Social dialogues and the Philippine Employer-Labor Partnership, Inc. (PELSPI)

1. Industrial Relations
Conflicts &
Social Dialogues
Prof. Jorge V. Sibal
UP SOLAIR

2. Conflicts in Industrial Relations
 A conflict is a fight, struggle or
misunderstanding between two or more
parties, usually between management and
labor over scarce resources, power and status.
 A conflict means disequilibrium in the IR
system.

3. Conflicts in Industrial Relations
 Conflicts are usually caused by environmental
changes- economic, lego-political or socio-
cultural.
 It may mean changes in technologies, tasks,
job duties, skills requirements or a new set of
values and norms.

4. Types of Conflicts
(C.J. Margerison, 1969)
1. Distributive
2. Structural
3. Human Relations

5. Distributive Conflict
 concerns economics, how the gains of the
enterprise will be shared among the IR actors
– wages, profits, benefits, etc.
 can be resolved through various methods:
consultation, consensus building, collective
bargaining (bipartite or tripartite), co-
determination or committee system.

6. Structural Conflict
 concerns politics, leadership and
organizational sociology
 caused by the failure of the organization to
adapt its structures to the changing
environment
 can be resolved via organizational
structuring/restructuring and technological
improvement

7. Human Relations Conflict
 concerns social psychology
 caused by personality differences of people
with different views, value systems or
ideologies
 results in individual alienation, individual
and group conflicts
 conflicts resolution range from counseling to
organizational discipline

8. The Conflict Process
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Personal Cognition and Intentions Behavior Outcomes
Opposition or Personalization
Incompatibility
Increased
Perceived Conflict Group
Handling Overt Performance
Conflict
Intentions Conflict
Antecedent >Competing >Party’s
Conditions >Collaborating behavior
Felt >Compromising >Other’s Decreased
Conflict >Avoiding Reaction Group
>Accommoda- Performance
ting

9. How to resolve conflicts
 by unifying the diverging interests of the IR
actors
 conflicting parties should put emphasis on
common interests and values rather than their
differences in interests and ideologies

10. How to resolve conflicts
 In Marxist dialectics, if the conflict is non-
antagonistic, the actors should unite first in
order to struggle
 Conflicting parties unite if they have a
common goal and a common enemy

11. Communications and
conflict resolution
 conflicts can be solved by negotiations and
communications if the needs and aspirations
of the conflicting parties are compatible,
meaning they share common philosophies and
beliefs and their conflicts were caused only by
wrong perceptions
 conflict resolution should achieve a win-win
situation

12. Communications and
conflict resolution
 communications may lead to more intensified
conflicts if the needs and aspirations of the
conflicting parties are incompatible
 It will result to a deadlock where either or
both parties are injured in a win-loss or loss-
loss situation

13. Social Dialogues
 Will work only if the parties in conflict have
common aspirations (or vision/ideology),
values and goals
 With the acceleration of the ASEAN common
market, Philippine employers and workers are
confronted with common problems and
aspirations.

14. The employers and labor groups under the Fair
Trade Alliance affirmed the need for the labor
and employers to work together in order to
survive the crisis. Hence, PELSPI was organized.

15. Common Principles
in social dialogue
 Transparency and good governance
 Social justice and fairness
 Sincerity, no biases and open mind
 Common goals and aspirations:
a. Productivity
b. Competitiveness
c. Decent Work

16. Workshop- Force Field Analysis
STEPS:
1. Identify the current state of the situation.
2. Envision the desired state
3. Identify the forces restraining change.
4. Identify the forces that support or encourage change.
5. Develop strategies to:
a. reduce the forces restraining change.
b. increase the forces for change (or capitalize on existing
drivers).
Productivity
Competitiveness
Decent Work