industrial relations
TRANSCRIPT
Industrial relation means the relationship between
employers and employees in course of employment in
industrial organizations.
Industrial relation is used to denote the collective
relationships between management and the worker.
IR is used to cover such aspects of industrial life as trade
unionism, collective bargaining, workers participation in
management , discipline and industrial disputes.
Definition: According to J.T. Dunlop, “Industrial relations are
the complex interrelations among managers, workers and
agencies of the government”
CONCEPT OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
• The understanding between employees and management in
an industrial organisation is commonly called industrial
relations.
• According to “Dale Yoder, IR is a designation of a whole field
of relationship that exists because of the necessary
collaboration of men and women in the employment
processes of industry”.
• “IR is concerned with the systems and procedures used by
unions and employers to determine the reward for effort and
other conditions of employment, to protect the interests of the
employed and their employers and to regulate the ways in
which employers treat their employees.”
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CONCEPT OF INDUSTRIAL
RELATIONS
• IR can be defined as a coin having two faces: co-
operation and conflict. This relationship undergoes
starting with co-operation soon changes into conflict
and after its resolution again changes into co-
operation. This changing process becomes a
continuous feature in industrial system and makes
IR concept as dynamic and evolving one.
Evolution of IR In India :Pre-
Independence :
• Hired and Fired
• Poor Employment wages
• Due to strikes and disturbances, government
enacted the Trade Dispute Act, 1929. (based on
British Industrial Court Act 1919. but there was no
machinery for settling dispute.)
• In 1938, Bombay government enacted Bombay
Industrial relations Act. First time with machinery
(Industrial court)
IR in Post-Independence
period
Enactment for Industrial Dispute Act, 1947.
Setting up of Indian Labour Conference (ILO), a
tripartite body to look into IR problems in India. (co-
operation between government, labour and
organization)
Many Labour Laws enacted to protect industrial
workerduring 1947 to 1956.
In 1956 emphasis shifted from legal enactment to
voluntary arrangements
• Establishment of work committees, joint
management councils, recognition of
unions,worker’s participation schemes
• 1966,National Commission of labor was appointed
by the government to look into labor matters and
make recommendations. It submitted the report in
1969. The recommendations were never
implemented though few were in the implementation
stage.
• A conference called the Industrial Truce Resolution
took place in 1947, and foresaw the establishment
of the Minimum Wages Act, Factories Act, and
Employees State Insurance Act in 1948. This
ensured peace between labor and industry.
MAIN ASPECTS OF
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Promotion and development of healthy labor-
management relations.
Maintenance of industrial peace and avoidance of
industrial conflict.
Development and growth of industrial democracy.
SCOPE OF INDUSTRIAL
RELATIONS
Labour relations, i.e. relations between labour union
and management.
Employer- employee relations,i.e. relations between
management and employees.
The role of various parties in maintaining industrial
relations.
The mechanisms of handling conflicts between
employers and employees, in case conflicts arises.
OBJECTIVES OF
INUSTRIAL RELATIONS
• Establish and foster sound relationship between
workers and management by safeguarding their
interests.
• Avoid industrial conflicts and strikes by developing
mutuality among the interests of concerned
parties.
• Keep, as far as possible, strikes, lockouts at bay by
enhancing the economic status of workers.
OBJECTIVES OF IR
• Provide an opportunity to the workers to participate
in management and decision making process.
• Raise productivity in the organization to curb the
employee turnover and absenteeism.
• To improve the bargaining capacity of the workers
through trade unions.
• To ensure discipline in the organization and in the
industry.
• Improvement of economic conditions of workers.
OBJECTIVES OF IR
• To safeguard the interests of the labor and the
management by preventing one of the players from
getting a strong hold over the other.
• To develop & Secure mutual understanding & good
relationships among all the players in the industrial
set-up.
• To maintain industrial peace & harmony by
preventing industrial conflicts.
OBJECTIVES OF IR
• To improve the standard of living of the average
worker by providing basic and standard amenities.
• To increase productivity by minimizing industrial
conflicts and maintaining harmonious industrial
relations.
• To provide a basic framework for the management &
the employees to resolve their differences.
IMPORTANCE OF IR
Foster industrial peace.
Promote industrial democracy.
Benefit to workers.
Benefit to management.
Improve productivity.
UNITARY APPROACH
• UNITARY APPROACH is grounded in mutual
cooperation, individual treatment, team work and
shared goals.
• Work place conflict is seen as temporary aberration,
resulting from poor management. Employees who
do not mix well with organization culture Unions
cooperate with the management.
• Management’s right to manage is accepted because
there is no ‘we they” feeling Underlying assumption
is that everyone benefits when the focus is on
common interest and promotion of harmony Based
on reactive strategy.
Pluralist Approach
• The pluralist approach was developed in the USA by
John T commons.
• PLURALISM(CONFLICT APPROACH )Pluralism is
belief in the existence of more than one ruling
principle, giving rise to a conflict of interests.
• The pluralist approach to IR accepts conflict
between management and workers as inevitable but
compromised through various institutional
arrangements ( like collective bargaining,
conciliation and arbitration etc) and is in fact
considered essential for innovation and growth.
• It perceives organizations as coalitions of competing
interests , where the management’s role is to
mediate among the different interest groups.
• It perceives trade unions as legitimate
representative of employee interests It also
perceives stability in IR as the product of
concessions and compromises between
management and unions
MARXIST APPROACH
• MARXIST APPROACH Marxists like pluralists also
regard conflict as inevitable but see it as a product
of capitalistic society where as pluralist believe that
the conflict is inevitable in all organizations
• For Marxists IR has wider meaning. For them
conflict arises not because of rift between
management and workers but because of the
division in the society between those who own
resources and those who have only labor to offer.
• Marxist approach thus focuses on the type of society
in which an organization functions.
• Industrial conflict is thus equated with political and
social unrest. Trade Unions are seen both as labor
reaction to exploitation by capitalists, as- well-as a
weapon to bring about a revolutionary social
change.
Systems approach
• The system approach was developed by Dunlop of
Harvard University in 1958.
• According to this approach, individuals are part of an
ongoing but independent social system.
• The behaviour, actions and role of the individuals
are shaped by the cultures of the society.
• The three elements of the system approach are
input, process and output.
• Society provides the cue (signal) to the individuals
about how one should act in a situation.
• The institutions, the value system and other
characteristics of the society influence the process
and determine the outcome or response of the
individuals. The basis of this theory is that group
cohesiveness is provided by the common ideology
shaped by the societal factors.
Dunlop’s Systems Approach
INPUTS
Actors
(Employees, Employers,
State)
Context
(Tech,Market,Power
Indeology)
PROCESSES
Bargaining
Conciliation
Arbitration
Adjudication
Legislation
OUTPUT
Rules
Feedback
CONFRONTING CHALLENGES
FACED BY IR
NATURE OF WORK
DISSATISFACTORY COMPENSATION
AND WORK CONDITIONS
DYFUNCTIONAL TRADE UNIONS
EMPLOYER FLEXIBILITY
NON CONDUCIVE ORGANISATIONAL
CLIMATE
NATURE OF WORK
• A good work i.e., work interesting to the employee fosters
good IR. This result in job satisfaction. On contrary, a
work not interesting to the employee breeds bad or poor
IR.
DISSATISFACTORY
COMPENSATION
• Employees works for compensation i.e., wages and
salaries. Often, compensation as low and working
conditions as poor viewed by employees become an
important reason for poor IR. This worsen relationship
between employees and management.
NON CONDUCIVE
ORGANISATIONAL CLIMATE
A conducive an supporting organizational climate helps
employees integrate themselves with organization and
enjoy a feeling of confidence and the opposite creates
mistrust between employees and organization.
EMPLOYERS FLEXIBILITY
In general, the requirements of modern business include
more flexible management and work organization,
focusing on creating a smarter and more motivated work
force and culturally sensitive management techniques
DYFUNCTIONAL TRADE
UNIONS
• Trade unions are meant to protect the interests of its
members. The unions are used as a means to serve the
purposes of a few leaders rather than working in the wider
interest of the employees.
HOW TO BUILD SOUND IR
• Developing Trust Between Labor and Management
• Existence of Sound and Democratic Trade Unions
• Maintenance of Industrial Peace
• Continuous Feedback and Monitoring
• Professional Approach
NEED FOR INTEGRATED
SYSTEMS
• There is need for an integrated systems approach which
would emphasis a direct relationship between the
personnel management and industrial relations sub-
systems and objectives of the company. The day to day
individual and collective grievances negotiations with
unions at shop level is like an effective preventive
maintenance system which should be the principal
ingredient of any industrial policy.
NEED FOR INTEGRATED
SYSTEMS
• This in turn will determine the firm` s ability to handle
periodic and non- recurring crises, whether in the shape of
work stoppages, strikes or wage disputes. In a democracy,
there are and there have to be situations involving friction
and even conflict, but an enlightened manager and a
responsible union will work out systems to resolve such
situations and conflicts.
Key Concepts in IR
• Collective Bargaining
• The ILO Defines
• Voluntary negotiation between employers or
employers’ organizations and workers’
organizations, with a view to the regulation of terms
and conditions of employment by collective
agreements.
Strike
• Collective suspension of work, agreed upon by a
number of workers with the purpose of reaching a
certain end.
Lock-Out
• The temporary closing of a place of employment, or
the suspension of work, or the refusal by an
employer to continue to employ any number of
persons employed by him.» As per the industrial dispute act 1947
Recognition of Trade Union
• An organization have many registered trade unions
but the recognition of the union is decided by the
employer. The word recognition is not motioned in
the Trade Union Act 1926. Law is silent about it.
• But for healthy IR, employer should recognize TU
and negotiate with them