Employee relations methods

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,

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). The employment relationship is concerned in part with groups of employees represented by trade unions. Therefore, the character of this representation is collective. Further, 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).

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.

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.