Industrial Relations
Chapter 7
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The term 'industrial relations' refers to the collective relations between employers and employees as a group and underscores the importance of compromise and accommodation in resolving disputes between labour and management.
Features
- Employer-employee interactions
- Web of rules
- Multidimensional
- Dynamic and changing
- Spirit of compromise and accommodation
- Government's role
- Wide coverage
- Interactive and consultative in nature
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Major factors influencing industrial relations
- Institutional factors: These factors include government regulation, labour policy, collective agreements, employee courts, employer federations, social institutions like community, joint family, creed, system of beliefs, attitudes of workers, system of power, status, etc.
- Economic factors: These factors include organisations like capitalist communist mixed etc., the structure of labour force, demand for and supply of labour force, etc.
- Technological factors: These factors include mechanisation, automation, rationalisation, computerisation etc.
major influences
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Objectives of industrial relations
Enhance the economic position of the workers.
- Minimise conflicts and to the extent possible avoid conflicts and their negative consequences.
- Allow workers to have a say in important decisions affecting their lives.
- Resolve knotty issues through consultation and negotiation.
- Encourage and develop trade unions in order to improve the workers' collective strength.
- Pave the way for industrial democracy.
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Approaches To Industrial Relations
There are five approaches to study industrial relations, namely:
- Psychological approach
- Sociological approach
- Human relations approach
- Giri's approach
- Gandhian approach
- HRD approach
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The HRD approach recognises employees as invaluable assets in an organisation and emphasises that they can be developed to an unlimited extent with proper incentives, atmosphere and training.
Sound Industrial Relations:
Sound industrial relations are essential for industrial peace and improved productivity. Labour management relations enable the employer to secure cooperation and commitment from employees quite easily. It is not, however, easy to promote and maintain sound industrial relations. Certain conditions should exist for the maintenance of harmonious industrial relations:
- Existence of strong, well organised and democratic employees' unions
- Existence of sound and organised employers
- Spirit of collective bargaining and willingness to voluntary negotiations
- Maintenance of industrial peace
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Industrial Conflict: Forms And Causes
- Industrial conflicts constitute militant and organised protests against existing industrial conditions. They are symptoms of industrial unrest. The term 'industrial dispute' as described in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 is characterised by the following features
Features of the term 'industrial dispute'
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- There should be a difference or dispute.
- The dispute could be between employer-employer, employee-employee or employer-employee.
- The dispute must pertain to some employment related issue.
- The dispute must be raised by a group or class of workers. For example the dispute between one or two workers and their respective employer is not an industrial dispute.
Forms of Industrial Disputes
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Strikes: These are collective stoppages of work by workers.
- Sympathetic strike
- General strike
- Unofficial strike
- Sectional strike
- Bumper strike
- Sit down strike
- Slow down strike
- Lightning strike
- Hunger strike
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- Lock outs: Closing down of an undertaking or suspension of work or the refusal of an employer to continue to employ any number of persons employed by him is known as 'lock out'.
- Gherao: Gherao means to surround. In this a group of workers initiate collective action preventing members of the management from leaving the office.
- Picketing and Boycott: When picketing workers often carry or display signs, banners and prevent others from entering the place and persuade others to join the strike. Boycott aims at disrupting the normal functioning of an Organisation.
Causes of Industrial Disputes
- Employment-related
- Nationalisation
- Administration-related
- Recognition as a bargaining agent
- Sympathetic strikes
- Psychological and social issues
- Institutional causes
- Political causes
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Machinery For The Settlement of Industrial Disputes In India
- When the relationship between the parties is not cordial, discontentment develops and conflicts erupt abruptly. It is not always easy to put out the fire with the existing dispute-settlement machinery, created by the government. Hence both labour and management appreciate the importance of openness, trust and collaboration in their day-to-day dealings.
Machinery for prevention and settlement of disputes
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Voluntary Methods
- Collective Bargaining
- Trade Unions
- Joint consultations
- Standing Orders
- Grievance Procedure
- Code of Discipline
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Government Machinery
- Labour Administration Machinery
- State Level
- Central Level
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Statutory
- Works Committees
- Conciliation
Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
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State Acts
- Arbitration
- Adjudication
- Labour court
- Industrial tribunal
- National tribunal
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Works committees: As per the Industrial Disputes Act, works committees have to be set up in all those industrial units which employ 100 or more persons. It is basically a consultative body.
- Giving greater participation to workers
- Ensuring close interaction between labour and management
- Generating cooperative atmosphere for negotiation between parties
- Opening the doors to unions to have a clear view of what is going on within the unit
- Strengthening the spirit of voluntary settlement of disputes
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Joint Management Councils: The JMC normally consists of an equal number of representatives of workers and employers looking after three things: information sharing, consultation and administrative matters relating to welfare, safety, training and the formulation of standing orders. (of course, without encroaching on the jurisdiction of works committees)
Standing orders: These are the rules and regulations which govern the conditions of employment of workers. The Industrial Employment (standing orders) Act of 1946 provides for the framing of standing orders in all industrial undertakings employing 100 or more workers.
Grievance procedure: A model grievance procedure as suggested by the Indian Labour Conference in 1958 has more or less been widely accepted in India now.
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Code of discipline: It consists of a set of self-imposed obligations voluntarily formulated by the central organisation of workers and employers.
Industrial Disputes: Settlement Machinery
Conciliation: The practice by which the services of a neutral party are used in a dispute as a means of helping the disputing parties to reduce the extent of their differences and arrive at an amicable settlement or agreed solution.
- Conciliation officer: an authority appointed by the government to mediate disputes between parties brought to his notice with the powers of a civil court. He is supposed to give judgement within 14 days of the commencement of the conciliation proceedings.
- Board of conciliation: The Board is an adhoc, tripartite body with the powers of a civil court created for a specific dispute (if the conciliation officer fails to resolve disputes within a time, the board is appointed)
- Court of enquiry: In case the conciliation proceedings fail to resolve a dispute, a court of enquiry is constituted by the government to investigate the dispute and submit the report within six months.
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Voluntary arbitration: It is the process in which the disputing parties show willingness to appoint an arbitrator (a third party) and submit to his decision voluntarily.
Adjudication: It is the process of settling disputes compulsorily through the intervention of a third party appointed by the Government. The Industrial Disputes Act provides a three-tier adjudication machinery consisting of:
- Labour court
- Industrial tribunal
- National tribunal
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Collective Bargaining
- The basic objective of collective bargaining is to arrive at an agreement on wages and other conditions of employment. Both labour and management must reconcile their differences voluntarily through negotiations, yielding some concessions and making sacrifices in the process. Some of the important features of collective bargaining may be listed
Important features of Collective Bargaining
- Collective
- Strength
- Flexible
- Voluntary
- Continuous
- Dynamic
- Power relationship
- Representation
- Bipartite process
- complex
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Objectives of collective bargaining
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- resolve differences over knotty issues
- protect the interests of workers through collective action
- carry out negotiations voluntarily, without interference from a third party
- arrive at an amicable agreement through a process of give and take
The substance of bargaining
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- Wages and working conditions
- Work norms
- Incentive payments
- Job security
- Changes in technology
- Work tools, techniques and practices
- Staff transfers and promotions
- Grievances
- Disciplinary matters
- Health and safety
- Insurance and benefits
- Union recognition
- Union activities/responsibilities
- Management rights
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Types of Bargaining
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Over the years, four distinctive types of bargaining have evolved, namely;
- Conjunctive or distributive bargaining: where both parties try to maximise their respective gains
- Cooperative bargaining: where both parties give some ground to the other to get ahead and resolve the issues
- Productivity bargaining: where the wages and earnings of workers are linked to productivity
- Composite bargaining: where labour bargains not only for wages but goes a step further and demands improvements in other matters relating to work norms, employment levels, etc in return for agreeing to accept tight productivity norms set by management
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The Process of Collective Bargaining
- Identification of the problem
- Collection of data
- Selection of negotiators
- Climate of negotiations
- Bargaining strategy and tactics
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- Conflict based
- Armed truce
- Power bargaining
- Accommodation
- Cooperation
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- Formalising the agreement
- Enforcing the agreement
Bargaining limits
Reed Richardson has the following advice for bargainers:
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- Be sure to set clear objectives for every bargaining item, and be sure you understand the other party's.
- Do not hurry.
- When in doubt, caucus with your associates.
- Be well prepared with firm data supporting your position.
- Always strive to keep some flexibility in your position.
- Don't concern yourself just with what the other party says and does; find out why.
- Respect the importance for face saving for the other party.
- Be alert to the real intentions of the other party-not only for goals, but also for priorities.
- Be a good listener.
- Build a reputation for being fair but firm.
- Learn to control your emotions and use them as a tool.
- As you make each bargaining move, be sure you know its relationship to all other moves.
- Measure each move against your objectives.
- Pay close attention to the wording of every clause negotiated; they are often a source of trouble.
- Remember that collective bargaining is a compromise process; There is no such thing as getting everything you want.
- Try to understand people and their personalities.
- Consider the impact of present negotiations on those in future years.
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Collective Bargaining In India
- Unions occupying centre stage only after independence
- Mostly legal machinery used to resolve disputes
- After independence, collective bargaining gained ground
- Productivity bargaining is increasingly popular in recent times due to global competition, customer-focused manufacturing and marketing, etc.
- Factors inhibiting collective bargaining
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Employer's reluctance
Weak unions
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Inappropriate legislative framework
current issues and future challenges
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