Part 1 Flashcards
Collective Bargaining
Negotiation for the needs of the wider group
- Key players: employees, unions, employer
Employment Relations
Refers to the interaction, connection, issues and concerns shared between an employee and an employer
Industrial Relations changed to term…
Employment Relations
Change in terms was done because
Employment relations shift the focus from just disputes between unions and employers to a focus on the needs of the employee- highlighting them as the main focus of the relations
Eg of trade unions
Jamaica Medical Doctors Association (JMDA)
The Police Federation,
The Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA), Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ)
and the umbrella Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU)
Interests of Workers
The pursuit of higher pay
Job security
Career Progression
Training
Employer Interests
the pursuit of profitability by attempting to secure greater productivity from employees
efficiency
Further, the employee relationship is often characterised by the conflict of worker and employer interests which may result in industrial disputes.
True
Scenario- Employed to work in Jamaica, you can work remotely one day a week, but went somewhere else to work as well. This is a _______
Breach of contract
Two ways in which employment relationship is formalized
Employment Contract: specifies the duties of the workers in return for payment.
The worker submits himself /herself
to the authority of the employer.
- Blyton and Turnbull express it:
“The employment relationship is necessarily on
AUTHORITY RELATIONSHIP between, the super and subordinate where the employee agrees to accept and follow the REASONABLE” instructions of those in positions of authority
The employment relationship is characterised by
continuous dynamic open - ended nature whereby
employers, e.g., are in a position through the exercise of
their managerial perogative or their rights to determine
and redefine employee obligations and duties in
relations to job content and work effort.
It is also characterised by
power relationship between
employer and worker
In essence, the employment relationship
comprises two aspects:
FIRSTLY, workers organise themselves
collectively by joining TU’s since collectively
workers have greater power than individuals.
SECONDLY, there is the power of the employer ( power, in this context, means the extent to which one party to a relationship can compel the other party to do something he /she otherwise would not do voluntarily) over the worker whereby the former seeks to achieve the
compliance to the organisation of the latter.
The arbitrary exercise of power by the
employer may engender employee resistance
and result in________
Conflict
A traditional approach to employment and
industrial relations has been to regard it as
s “the
study of the rules governing employment, and
the ways in which the rules are changed
interpreted and administered
Trades unions, management, employers’ associations
and the government are all concerned with regulating
the terms and within the work context. Allan Flanders, Industrial Relations: What is wrong
with the System, London Faber 1965 argued that work
is governed by a mass of rules and regulations covering :
criteria for recruitment
effort
performance
pay
hour
holidays and
numerous other details of employment
According to this traditional approach the primary
focus of industrial relations tended to be upon:
the
institutions which take part in
rule making
the processes of interaction between the parties
the rules which result there -from
Ultimately it is managers who attempt to enforce the
rules, and the extent to which the rules are applied
depends upon the procedures such as those
governing
discipline or
equal opportunities;
whether a union is recognized for purposes of
representing employees and
the enforcement of legislation governing
employment protection.
Employment and industrial relations operate at FOUR main
levels
FIRSTLY, The level of the workplace, office or factory- Conversation between individual employee and employer. Usually about pay
SECONDLY, That of the organisation.- At this level, the larger unionised private sector organisation conduct important negotiations concerning contract implementation and hours of work for their manual and non-manual employee
THE THIRD LEVEL is the industry or national level.- In the sugar industry, for example the Sugar Producers’
Federation, registered under the Trade Union Act,
represents employer interests in its relations with the
trades unions, negotiates and concludes agreements
relating to wages, hours and other conditions of
employments.
The FOURTH LEVEL is what we may call SOCIETAL. A great deal of industrial relations is concerned with how wider societal factors such as
class
property ownership
political ideologies
economic variables
To use broadly the concept expoused by Gospel and Palmer op.cit .p.3. and somewhat modified.
“The employment relationship is an economic legal, social psychological and
political relationship in which employees
devote their time and expertise to the
interests of the employer in return for a range
of personal financial and non- financial
rewards.”
The final aspect is concerned with issues in
industrial relations. There are mainly two
such issues
substantive issues
procedural issues
Substantive issues cover the details of the reward - effort
exchange and include:
pay
holidays
overtime arrangements
fringe benefits e.g.
pensions
company equipment and resources
training
promotion
PROCEDURAL ISSUES focus upon the question of HOW the substantive issues are decided and deal with the following questions.
What people or groups control the
substantive issues and decisions?
Are the decisions to be taken unilaterally by
the employer or jointly by the employer and
employees?
What rules should the state lay down in
legislation
What procedures should jointly be
unilaterally determined? Should an
organization have to regulate to industrial
relations?
With these broad considerations a
definition of employment relations may be
arrived at:
Employment relations is the study of the
regulation of the employment relationship between the employer and the employee,
both collectively and individually, and the
determination of substantive and procedural
issues at the industrial, organisational and
workforce level
Two contrasting views have dominated
employee relations writing in the last 40
years since they were conceptualised by
Alan Fox
UNITARISM and PLURALISM
UNITARISM
a way of thinking about the
organisation as “a team unified by a common purpose.”
