Trade Union recognition
According to Kelly (2002), a trade union is an external organization
with respect to a business enterprise. Further, it’s a separate social system
which isn’t part of its organizational social system, however the membership of
the two can overlap. Farnham (1997) further
explains that trade union strategy should point the ways in which unions adapt
their policies and objectives and in response to changing economic and social
factors, employer initiatives and the framework of public policy within which
employers and unions operate, they should adjust their means and methods.
They may participate in the making of internal rules either separately or
jointly with management as spokesmen of workgroups in the enterprise. Also,
they have a responsibility for enforcing its rules or the agreement that it has
entered into with employers as representatives of their union (Kelly, 2002). Two
main reasons why unions can fail to attract members are either because they
don’t deliver the goods and services that workers expect, or they are unable to
uphold the norm or social custom, which, in the absence of coercion, assures
that a sufficient number of workers share in the cost of producing these goods
and services (Visser, 2002). As per my own working experience, I have only been
included once in a trade union out of six places I have worked so far and most
of these new companies don’t have a trade union recognition as they are more
focused on individual needs.
Below chart is taken from the annual report done by Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy of UK Government on trade union statistics in the year 2019,
Below chart is taken from the annual report done by Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy of UK Government on trade union statistics in the year 2019,
Figure 3: Trade union
density by sector, 1995 to 2018
(GOV.UK, 2019)
According to this chart, there is a clear decline
of trade union membership over the years in both the private and public sectors.
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining will regulate the industrial relations system, as
explained by Flanders (1970) as a social process that ‘continually turns disagreements
into agreements in an orderly fashion’.Trade unions had steady growth through the first part of the twentieth
century along with employer recognition of trade unions and public policy
support for collective bargaining. Donovan Commission (1968:50) had a
conclusion that ‘collective bargaining is the best method of conducting
industrial relations’. Further, it is noted that multi-employer, industry-wide
bargaining was not capable of imposing its decisions on the participants. Therefore,
they recommended taking the initiative and responsibility for reforming
collective bargain at company and plant levels by that management (Farnham,1997).
My own experience is those collective bargaining methods are far more suitable
for both employers and employees to come to certain agreements and works well
being able to achieve expected results. Collective bargaining, and particularly
multi-employer bargaining persisted throughout the 1990s and early 2000s in an
almost inexorable decline. Further, according to WERS98, multi-employer bar-gaining
influenced the wages of some or all workers in 34% of recognized trade union
workplaces in 1998, compared to 68% in 1980 and 60% in 1990 (Rose, 2004).
Ultimately,
HRM has been viewed as an open anti-union management strategy or as increasing
the satisfaction of workers to reduce their need for unions. Besides, its
beneficial effects on organizational performance should ensure that wage increases and other non-pecuniary gains are received by workers (Frege and Kelly, 2013).
References
Farnham, D. (1997). Employee relations in context. 2nd ed. London: Institute of
Personnel Management, pp.33,287.
Flanders, A. (1970). Management and unions. London:
Faber.
Frege, C. and Kelly, J. (2013). Comparative Employment Relations in the Global Economy. 1st ed. London: Routledge, p. 1 of chapter 6.
Kelly, J. (2002). Industrial relations. 1st ed. London: Routledge, p.46.
Rose, E. (2004). Employment relations. 2nd ed. London: Pearson Education, pp.4-667.
Frege, C. and Kelly, J. (2013). Comparative Employment Relations in the Global Economy. 1st ed. London: Routledge, p. 1 of chapter 6.
GOV.UK. (2019). Trade union statistics. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/trade-union-statistics [Accessed 10 Sep. 2019].
Kelly, J. (2002). Industrial relations. 1st ed. London: Routledge, p.46.
Rose, E. (2004). Employment relations. 2nd ed. London: Pearson Education, pp.4-667.
Visser, J. (2002). Why Fewer Workers Join Unions in Europe: A Social Custom Explanation of
Membership Trends. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 40(3), pp.403-430.
Gyesie (2017) has researched that a partnership agreement is an essential prerequisite before initiating the collective bargaining process. It is also as stressed that collective bargaining can cause a negative impact on organization sustainability and performance by starting the collective bargaining process without a partnership agreement.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Kanchana. Taylor and Ramsay (1998), on the other hand, content that management may use trade unions, via partnership agreements, to increase the rate of exploitation of workers through their involvement in HRM techniques. Therefore, they argue that partnership does not actually guarantee a strong trade union presence in the workplace.
DeleteYes, it is true. The trade unions and the collective bargaining can be identified as major methods of employee relations (Kelly, 2002) where according to Gyesie (2017), in order to have better outcome through correcting bargaining process, there must be a well-defined and structured partnership agreement.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Yohan. The primary mode of societal intervention in the employment relationship took the form, or a combination of forms, of collective representation and bargaining processes for much of the twentieth century. But even when and where collective bargaining was the dominant form of workplace governance, either legislation (e.g. setting a floor on labor standards) limited collective contract freedom coordinated by (corporatist) institutions accountable to the wider public in some way, or both. Work has long been considered too important to leave its regulation to workers ' and employers ' decisions alone (Frege and Kelly, 2013).
DeleteVery true, when proper guidance and training is given to employees, the policies and practices of the company prevails longer with the support of good employee relations (Redmond, 2013; Dessler, 2004).
ReplyDeleteThank you for highlighting about training and development. HRM is an approach to labor management that treats labor as a valued asset rather than a variable cost and therefore recommends investment in labor through training and development and measures designed to attract and retain a committed workforce (Storey, 1989).
DeleteIn terms of labour relation Understanding what both labours and relationship mean and the impact each has on the organization critically effective to the organization's human resource management.As you mentioned, Employees join unions by expecting higher wages, better benefits, Safe work place, greater job security ( Shrestha,2012).
ReplyDeleteThank you for your input and I agree. Collective bargaining can be seen as a process of agreement in which wage-work bargaining takes place between employers and employees through a trade union agency Traditionally, trade unions' role as bargaining agents has been perceived as compensating for the disparities in the labor market between employers and employees with individual bargaining power (Farnham, 2000).
DeleteCollective Bargaining is an important juncture for organisations and employees or most commonly, trade unions. As International Labour Office (2015) describes, it is a social dialogue. The organization I am employed at too utilize Collective Bargaining Agreements between trade unions and the employer to have a balanced terms and perks favoring a win-win situation for both parties.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. Further, As strategies for employee relations, collective bargaining and joint consultation are based on a policy of ' union incorporation ' in the decision-making process for employment with managers. It is a common approach to employee relations which depends on employees being organized into independent trade unions, the unions that the employer recognizes for bargaining purposes and a fair balance of power between the two sides in the bargaining and consultation relationship ( Farnham, 2000). However, In the Workplace Employee Relations Survey 1998 (WERS 1998), it was estimated that the workplace-level union presence in Britain had fallen from 73% of all workplaces employing more than 25 employees in 1980 and 1984 to 64% in 1990 and 54% in 1998.
DeleteHi Anjula, Well written article. As you have mentioned that employees who are collectively represented by trade unions may have greater power to influence decisions, such as pay levels and working conditions, than employees who are not members of trade unions (Rose, 2004). This is very practical in larger companies where the employer might have dozens, hundreds or even thousands of workers on his payroll. Working with just a few representatives also can make the issues at hand seem more personal.
ReplyDeleteIt is true even though trade union activities, numbers and density dropped over the time. According to Barrow (2002) A major drawback for trade unions is that most of these rights depend on an employer's recognition of the trade union. In addition, there is little motivation for workers to join a union that cannot negotiate for enhanced terms and conditions of employment on behalf of its members. Therefore, a union is marginalized in the workplace without acknowledgement and cannot act in any positive or effective manner. The decision whether to recognize a trade union or not has been a matter for the employer for the past 20 years.
DeleteHi Anjula,
ReplyDeleteTroy (2015) suggests that nonunion models should be promoted within companies to support the anti-union HRM policy suggested by you. He suggests that this strategy could be implemented through flexible work systems and extensive employee communications and involvement programs. Many organization nowadays seem to move towards this policy amidst the tension from trade unions.
Hi Namal, It’s a valid point. As per Kaufman and Taras (2000), one of the fundamental reasons employers create non-union organizations is to prevent what they find to be the negative aspects of trade unions, while at the same time obtaining more of the positive results that arise from internal ways of worker-management cooperation. Although leery of unions, employers often understand that a variety of positive outcomes can be achieved by cooperative means of worker organization. For example, nonunion employee presentation facilitates enhanced two-way communication between management and shop floor employees acts as an administrative tool to enhance employee participation and company involvement, offers a framework to find areas of management activity or policy that need change, and easily exposes concerns and grievances from employees.
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