Managing Industrial Relations - Essay Example

? Human Resource-Manage industrial relations-report Contents Industrial Relations Strategy 3 Effectiveness of the Policy 3 Procedures Related To the Policy 4 Contemporary Industrial Issues 4 Legislation Governing the Australian Workplaces 6 Industrial Instrument 6 Grievances and Disputes 7 Conclusion 8 Reference 10 Industrial Relations Strategy Human resource Management and Industrial relation goes hand in hand and industrial relation and human resource management use the strategy as concept and define strategy as realized or implicit. From a practical point of view the interrelationship between industrial relation and human resource management is most evident. The industrial strategy to be adopted by the organization is to develop a complementary approach in relation to human resource management. Human resource management seems to complement industrial relations as it focuses on employers policies in order to manage the employment relation (Gardner & Palmer, 1997, p. 591). In addition to the above strategy the organization will incorporate strong corporate culture along with better management support as it is an ideal industrial relation situation and vital as the management recognizes the value and importance of the workplace. Thus adopting to the above mentioned strategy will lead the organization to have an effective industrial relation policy for its employees and employers in together. Effectiveness of the Policy Adopting the complementary approach organization will be able to emerge in the field of industrial relation. It focuses mainly on the productivity of the industry and will help the organization to achieve competitive advantage. The policy will take care of the employment system in the workplace and includes human resource as well as labor relation practices. Therefore the policy will help the organization in both strategic manner and to meet the operational needs. The complementary approach will provide the organization with competitive advantage and the culture of the organization will provide the organization with a well defined policies and industrial relation strategies. Procedures Related To the Policy The policy of the organization is to operate business in a way that will provide as well as preserve harmonious place to work for all its workers within the instrument of industrial relation like agreements and rewards and the management are focused to ensure that the work is carried with minimum disruption and with industrial harmony (Acubis, n.d). When policies are made it is necessary to communicate about the new or revised policy to all the members of the organization and it can be said that communication plays a very important role on the success of the policies in organization. The employees need to know about the benefits of implementing the policy such as flexibility of working hours, incentives, training and development. The CEO should be the person to communicate the new industrial policy of the organization to all the employees. In addition to effective communication all industrial relation plans should also include contingency plans. Organization should assess all the potential risk as well as benefits which are associated with negotiation. Risk in relation to the implementation of new policy should be analyzed. Contemporary Industrial Issues Some of the contemporary industrial issue which Australia has been facing and it is assumed that the organization will also face similar kind of contemporary industrial issues. The following is the list of contemporary issues faced by the organization and Australia Globalization Technological changes Casual workplace and part time work place Work place flexibility Collective bargaining Reduction in job security Enterprise bargain in order to gain conditions more than awards Family friendly working patterns Australia workplace agreement Changing industrial and political landscape (UnionTeach, 2003). Globalization is one of the major issues concerning organization as more and more number of organization have been affected because of globalization both in a positive and negative manner. Among the various debates on globalization public policy mainly labor policy tends to occupy the center stage due to political and economic ramifications (Mahmood, n.d). In addition to globalization, change in technology has also lead to contemporary issues. Product life cycle has dramatically been shortened forcing the organization to adopt new technologies. Other mentioned factors equally contribute towards the contemporary issues faced by the organization as a whole. Legislation Governing the Australian Workplaces Australian workplace is governed by fair Work Act which aims to provide the organization with certain rights in workplace along with right to engage with industrial activities. The protection ensures employees that they are free from coercion, adverse action, misrepresentation with respect to the rights. An employee is also protected against adverse action which might be based on discriminatory grounds. The Fair Work Act of 2009 provide organization with rights such as Workplace rights Right to engage themselves into industrial activities Free from unlawful discrimination Free from undue influence (Fair Work Ombudsman, 2012). Industrial Instrument Industrial instrument refers to legal application with minimum entitlements for employees who are covered within the scope. Fair work act has introduced modern awards along with enterprise agreements as modern industrial instrument. Pre reform awards and notional agreements have been displaced by modern awards (Workplace Info, 2012). The organization will adopt the modern award as a part of its industrial policy and procedure. The employees of the organization through the modern award are covered through “national workplace relation.” Modern award also contains transitional agreement and it may deal in minimum wages, casual loading, penalties and shift allowance or penalties. Employees who are covered by national workplace relation system includes constitutional corporation, employees who are employed in Victoria, common wealth, sole trader, partnership in Queensland, Wales, Tasmania and South Australia. From 2010 January most of the workplace has implemented modern awards which means that there has been changes for most of the employees. However the changes vary from state, employer and industry. Under the Fair Work Act of 2009, any breach of term in relation to modern award will result in penalties of $6,600 in case of individuals and $33,000 for organizations (Fair Work Ombudsman-a, 2012). Grievances and Disputes Grievances and disputes are common which are most likely to take place in an organization and it become necessary for the management to take effective steps in order to deal with grievances and disputes in an organization. In an organization there exist various forms of grievances such as individual grievances, group grievance and also policy grievance. Grievance might result from various factors like improper working condition, discipline, irrational policies by the management like overtime, hours of work and others, job posting along with seniority. Thus to handle grievance and disputes in organization the management should follow the following steps, Informal Discussion: Before grievance takes a bigger form employee should discuss the issue with the supervisor and if handle effectively grievance can be solved at this stage itself. Training should be provided to managers so that grievance can be effectively managed and resolved in short span of time. Acknowledgement of Grievance: It is important for managers to acknowledge grievance which are presented by employees as it represents true and real feelings of the workers. the manager should be eager to handle the issue effectively and without any bias creating a work environment where grievance are minimum. Gathering facts: It is the prime responsibility of the manager to gather sufficient and appropriate facts which explains the reason behind grievance. Such facts will help to solve disputes at a later stage of redressal when the issue of grievance is solved in a formal manner. Examine the reason for grievance: it is necessary to examine the exact cause for which grievance has occurred in the organization. Once the cause is identified, remedial actions should be implemented so that further repetition of grievance is avoided. In addition alternative cause should be identified so that grievance can be handled more effectively. Review and Execution: The manager should try to execute the decisions quickly so that the issue gets solved and after implementing the decision follow up should take place in order to ensure that grievance has been resolved adequately and completely. Conclusion Therefore it can be concluded that industrial relations tends to form an important part of the organization and human resource management as a whole. Good industrial relation tends to motivate the employee and also retains them and gaining a competitive advantage over other firms. Reference Acubis, No Date. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS POLICY. [Pdf]. Available at: < http://www.acubis.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Industrial-Relations-Policy.pdf> [Accessed 3 October 2012]. Fair Work Ombudsman, 2012. Workplace laws go national fact sheet. [Online]. Available at: < http://www.fairwork.gov.au/resources/fact-sheets/conditions-of-employment/Pages/workplace-laws-go-national-fact-sheet.aspx> [Accessed 3 October 2012]. Fair Work Ombudsman-a, 2012. Modern awards. [Online]. Available at: < http://www.fairwork.gov.au/awards/modern-awards/pages/what-is-in-a-modern-award.aspx> [Accessed 3 October 2012]. Gardner, M. & Palmer, G., 1997. Employment Relations. Macmillan Education AU. Mahmood, Z., 2012. Globalization, Policy Convergence and Labour Market Reform: The political economy of reform. [Online]. Available at: < http://soas.academia.edu/ZaadMahmood/Papers/150241/Globalisation_Policy_Convergence_and_Labour_Market_Reform_The_political_economy_of_reform> [Accessed 3 October 2012]. UnionTeach, 2003. Factsheet. [Online]. Available at: < http://www.labor.net.au/teach/3_factsheets/index.html> [Accessed 3 October 2012]. Workplace info, 2012. Industrial instrument. [Online]. Available at: < http://www.workplaceinfo.com.au/resources/employment-topics-a-z/industrial-instrument> [Accessed 3 October 2012]. Read More