INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

The concept of industrial relations means the relationship between employees and management in the day-to-day working of an industry. But the concept has a wide meaning. When taken in the wider sense, industrial relations is a set of functional independence involving historical, economic, social, psychological, demographic, technological, occupational, political and legal variables.

The concept of industrial relations has been extended to denote the relations of the state with employers, workers, and their organisations. The subject therefore includes industrial relations and joint consultations between employers and work people at their work place, collective relations between employers and their organizations and trade union and part played by the State in regulating these relations.

Industrial Relation
IR can be defined as a government regulated
interaction between employer and their representative. According to Dale Yoder IR is a relationship between management and employees and their organizations, that characterize and grow out of employment. According to ILO, IR deal with either the relationships between the state and the employers and workers organization or the relation between the occupational organization themselves.

WHAT DO EMPLOYER WANT ?

1.Increase market share. 2.Acceptable return on profit. 3.Conduct an efficient organization

WHAT DO EMPLOYEES WANT ? 1. Earn best possible wage. 2. Secure and satisfying job. 3. To develop a career. 4. To be in a satisfying work group.

Common law duties of employer: 1. To pay the agreed wages. 2. To observe the agreed condition. 3. To provide a safe and healthy work place. 4. To treat employee reasonable. 5. Not to damage an employee reputation.

Common law duties of employees: 1. To obey the lawful instruction of employer. 2. To use reasonable skill and care in performance of his or her duty. 3. To keep the employment trade secret.

Employer/Management Objective: 1. Organizational growth and profitability. 2. Improving working efficiency. 3. Achieving international competitiveness. 4. New investment. 5. Encouraging innovation.

Employee/Union Objective: 1. Improving and maintaining wages and condition. 2. Job security. 3. Training opportunities. 4. Career Progression. 5. Participation in decision making.

FEATURES
1. Industrial relations are mainly the relations between employees and the employer. 2. Industrial relations are the outcome of the practice of human resource management and employment relations. 3. These relations emphasis on accommodating other partys interest, values and needs. Parties develop skills of adjusting to and cooperating with each other.

4. Industrial relations are governed by the system of rules and regulations concerning work place and working community. 5. The main purpose is to maintain harmonious relations between employees and employer by solving their problems though grievance procedure and collective bargaining. 6. The government and shapes industrial relations though industrial relations policies, rules, agreements, mediation, awards, acts etc.

7.Trade Union is another important institution in the industrial relations. Trade union influence and shape the industrial relations through collective bargaining. 8. Industrial relations develop the skills and methods of adjusting to and cooperating with each other. 9.The Government-involves to shape the industrial relations through laws, rules, agreements, awards etc.

10. The important factors of industrial relations are: employees and their organizations, employer and their associations and Government.

FACTORS OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

1. Institutional Factors: These factors include government policy, labour legislations, voluntary courts, collective agreement, employee courts, employers federations, social institutions like community, caste, joint family, creed, system of beliefs, attitudes of works, system of power status etc.

2. Economic Factors: These factors include economic organization, like capitalist, communist mixed etc., the structure of labour force, demand for supply of labour force etc.
3. Technological Factors: These factors include mechanization, automation, rationalization, and computerization.

4. Political Factors: These factors include political system in the country, political parties and their ideologies, their growth, mode of achievement of their policies, involvement in trade unions etc. 5. Social and Cultural Factors: These factors include population, religion, customs and tradition of people, race ethnic groups, cultures of various groups of people etc.

6. Governmental Factors: These factors include Governmental policies like industrial policy, economic policy, and labour policy, export policy etc.

THREE ACTORS OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS 1.Workers and their Organisations: The total worker plays an
important role in industrial relations. The total worker includes working age, educational background, family background, psychological factors, social background, culture, skills, attitude towards other workers etc. workers organizations prominently known as trade unions play their role more prominently in trade unions.

The main purpose of trade union is to protect the workers economic interest through collective bargaining and by bringing pressure on management through economic and political tactics. Trade union factors include leadership, finances, activities etc.

2.Employers and their organization: Employer is a crucial factor

in industrial relations. He employees the worker, pays the wages and various allowances, regulates the working relations through various rules, regulations and by enforcing labour laws. He expects the worker to follow the rules, regulations and laws. He further expects them to contribute their resources to the maximum. The difference between the demands of worker and employer results in industrial conflicts. Normally employers have higher bargaining power than workers.

But their bargaining power is undermined when compared that to trade unions. Employers from their organizations to equate (or excel) their bargaining power with that of trade unions. These organisations protect the interest of the employer by pressuring the trade unions and government.

3. Government:

Government plays a balancing role as a custodian of the nation. Governments exerts its influence on industrial relations through its labour policy, industrial relations policy, implementing labour laws, the process of conciliation and adjudication by playing the role of both employees organisation and employers organisation.

OBJECTIVES OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

1.To promote and develop congenial labour management relations; 2.To enhance the economic status of the worker by improving wages, benefits and by helping in evolving sound budget; 3.To regulate the production by minimizing industrial conflicts through state control; 4.To socialize industries by making the government as an employer;

5.To provide an opportunity to the workers to have a say in the management and decisionmaking; 6.To improves workers strength with a view to solve their problems through mutual negotiations and consultation with the management; 7.To encourage and develop trade unions in order to improve the workers strength; 8.To avoid industrial conflict and their consequences; 9.To extend and maintain industrial democracy.

FUNCTIONS OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

1.Communication is to be established between workers and the management in order to bridge the traditional gulf between the two. 2.To establish a rapport between managers and the managed. 3.To ensure creative contribution of trade unions to avoid industrial conflicts, to safeguard the interest of the workers on the one hand and the management on the other hand, to avoid unhealthy, unethical atmosphere in an industry.

4.To lay down such considerations which may promote understanding, creativity and cooperativeness to raise industrial productivity, to ensure better workers participation.
5.Good labour-management relations depend on employer and trade unions capacity to deal with their mutual problems freely, independently and responsibly.

6.The trade unions and the employers and their organisation should be interested in resolving their problems through collective bargaining and if necessary with the assistance of proper government agency. 7.Workers and employers organizations should be desirous of associating with government agencies taking into considerations with general, social, public and economic measures affecting employers and workers relations.

APPROACHES TO INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

1. Psychological Approach to Industrial Relations: According to psychologists, issues of industrial relations have their origin in the differences in the perceptions of management, unions and rank and file workers. The perpetual differences arise due to differences in personalities, attitudes, etc. Similarly factors like motivation, leadership, group goals versus individual goals etc., are responsible for industrial conflicts.

2.Sociological Approach to Industrial Relations: Industry is a social world in miniature. Organisations are communities of individual and groups with differing personalities, educational and family backgrounds, emotions, sentiments etc. These differences in individuals create problems of conflict and competition among the members of individual society.

3. Human Relations Approach to Industrial Relations: Human resources are made up of living beings but not machines. They need freedom of speech, of thought, of expression, of movement and of control over the timings. This approach implies that the relationship between employee and employer as between two human beings. The term human relations include the relationship during the out of employment situations.

1.Workers should seek redressal of reasonable demands through collective action. 2.Trade unions should decide to go on strike talking ballot authority from all workers and remain peaceful and use non- violent methods. 3.Workers should avoid strikes to the possible extent. 4.Strikes should be resorted to only as a last report. 5.Workers should avoid formation of unions in philanthropical organisation.