Employment Relationship and Employer Representation - Case Study Example

Industrial Relation Management Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name Outline Introduction The Employment Relationship Employer Representation Employee Representation Government and Industrial Relations References Introduction Industrial relations refer to the state-regulated interaction between representatives of employers and employees in pursuit of respective objectives. There are mainly three parties involved in Industrial relations which include; employers/management, employees/labour unions and the Government. Each of these has a big role to play and they work hand in hand to facilitate better industrial relation in the society (Dunlop 2001). The employers and employees have various objectives that they need to fulfil to ensure harmony and fairness in industrial relations. The employers/management objective is to provide organizational growth for maximum profitability for the firm. Their objective is also to improve the efficiency in work and encourage invention and innovation to increase productivity and investment (Riley 2008). Finally their overall objective is to achieve national and international competitiveness in the field. The employees/trade unions too have objectives of their own which are slightly different from their employers. They ensure improved working conditions and maintenance of decent wages and salaries for employees. More so they guarantee job security for their members and insist on being part of the decision making process of organisations. Finally they advocate for training opportunities and career progression for the employees (Kelly 2003). These objectives are vital for all industrial stakeholders and thus legislation has to be put in place to handle the industrial relations for the benefit of everybody. The Employment Relationship The employment relationship is the basis of industrial relations. The employers are responsible for the purchase of labour powers of the employees along with the potential intellectual and physical power. The management converts this potential into effective work for the purpose of increased revenue from the sales of the end products they produce (Kelly 2002). The employment relationship is normally affected when there is a dispute over where the boundary of control should be between the employers and employees. In such situations the government steps in to become the arbitrator, this is done through legislation which is used to accommodate the differences and similarities between unions and employers (Cieri 2007). Before the 1980’s government had presence in industrial relations but it was later left to the institutional parties as governed in the Australian constitution. According to Alexander (2008, p.65), several past governments have come up with legislation aimed at improving industrial relations, such legislation include the 1980’s legislation by the ALP and Liberal governments which encouraged shift to enterprise-based bargaining from centralised wage system. But further legislation was made by the John Howard government encouraged more individual agreements between employers and employees, these move derailed the involvement of unions and arbitration tribunals in labour movement (Janice 2002). By 2008 with the increase in individualism in employment relations, the ALP government which had taken power saw the need to increase importance of unions, tribunals and awards under the Fair Work Act 2009. The above legislations have shifted the relations of employers, employees and the government in controlling industrial relations. With increased threat from individual agreements, labour unions have reformed to accommodate changes in relations with employees with introduction of more unions which cater for specific industries. Conflicts in industrial relations are caused by very many reasons. The management of a firm for instance may introduce new technology that may render a significant number of employees redundant causing them to lose their jobs. Disputes may also arise when the national employer fail to agree with trade unions over the minimum wage that should be set up for employees in a particular organization. The interpretation of agreements between parties involved is also a common cause of conflict in industrial relation (Wooden 2002). Industrial relations may also be affected by disputes between two unions on whether which one should enrol certain employees as part of their members or not. The changes in legislation have had a major effect in industrial relations with more improved working relations between employers and employees with involvement of the government. Elements that promote good industrial relations in a society include decentralized system of management ensures that power does not remain in the hands of the management, but also the employees get to have a say in the decision making process (Dunlop 2001). This helps to reduce the potential backlash between the two parties that helps in encouraging better industrial relations. Other elements include equity and fairness, grievance procedure and the role of the government as a third party intervention in dispute resolution. Employee Representation Employee representation is an important factor in developing and maintaining industrial relations between all stakeholders in the labour market. In the employment relationship, the bargaining power is often determined by the state of the labour market. When there are more labourers in the market employees get less bargaining power because employers will always have the alternative of hiring other workers if the current ones feel aggrieved (Riley 2008). On the other hand employees gain more bargaining power when there are fewer labourers in the market, the diverse nature of employment opportunities need to be looked at since in a scenario where more specialised labour is required employees can easily bargain with their employers on working terms. The art of collectivism in industrial relations has created a lot contention in industrial relations since individualism has gained more prominence. Human resource and union actions are important in promoting good industrial relations; human resource focuses more on the need to build individual commitment by the employee. Collective responsibility by trade unions defines actions that are needed to be counter balance the interests of the management. Trade unions are the most common form of employee representation today because they advocate for the freedom of association for the employees and also advocate for better working conditions along with better wages and salaries for their members (Kelly 2003). Indeed trade unions have made tremendous gains in advocating for employee rights in the last century. Trade unions have advocated for equal pay, maternity leave and reasonable working hours as some of their demands which have been met in the 1980’s. Family and work relations including issues of equal pay have been resolved through the participation of trade unions. However trade union membership has significantly dropped in recent years, there are many reasons that explain this shocking statistics one of them is changes in the labour market which has shifted the focus of employment to increased informal and part time jobs. This makes it hard for such workers to join trade unions causing a significant drop in membership (Cieri 2007). More so, there has been industry shake-up which has downplayed the importance tradition of unionized industry hence many discourage their members from registering with them. Other reasons for the significant drop are because many trade unions officials have over the years been less involved in fighting for the rights of employees but rather think of their own individual interest. During the 1980’s when the unions were quite popular their structures and aims were to create better unions to cater for the needs of their members. In the 1990’s the unions were quite active in fighting for the rights of workers through training strategies and organising work strategies for their members (Alexander 2008). Despite their downward trend, trade unions have an important role to play in the society. In the last decade trade unions have achieved a lot in creating better working conditions for their members, for example in 2003 they organised collectivism in new work sites such as call centres and their campaigns such as ‘Your Rights at Work’ mobilised more than 3 million workers in demanding for better working conditions. The latest move for trade unions is to inform young workers of their rights, paid maternity leave and ensuring equal pay for workers in the community (Riley 2007). There are other alternative representation of employees that include individual and collective representation. Industrial advocates, individual representation, society representatives, government services and bargaining agents, whereas collective representation include representation of employees who are not in unions. Employer Representation Employers have a complex set of roles to play and they operate at different levels in an organization. Their responsibility is setting and ensuring implementation of the aims and objectives of the organization. Employers have their own different employers’ associations, industry associations and umbrella association where the former represents members of a particular industry while the latter represents members of different industries. Their principle aim is to cater for the interests of member organization. Employers are represented by senior management in their relations with employees and the government. By enacting the Workplace Relations Act, employers have been able to come up with a framework of maintaining industrial relationship through employer to employee negotiations. This legislation has created different associations to deal with members from different industries, the duties of the associations is to deal with health of the employees, training and education and submission of their duties to the government (Wooden 2002). Top executives in Australia formed peak employer bodies which looked at the rights of employers and employees and recognised the right of workers to enter into contracts with employers through direct negotiations. Industrial relations has influenced a range of factors including culture at the workplace, approaches to management and improved communication between employers and employees (Riley 2008). Legislative reforms have also made industrial relations more flexible with employers achieving all they want by the introduction of the fair work act. Government and Industrial Relations The powers of the government is vested in the constitution which is has three arms; the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. The three arms are very important as far as industrial relations is concerned which makes the government a major party in the relationship. The role of government as an employer, administrator of industrial relations policies and as a social manger is vested in the constitution in Australia (Dunlop 2001). Through the legislature the government comes with laws which are used in governing commerce and industry under section 51 of the constitution. Since legislation does not remain static several laws relating to industrial relations have been made by several consequent governments. Laws such as the Industrial Relations Act 1988, Workplace Relations Act 1996 and Fair Work Act 2009, were meant to improve workers relation at the workplace. Government role as a social manger is to ensure inflation and unemployment levels are well managed while its administration role ensures that industrial relations are maintained through their various governmental bodies (Alexander 2008). The judicial system is Australia is used to solve industrial cases involving different parties and it also has a role of interpreting and enforcing laws in relation to industrial relations as a vested government duty. Conclusion As analysed in this paper, Industrial relation refers to the state-regulated interaction which is usually between employer and employees. The reason for this interaction is basically to achieve a common and understanding goal in the workplace. It has been shown that employees have their trade unions while employers also have their relationship union that unifies them when pursuing their objectives especially to the authority such as the government. The interaction between government, trade unions, employers and employees has ensured better legislation and understanding in improving industrial relations for all stakeholders (Kelly 2002). Continued partnership between these stakeholders is paramount in establishing, promoting and maintaining industrial relations in the society. References Alexander, R, Lewre, J & Gahan, P 2008, Understanding Australian Industrial Relations, 7th edn, Thomson, Melbourne. Cieri, HD 2007, Human resource management in Australia: strategy, people, performance, McGraw-Hill Australia, Melbourne. Dunlop, J T 2001, Industrial Relations Systems, Henry Holt, Canberra. Janice, CY 2002, Initial and Long-Run Performance of Mining IPOs in Australia, Australian Journal of Management, Canberra. Kelly, D 2003, Researching industrial relations, Federation Press, Canberra. Kelly, JE 2002, Industrial relations: critical perspectives on business and management, Routledge, Thousand Oaks. Riley, J & Sheldon, P 2008, Remaking Australian Industrial Relations CCH Australia Limited, Sydney. Wooden, M 2002, The transformation of Australian industrial relations, Federation Press, Routledge, Thousand Oaks. Read More