the two. In the bargaining for the welfare of the workers, trade unions have been known to use dialogue and legal procedures that are aimed at solving the conflicts that may arise between the employer and the worker (David & Bryson, 2010). To some extend if the needs are not met, the trade unions can call for workers industrial actions which include work boycott till their needs are met. The trade actions were common in the 19th and 20th century, however with the developments of employee rights and enactment of legislations that protect the employees, there have been marked reduction of the industrial strikes especially in the developed countries and in organised companies. This essay discuses the role of trade unions in Australia and reasons behind the declining number of workers joining the unions. Role of trade union Trade unions have a fundamental role in the championing for the rights of workers. The trade unions main role is to represent workers, advocate and campaign for good working environments. The core mandate of trade unions is to represent people at the places of work. This may entail intermediary role in which the trade union officials meet the employer on the behalf of a member or group of staffs (Saundry, Jones & Valerie, 2011). The trade unions thus provide protection of their members by ensuring that they are not put at risk. In Australia the idea of workers having a collective bargain dates back to over two hundred years ago. However, the trade unions and workers movements gained prominence during the industrial revolution this was as a result of workers championing for more rights and good working conditions. Since then, trade unions in Australia have been recognised as the voice of the workers. According to Trevor (2006) workers feel safer and protected when they are under an umbrella body that can bargain for them. Globalisation and increased competition have driven changes in the work place and employers are sensitive to employee welfare. Mechanisms for Expression of Employees The core mandate of trade unions is to protect its members. To achieve this noble goal, the trade unions have varied mechanisms that they employ to protect the members. The trade unions lobby through campaigns for safe work places and ensure that the health of the workers is not being risked. To achieve tangible results that can be implemented, trade unions employ legal mechanism in which they hire lawyers who legally compel companies and other organisations to comply with the law in ensuring safe working environments. Since the start of the labour unions, the main focus has been to ensure that the remuneration of the employees relates to the work hours and the general working conditions (Alex & Forth, 2010). Trade unions provide platform for its members to express their pay grievances through the unions which adds more weight to the needs of the employees. In a scenario where a single employee may approach the management for pay increase, the chances for the plight being acted upon is less compared to the employees who had presented the same grievance through their trade union. The trade unions act by collectively negotiating for good pay conditions for their members. According to a research carried out by Wright (2011) in Australia, the unionised workers receive higher pays compared to the non-union workers doing similar jobs. The trade unions are mandated to speak for their members, in addition to speaking, the trade unions provide the members with information on the developments in the work place, they further provide guidance about the problems that may be arising in the work place and advise on the appropriate measures that can be taken to ensure that working environment for the members is favourable for workers. It is the dream of any union to ensure that the members it is representing are well informed and knowledgeable in the various fields d of work. As a result, trade unions in Australia provide the members with necessary services that enhance their wellbeing. On of the services include trainings to empower the employees, advise them on insurance policies, financial services and the legal advice for the member (Dix, Sisson &Forth, 2009). The advocacy of trade unions is not limited to the members only, they aim at ensuring a fair society by inclusion of family benefits and welfare in their campaigns. There are many researches that have been carried in Australia to evaluate the impacts of trade unions on the lives of its members. A common findings is that workers in the unions have better pays, enjoy better health schemes and their pensions benefits are high (Butler, 2009). In addition, the general welfare of the employees has been found to be better for the workers in unions, for instance, they receive more holidays and have flexible working hours than the workers who are not unionised. According to a research conducted by (Saundry, Jones and Valerie, 2011) shows that that the collective bargain by the trade unions is beneficial for the workers and the employers. Companies where the employees belong to a trade unions are safer for working and meet the minimum standard that are necessary for the employees. The study found that the organisations and the companies that have allowed trade unions and union committees to deal with health and safety have half the injury rate compared to similar organisations in charge of the health and safety and do not incorporate the unions. This is beneficial to the employer as they spend less on the injury compensation and related health issues arising in the work place. Declining membership trends The changes experienced in the organisations and the development of the human resource management departments in organisations and companies have led to significant changes in the role of the trade unions in the last three decades. For instance, the competition in the global market, employers being involved in sponsoring of the employee participation in the decision making, legislations protecting the employees and contemporary management systems which allow audacity of employees are some of the contributing factors to the changing roles (Dix, Sisson & Forth, 2009). The level of influence of the trade unions has been significantly falling and as a result, the trade unions are involved passively in the matters of employees, this is contrary to the active participation that was known for the unions in the past decades. Strategies and laws have been put in place which compels employers to recognise trade unions and allow their employees to freely join the trade unions without victimisation. However, researches on the membership of trade unions show that there is a declining trend in the membership of trade unions in the developed countries. Australian workers joining the unions have been on the declined. The decline in the workers joining trade unions has been attributed to changes in management and operations of businesses in the contemporary competitive environment (Haery, Kelly &Waddington, 2003). One notable feature in Australia and other developed countries has been the legislations that bar industrial actions and notable termination of the bargaining structures. These changes have ended the old arrangement of the trade unions when the unions and the employers could agree to a membership to a trade union as a prerequisite to the employment. The consequential outcome for the abolition of membership to trade union has led to less members being covered by agreements between the employer and union. This has ushered in the scenario where the individual contracts and business level bargaining has become the norm in the employment and the determination of the workers’ pay and the working conditions (William, Deakin, Nash, & Oxenbridge, 2000). This is a shift in the roles of the unions in which they have to focus on the organisation or enterprise instead of focussing to the employee. The workers in such a situation will not realise the benefit of being in a trade union. The economic changes in the global market have resulted to international competition and the market pressures have been on the increase. Companies and organisation sometimes are forced to outsource and hunt for the best skilled workers in the market, both internationally and locally. The companies and the organisations are much aware of the consequences of high labour turn over and hence have to remunerate the employees well to ensure retention. This has been one of the attributing factors to the decline in the memberships in the trade unions as the working conditions are good. According to David and Bryson (2010) employers have been forced by the competition to initiate tightened controls in the work place and there is minimal role left for the trade unions or the involvement of the trade unions is relegated to passive role of consultation. Another contributing factor to the evident declining membership is that the employers have become more sensitive to the plight of the employees. This has seen the rise in the employers being involved in the sponsorship of workers, participation in various activities and sometimes the workers are involved in the decisions that concern their welfare. This means that the individual workers have means of voicing their concerns without involving the trade unions. A research conducted by William, Bryson and Forth (2009) found that there is a significant increase in the number of workplaces in which the workers are provided with mechanisms for voicing their concerns without using the trade unions. The representation of the workers has not diminished as there are still many companies and organisations that have to be compelled to implement the minimum requirements for the employee welfare. What is evident is that there is an emerging trend in which the representation is shifting from trade unions to work place mechanisms and organisational systems to address the issues (William, Bryson & Forth, 2009). The new trend of shifting away from the trade unions voice can also be attributed to employers’ endeavours to cunningly substitute the unions’ roles for the non-union roles. This is driven by the common belief that the trade unions do not add value to the organisations and sometimes are obstacles to achieving the strategies for the organisations and the companies. This is despite of the myriad of the studies that have proved that the trade unions are very effective in representing the interests of the workers through the collective bargains (Haery, 2010). According to Butler (2009), the non-union mechanisms that are becoming the trend for voicing the workers concerns and which are basis for the declining membership of the trade unions have no quantifiable benefits for the management of the organisations in terms of increased productivity. This implies that the managements of the companies and organisations usage of the non-unions is aimed at increasing the control over the employees rather than enhancing the employees. In Australia, there are legal channels that have been put in place to solve labour disputes through the judicial court system. This has seen great reduction in the working days that are lost due to the strikes as it was experienced in the past. The evident trend has resulted to increased applications of dispute resolutions in the employment tribunal which means the conflicts that were originally being solved by trade unions are being solved in the courts and through tribunals (Dix, Sisson & Forth, 2009). The implication of this is that the roles of the labour unions have been overtaken by the tribunals and the outcome has been the workers not realising the important roles of the labour unions. The decline in the membership of the trade unions in Australia has been explained to result from the policy changes over the last three decades. There are many policies that have been enacted to cushion the employees and at the same time to ensure that productivity is not harboured by the mass action and labour boycotts. Research carried out by Wright (2011) has shown combination of factors for the declining membership, one of the factor is that the trade unions are failing to achieve recognition in the emerging work places. The other factor is the policy changes which have favoured representation on individual basis and hence workers do not feel obligated to join the unions as they can still channel their disputes through other means. The nature of the working conditions especially in the white collar jobs is also a factor that can be attributed to the declining membership. During the industrialisation times, most of the jobs were manual and there were many unfavourable working conditions. This triggered the need for the people to come together and compel the employers to improve the working conditions. However, the 20th and 21st centuries have seen an increase in technological developments and more white collar jobs in which the working conditions are good. According to Alex and Forth (2010) white collar jobs employees have work agenda that is very different from that of their counterparts in the manual jobs. The white collar job employees are likely to have work dispute resolution mechanisms and ways to negotiate their pay through individual contracts and performance contracts which are hinged on better working conditions. It is thus evident that the decline in the trade unions in Australia has been due to the changes in the way of doing business. The exposure that the Australian firms have had due to the international market pressures and the emergence of the outsourcing has been a contributory factor in the trends. Furthermore the development of the atypical employment without the direct involvement of the trade unions and the sponsored forms of participation by the employers are attributable to the declining membership. These coupled with the legal provisions that constraint the capability of the unions being involved in active recruitment of members and the inability to take industrial action have contributed to the fall in the membership. Conclusion Trade unions play a crucial role in the ensuring the welfare of the employees in Australia. Researches have shown that the employees who are unionised in the trade unions enjoy better benefits compared to the employees who are not in the unions. A notable role of the trade unions is to provide collective bargain for the members and also to provide advice and other services that are aimed at enhancing workers welfare. The trade unions have been acclaimed for provision of advocacy; the gains and good working conditions being enjoyed by many employees in Australia are due to direct or indirect involvement of the trade unions in championing for the rights of the workers. However despite of these immense and crucial roles played by the trade unions, there has been a notable decline in the membership of trade unions in Australia. These declines have been attributed to many factors: the changes in the business environment in Australia and internationally, the changes in policies relating to workers and the employer work relation mechanisms. For the trade unions to ensure that their memberships do not keep on declining, there is need for change in the ways they approach their roles and should work to foster the workers confidence in joining the trade unions. References Alex, B. and Forth, J. (2010). Trade union membership and influence 1999-2009. Melbourne: School of Economics and Political Science. Butler, P. (2009). Non-union employee representation: Exploring the riddle of managerial strategy. Industrial Relations Journal, 40(3), pp. 198-214. David, B. and Bryson, A. (2010). The wage impact of trade unions in the Australia public and private sectors. Economica, 77(305), pp. 92-109. Dix, G., Sisson, K. and Forth, J. (2009). Conflict at work: The changing pattern of disputes. The Evolution of the Modern Workplace, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Haery, E., Kelly, J. and Waddington, J. (2003). Union revitalisation in Britain. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 9(1), pp. 79-97. William, B. Bryson, A. and Forth, A. (2009). Competition and retreat from collective bargaining. The Evolution of the Modern Workplace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. William, B. Deakin, S., Nash, S. and Oxenbridge, S. (2000). The employment contract: From collective procedures to individual rights. Journal of Industrial Relations, 38(4), pp. 611-629. Trevor, C. (2006). What space for unions on the floor of rights? Trade unions and the enforcement of statutory individual employment rights. Industrial Law Journal, 35(2), pp.140-160. Saundry, R., Jones, C. and Valerie, A. (2011). Discipline, representation and dispute resolution: Exploring the role of trade unions and employee companions in workplace discipline. Industrial Relations Journal, 42(2), pp. 195-211. Wright, C. (2011). What role for trade unions in future workplace relations. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 10(1), pp. 134-153. Read More