4. Employee Relations

What is Employee Relation?

  What is Employee relations are concerned with managing the employment relationship and the psychological contract. They consist of the approaches and methods adopted by employers to deal with employees either collectively through their trade unions or individually, (Armstrong, 2017)

I believe that the definition of employee relations refers to an organization’s efforts to create and maintain a positive relationship with its employees. By maintaining positive, constructive employee relations, organizations hope to keep employees loyal and more engaged in their work. Typically, an organization’s human resources department manages employee relations efforts; however, some organizations may have a dedicated employee relations manager role. Typical responsibilities of an employee relations manager include acting as a liaison or intermediary between employees and managers, and either creating or advising on the creation of policies around employee issues like fair compensation, useful benefits, proper work-life balance, reasonable working hours, and others. When it comes to employee relations, and HR department has two primary functions. First, HR helps prevent and resolve problems or disputes between employees and management. Second, they assist in creating and enforcing policies that are fair and consistent for everyone in the workplace.

 Unitary perspective

The  unitary  perspective  in  employment  relations assumes  that  employers  and  workers  operate  in teamwork for the attainment of common objectives within an organization.  This perspective views an organization as a  combined  unit  whereby  employers and  workers  have  equal  understanding.  Thus,  all parties  form one team with a similar intention.  In this regard,  there  is  no  need  for  ‘third  party’  or  union interventions.  Unions  are  perceived as unnecessary and divide employee loyalty. The unitary perspective disputes that there is a meaningful role for conflict in the workplace.  Unitarists posit  that employer  should set  the  rules  and  employees  should  cooperate  in complying with the rules.

Pluralist perspective

The  pluralist  perspective  views  the  employing organisation as a coalition of individuals and  groups with  diverse  objectives,  values and interests.  The underlying  assumption  with  this  perspective  is  that individuals in  an organisation combine into  a variety of distinct sectional groups, each with its own interest, objectives, and leadership. The different groups  in an organisation  are  competitive  in  terms  of leadership, authority, and loyalty.  In this  regard  conflict put  the organisation in a permanent state of dynamic tension (Swanepoel et al., 2005:404). This is where mainly the trade unions  fits-in  and  it  is  through  pluralist perspective  that  unions  have  a  platform  to  exercise their rights unlike when an institution or an employer applies or exercises the unitary perspective.

 Does Unitary Approach helps to increase Hotelier’s job satisfaction?

Hotelier’s main job responsibility is to provide good customer service. Win-win employees treat their colleagues and their customers with the same level of respect. They understand that strong internal relationships help drive employee passion for the customer and that an employee cannot be expected to perform if they are not adequately supported by their colleagues and leaders, it is called Unitary approaches. These guest service employees, therefore, replicate authentic customer interactions with their colleagues, leading by example and offering support and motivation wherever it is needed. It will help to increase their job satisfaction level and it’s a “win-win” for the employer, employee, and guest.

 Employee Expectation and Employer Expectation in the Hospitality industry

Participation through Trade Unions

In order to bargain with the employer on behalf of its members or to be recognized for bargaining purposes, Sri Lankan legislation requires that a trade union must be registered as such with the relevant authority. The Trade Unions Ordinance No. 14 of 1935 makes the registration of trade unions a pre-requisite to exercise rights granted under the Trade Unions Ordinance (TUO). A trade union is required to register under this statute to qualify for the privileges and immunities available under the Act and can do so with an initial membership of seven workers. While employees may exercise the freedom of association by joining any organization, in order to interact with employers on issues related to employment such an association must be registered as a trade union.

 

How the Collective bargaining process works for Sri Lankan employee?

Collective bargaining A collective agreement is described in the Industrial Disputes (ID) Act as being an agreement between employer and workmen or trade union relating to the terms and conditions of employment of any workmen, or to the privileges, rights, and duties of the employer, workmen or trade union, or the manner of settlement of any dispute. Significantly, Collective bargaining can take place without the presence of a trade union, which means that other forms of employee participation mechanisms could also use this provision to bargain with the employer.

The parties may submit a collective agreement to the Commissioner of Labour who shall cause the agreement to be published in the Government Gazette, provided that the Commissioner is satisfied that the terms of such agreement are no less favorable than those applicable to other workers in the same industry in that district. A collective agreement when published becomes enforceable and is binding on the parties unless it is repudiated as provided in the ID Act. An average of 45 collective agreements are concluded every year, mostly by enterprises that are members of the Employers’ Federation of Ceylon (EFC). According to Amerasinghe (2008) collective bargaining continues to be adversarial in nature, and outside of the EFC there is little or no collective bargaining. The EFC has been advocating a process of continuous dialogue even while collective agreement is pending, leading to a better understanding between parties, so that renegotiation of an agreement after its lapse becomes a less disruptive process.

 What is Industrial Action?

 The performance of work by an employee in a manner different from that in which it is customarily performed, or the adoption of a practice in relation to work by an employee, the result of which is a restriction or limitation on, or a delay in, the performance of the work, a ban, limitation, or restriction on the performance of work by an employee or on the acceptance of, or offering for, work by an employee. As well as a failure or refusal by employees to attend for work or a failure or refusal to perform any work at all by employees who attend for work. Such as,

Working to rule

This is a form of industrial action where the employee will follow the rules and hours of their workplace exactly in order to reduce their efficiency and output; doing no more than their contractual agreement requires.

 

Go slow          

which employees perform their duties but seek to reduce productivity or efficiency in their performance of these duties. A slowdown may be used as either a prelude or an alternative to a strike, as it is seen as less disruptive as well as less risky and costly for workers and their union.

 

Overtime ban

Overtime bans are a type of strike in which workers refuse to engage in overtime work, being any work that falls outside of contracted hours. Employers cannot legally withhold normal wages during an overtime ban if employees are not breaching the terms of their employment contracts by refusing to do overtime work.

 

Sit-in - (occupation of the workplace)

This is a labor strike and a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at factories or other centralized locations, take unauthorized or illegal possession of the workplace by "sitting down" at their stations.

 

Strike - (withdrawal of labour)- Real-life example

 

Employee Voice through “upward problem solving” in my organisation (Marriott International)

There are many ways in Marriott International employees communicate their views on employment and organizational issues to their employers. 

Responsibility for good employee relations

Responsibility for good employee relations The responsibility for good employee relations depends, within each undertaking, upon its management, and can only result from frank discussion between management and staff. The Industrial Relations Code of Practice places the responsibility for stimulating this dialogue squarely on management. In the section on communication and consultation, it says: Management in co-operation with employee representatives should

i)          Provide opportunities for employees to discuss matters affecting their jobs with those to whom they are responsible;

ii)         Ensure that managers are kept informed of the views of employees and of the problems which they may face in meeting management’s objectives.

References: 

Biyanwila, J. (2011) The labour movement in the global south; trade unions in sri lanka (1^st ed). Routeledge [Online]. Available at https://books.google.lk/. Accessed on 18^th May 2021.

Lucas R. (2004) Employment relations in the hospitality and tourism industries (1^st ed). Routeledge [Online]. Available at https://books.google.lk/. on 18^th May 2021.

Mind Tools (2020) Win win negotiation. Mind Tools Essential Skills for an Excellent Career [Online]. Available at https://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/. Accessed on 18^th May 2021.

Ranaraja, S. (2013) Emerging trends in employee participation in sri lanka. Industrial and Employment Relations Department [Online]. Available at https://www.ilo.org/. Accessed on 18^th May 2021.

 Themba S. (2015) Descriptive analysis of the theoretical perspectives in employment relations. Corporate Ownership & Control, pp186-188 [Online]. Available at https://www.researchgate.net/. Accessed on 17^th May 2021.