Introduction to Industrial Relations, with the different aspects of conflictive attitude of Employer and Employee

1.  Industrial Relations – Definition, Importance and
Scope
 Trade Union – Growth, Objective, Function and Role
in globalize content.
 Government Measures – Ministry for Labor,
Commissioner of labor, Deputy Commissioner and
Labor offices.
 Labor Management – Role of Personnel and IR
Manager in promoting and establishing peaceful IR.
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2.  “ Industry means any systematic activity carried on
by cooperation between an employer and his
workmen for the production, supply or distribution of
goods and services with a view to satisfy human
wants”
 The industry is an commotion (activity) where
capital and labor cooperate with each other for the
purpose of production of the goods and services
needed by the society and is the process of making
profit.
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3.  CAPITAL and LABOR were wedded to LAND and
economic power belonged to those who could
control its use.
 With the technological advancements, the use of
out workers (people working at their homes with
their own tools/ machines) declined and factory
system gradually started setting. Thus a large number
of people having different KSA’s, cultural
backgrounds, language etc. came together to work in
the organization to satisfy their own needs.
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4.  So, the workers are interested in higher wages,
whereas management is interested in maximizing
profits which calls for keeping wage cost at minimum.
 Thus collaboration of men with diverse interests and
in altogether different work setting frequently leads
to conflicts and tensions as each group tries to
maximize its share.
 Problems of human relationship arising out of the
sale of labor for wages and working on the premises
of employers under their control form the subject
matter or the base of INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS.
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5.  Loss of freedom from self employed to the over supervised
worker.
 Unhygienic working conditions.
 Employment of Children
 Freedom to contract but with the scope of complete
imbalance.
 The dynamics of the market
 The Pursuit of Self interest
 Elimination of Physical labor
 Mass production at Low cost.
 Elaborate Control mechanism with no self motivation and
strict discipline.
 Increased Sense of Separation, Isolation among working
people.
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6.  IR refers to workplace and societal interactions between
workers and employers, and resulting employment related
outcomes.
 In its broadest meaning, IR is all aspects of people at work.
 The Labor Dictionary defines IR as “ the relations between
employers and employees in an industry”
 The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines as,
“Freedom for association and the right to organize, the
application of the principle of the right to organize and the
right to collective bargaining of Collective Agreements or
Conciliation and Arbitration proceedings and the machinery
for cooperation between the authorities and the occupational
organizations at various levels of the economy.”
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7.  Industrial Relations is an act, the art of living together
for purposes of production. The parties involved in
industrial relations i.e., the workers and the employers,
have a common purpose production. They willingly bind
themselves to work together. It is an art which the two
parties learn by acquiring the skills of adjustment. –
J Henry Richardson
The level covered by these subjects range from
individual relations at the shop floor to the regional ,
national and international bodies. In fact, IR encompass all
such factors that influence behavior of people at work. A
few such factors are detailed below:
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8.  Institutions: [Govt, employers, trade unions, union
federations, employers federations or associations, labor
courts and tribunals.
 Characters: It aims to study the role of workers, unions
and employers federation officials, shop stewards,
mediator/conciliator/ arbitrator, judges of labor court etc.
 Methods: Here the focus is on CB, WPM, industrial
relations schemes, discipline, procedure, grievance
redressal machinery, dispute settlement machinery,
working of closed shops, union recognition, organization
protest through strikes, gheraos, bandhs and lockouts,
formulation and revision of existing rules, decisions of
courts etc in defining rules.
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9.  Contents: they include matter pertaining to
employment conditions like pay and other monetary
non-monetary demands of the workers hours of work,
leave with wages, health and safety disciplinary
actions, lay off, dismissals, retirement etc., laws
relating to such activities, legislation governing labor
welfare, social security, industrial relations, issues
concerned with WPM, CB, sharing gains of
productivity profits.
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10. 1) IR do not emerge in vacuum; they are born out of
“employment relationship” in an industrial setting. Without
the existence of two parties, the relationship cannot exist.
2) IR is characterized by both conflict and cooperation. So the
focus of IR is on the study of attitudes, relationship, practices
and procedures developed by the parties to resolve or at
least minimize conflicts.
3) Since IR do not operate in isolation, but are part of the
large system, so the study also includes vital environment
technology of the workplace, country’s socio-economic and
political environment, impact of the new wave of the global
market.
4) IR also studies the conditions conducive to the cordial
relations between the parties.
5) IR also study the laws, rules, agreements and awards of the
courts. Customs and the traditions and policy laid down by
the Govt.
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11.  IR contributes to Economic Growth and Development.
 Unions are important force in the Indian political system
than their wider impact on the industry i.e., the unions
sponsored by the ruling parties are liberal for their lobbying
activities (pressurizing activities)
 IR establishes Industrial Democracy.
 IR patterns, organized sector and their impact on
unorganized sector.
 IR ensures optimum use of scare resources.
 IR promotes enactment of sound labor legislation system.
 Status difference in the workers of Public and private
companies.
 IR facilitates change by improving morale and discourages
Unfair practices on the part of either parties.
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12.  Administration including overall organization,
supervision and coordination of IR policies and
programmes
 Liaison with outside groups and personnel
departments as well as with various cadres of
management staff.
 The drafting of regulations, rules, laws or orders and
their construction and interpretation.
 Position classification, including overall direction of
Job analysis, S & W administration, wage surveys and
pay schedules.
 Employee counseling on all types of personal
problems – educational, vocational health or behavior
problems. 12

13.  …. Scope
 Medical and health services
 Safety services including first aid training
 Group activities like group health insurance,
housing, cafeterial programmes and social
clubs.
 Suggestion plans and their uses in Labor
management and production committees.
 Employee relations, especially collective
bargaining with settling of grievances.
 Research in occupational trends and
employee attitudes and analysis of labor
turnover. 13

14. 1. Institutional factors
2. Economic factors
3. Social factors
4. Technological factors
5. Psychological factors
6. Political factors
7. Enterprise related factors
8. Global factors 14

15. 1. Under Institutional factors are included items like
state policy, labor laws, CB agreements, labor
unions, employers organization/ federation.
2. Under Economic factors are included economic
organizations (socialist, communist, capitalist) type
of ownership, individual, company – whether
domestic, or MNC, Government, cooperative
ownership, labor market relative status, level of
unemployment, economic cycle.
3. Under Social factors items like caste, creed, social
status, thus giving rise to the relationship of master
and servant, have and have-nots. But with the
acceleration of industrialization, these factors have
lost their momentum but cannot be overlooked. 15

16. 4. Under Technological factors fall items like work
methods, type of technologies used, rate of
technological change R & D activities, abilities to cope
with emerging trends. These factors have considerate
impact on employment status, wage level, collective
bargaining etc.
5. Under Psychological factors fall relating to owners
attitude, perception of workforce, workers attitude
towards work, their motivation, morale, interest,
alienation, dissatisfaction and boredom resulting from
man machine interface and the concepts of Work life
balance.
6. Under political factors are political institutions, system
of Government, political philosophy, attitude of
government, ruling elite and opposition towards labor
problems, since many industrial trade unions are very
much influenced by the Politicians. 16

17. 7. Under enterprise-related factors, fall issues like
style of management prevailing in the enterprise,
its philosophy and value system, organizational
climate, organizational health, extent of
competition, adaptability to change and the
various human resources management policies.
8. Under Global factors, the various issues
included are international relations, global
conflicts, dominant economic-political ideologies,
global cultural milieu, economic and trading
policies of power blocks, international trade
agreements and relations, role of ILO etc.
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18. A] Psychological approach to IR:
It is deeply related to perception and the attitude of focal
participants. The experts studied the behavior of two different
group, namely “Union leaders and Executives”. In the study,
they were asked to rate a same photograph of an ordinary
middle-aged person as an input.
And resultant the general impression about a person is radically
different when he is seen as a representative of management
from that of the person as a representative of labor.
The management and labor see each other as less dependable.
(and deficient in thinking regarding emotional features and inter-
personal relations)
[Even the intention of honest person is seen with suspicion]
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19. Industry is a social world in miniature and a community is
made up of various individuals and groups with different
personalities, educational background, family breeding,
emotions, likes and dislikes, social mobility, family
disintegration, a host of other personal factors, such as
attitudes and behavior.
These different attitudes and behaviors create problems
of conflict and competition among the members. Since
ages, the problems of IR have been related to wages,
Employment, conditions and LW.
But in fact the sociological aspects of the problems are more
destructive than the other.
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20.  Among all the areas of management 5M’s, one of the
most delicate and tricky ones is concerned with HR. This
handling is radically different from that of physical,
material and financial resources because these are not
inanimate or passive, but are composed of pulsating
human beings having their own emotions, perception,
attitude, personality etc.
 These characteristics make them complex individuals
and when they interact with others, either individually or
groups, their complexity further multiplies.
 For instance, a manager, using an autocratic style or
democratic style.
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21.  …. HR approach
 Another important factor that is like a common
denominator in all conflicts is the dissatisfied needs of
the individual.
 Broadly speaking, there are four types of basic needs,
namely, physiological needs, safety, social and egoistic
needs.
 It has been rightly said that, “the industrial progress
of the future will ultimately depend upon how far
industry is willing to go in for establishing a community
of mutual responsibility b/w highest paid executive and
the lowest paid production worker.
 One of the principal objective of this human relations
movement must be this much needed integration.
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22.  As good IR can be only maintained when both the labor
and management realize their moral responsibility in
contributing to the said task through mutual cooperation
and greatest understanding of each other’s problem. Few
such aspects are:
 An important aspect of IR is the extent to which labor and
management accept the way of life and value system of
modern technology.
 The criteria of WPM by which the workers willingly accept
and implement the management’s decisions. [The
management and workers should feel the urge for joint
consultation in their mutual interest]
 The scope of mutual understanding and agreement with
goals and means where workers and employers belong to
different cultural groups or areas.
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23.  ….Socio-ethical approach
Few guidelines suggested are:
 The extent to which the capacity to pay should be
subordinated to the payment of need based wages;
 The extent to which the retained earnings for
ploughing back into business can be sacrificed.
 the extent to which dividends can be lowered or losses
enhanced to meet the wage demand of labor; and
 The extent to which such extra cost can be passed on
to the consumers by way of increased prices of products.
 The study also emphasized on CB and mutual
negotiations b/w the parties for dispute settlement
through voluntary arbitration and not through
compulsory arbitration by external interference.
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24. This philosophy presumes the peaceful co-existence of capital
and labor, which calls for the resolution of conflict by non-
violent, non-cooperation (Satyagraha), which actually
amounts to peaceful strikes in ordinary dialect.
Gandhiji has accepted the workers’ right to strike, but
remarked that this right is to be exercised in a just cause, and
in a peaceful and non-violent manner, and it should be
resorted to only after employers fail to respond to their moral
appeals.
The principle of trusteeship held that the present capitalist
order can be transformed into an egalitarian one (classless,
democratic). It doesn’t recognize the right to property
except to the extent permitted by society for its own
welfare.
Thus the trusteeship theory implies that there is no room for
conflict of interests b/w the capitalist and laborers.
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25. ....Gandhian approach.
a) The workers should seek redressal or reasonable
demands only through collective action;
b) If they have to organize a strike, trade unions
should seek by ballot authority from all workers to
do so, remain peaceful and use non-violent methods;
c) The workers should avoid strikes as far as possible
in industries of essential services;
d) The workers should avoid formation of unions in
philanthropic (charitable) organizations;
e) The strikes should be resorted to only as a last
resort after all other legitimate measures have failed;
and
f) As far as possible, workers should take recourse to
voluntary arbitration where efforts at direct
settlement have not succeeded. 25

26. Environmental
forces
• Market or
Budgetary
restraints
• Technology
• Distribution of
Power in Society
Participants
• Union-
Management
• Government
Outputs
• Rules of the
workplace
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27. A) Participants in the system are: Workers and their
organizations, Management and their representatives
and Govt agencies like labor courts.
B) An ideology theory is “ set of ideas and beliefs
commonly held by the actors that helps to build or
integrate the system together as an entity”
 Technological features that IR would be very
different in a labor intensive from those in a capital
intensive one; in an industry planning significant,
technical changes form one clinging to less productive
primitive technology.
 Market or economic constraints influence a lot, as the
demand for labor is linked with the product’s demand.
 The locus and balance of power: A conflict emerges
strongly when the parties are less mature, are power
conscious, and therefore aggressive. 27

28. Top Management support
Developing Sound HRM and IR
policies
Development of Effective HRM and
IR practices (implementation0
Provision of Adequate Supervisory
Training
Follow up of results. 28

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