Employee relationships. Flashcards
Why are employee -employer relationships important?
Both sided need each other - employers need hardworking staff for good contributions of products. Employees need secure incomes for their lives.
- A successful relationship maximises cooperation potential and minimises conflict potential; built on good trust and culture between the two groups.
- A good relationship is mutually beneficial - can increase motivation and productivity thus profits.
How do employers treat individual employees? What is individual bargaining and where is it used?
They should be treated as individuals for some reasons, for example with individual bargaining both sides must know each other. Individual bargaining for pay allows employers to chose what they pay individuals usually based on their perceived value - this can provide financial incentives to work hard. This also applies to working arrangements and based on personal circumstances (young children working from home).
What is collective bargaining? What are trade unions.
This is when a group of employees is represented by workforce representatives who negotiate with employers about issues such as pay and working conditions.
- This is often in the form of trade unions who work in unison to strengthen employees bargaining power where they could not do so as the employer relies on the collective to operate.
What can TUs do to help employees?
They can take action in the workplace to protect workers or improve conditions and pay and protect workers from unfair dismissal.
They can also act at national levels by lobbying governments to bring in legislation to serve the interests of the TU members. They could increase pensions, NMW and redundancy payments for example.
