Employee
relations has given a new meaning for industrial relations to describe the
relationship between employers and employees (CIPD, 2019). Industrial relations
are covering only a small portion of the employment relationship spectrum when
comparing to employee relations. Employee relations will mainly cover what’s
happening between management, trade unions, and officials while enabling
collective agreements. It will also address collective bargaining and conflict
resolution between the parties. This wider definition of employee
engagement also identifies the move away from collectivism to individualism, in
the ways how the employees relate to their employers (Armstrong, 2014).
There are debates and differences of view as to
the meaning of both terms, employee relations, and industrial relations. Some
people argue that there are recognizable differences among them, that there are
substantive differences that rationalize the use and maintenance of each term,
that there are substantive differences that justify the use and maintenance of
each term. Whereas others argue that the concepts and phenomena outlined are
interchangeable in all intents and purposes (Leat, 2007). However, Blyton and
Turnbull, (2004) explain a different argument on employee relations and
industrial relations to say that there is no hard and fast distinction between
the two and the only difference is that tendency for each to use based on
subjects that focus on different boundaries. The context of employee relations
changes over time giving different outcomes and behaviors but the purpose
of employee relations is to set some rules, regulations, and agreements which
will regulate (Gennard and Judge, 2005).
Armstrong
(2014) further explains that employee relations are strongly connected with the
employment relationship and the psychological contract. This may include
various methods implemented by the employers to deal with their employees
either in collective mode through trade unions or separate employees
individually. Due to growing demands on helping line managers to create
trust-based relationships with employees, employee relations had been identified
to be focusing on both individual and collective relationships in an
organization (CIPD, 2019). According to Gennard and Judge (2005), priority over
individual or collective relationship is decided based on management’s view of
what is best for the organization or its employee relations. Good employee relationship on both individual
and collective level is important for better business results, better health, and well-being of the employees (CIPD, 2019).
Farnham
(1997) describes that employee relations will come into action anywhere when
work is exchanged for some sort of payment between an employer and an employee
in marketplaces. Hence the core of employee relations is either paid employment
or the pay-work bargain between the two parties. It is mainly concerned with
the interaction between the parties who are involved with the employment
relationship. Mainly three parties are involved as primary, secondary and
territory. The primary parties are the once who would pay for the work and
offer work in the labor market recognized as employers and employees. Further, can identify the parties who act on
behalf of the primary parties such as management or trade unions, and who are
also doing the negotiation and regulation of employment contracts to be the
secondary party. The third-party will be
the state agencies or institutions like the European Union (EU) who will be trying
to facilitate the connection between employers and employees, and employers and
unions. Their main role would be to ensure stable employee relations or to
facilitate a “floor” of standards that everyone will need to follow in order
to make sure no one should fall below. However, it is mainly the primary and
secondary parties’ interaction that will result in good employee relations practices
(Farnham, 1997).
Modern
classification about the employee relations talk about both individual and
collective workplace relationships but it always shows the increasing
individualization of the employment relationship due to the increase of individual rights
and decay of trade union and its effect on employees (CIPD, 2019). According to
Blyton and Turnbull, (2004), around seven-out-of-ten of the UK employees were
not attached to a trade union at the time. Organizations are currently more
reliant on individual employees to achieve their targets, so employers have
given more attention from collective to individual relationships (CIPD, 2019).
In the 1990s-2000s, human resource
management (HRM) dominated the management of employment relations. For some
people, this was part of a new, all-embracing approach to employment relations.
For others, HRM drove a wedge through the subject matter
of employment relations that required rebuttal, as HRM was viewed to
undermine the value of the core unit of past employment relations,
the trade unions (Frege and Kelly, 2013). Employment relations is the study of
regulating the employment relationship between employer and employee, both
collectively and individually, and deciding substantive and procedural problems
at the industrial, organizational and workplace levels (Rose, 2004).
References
Armstrong,
M. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. 13th ed.
London: Kogan Page, p.403.
Blyton,
P. and Turnbull, P. (2004). The dynamics of employee relations. 3rd ed.
Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.8-9.
Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development 2019, 16 May 2019, London: Employee
relations: an introduction [Online], Available
at:https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/employees/factsheet#6053 [Accessed on 04 October 2019].
Farnham,
D. (1997). Employee relations in context. 2nd ed. London: Institute of
Personnel Management, pp.3-4.
Frege, C. and Kelly, J.
(2013). Comparative Employment Relations in the Global Economy. 1st ed. London:
Routledge, p. 1 of chapter 6.
Gennard, J. and Judge, G. (2005). Employee relations. 4th ed. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, p.11
Leat, M. (2007). Exploring
employee relations. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, p.4.
Rose, E. (2004). Employment
relations. 2nd ed. London: Pearson Education, p.8.
