INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

IR, HR, LR, and LIR …What’s in a Name?

Labor RelationsUnionBilateral Rule-Making

Human ResourcesNonunionUnilateral Rule-Making

All aspects of people at work

Employment relationships

Industrial Relations

(as a field of study)

- CB/Negotiation- Labor Law- Contract Admn.- Labor History

- Compensation- Staffing- T&D- Benefits

Industrial Relations As A Field of Study -- Definitions

• Employment relationships -- relations among workers, employers, their organizations, and government regulators

• All aspects of people at work (Kochan)

• The processes by which human beings and organizations interact at the workplace and more broadly in society to establish terms and conditions of employment (Mills)

Meaning

• Relations between management and workers and the role of regulatory mechanism to resolve any dispute.

• Parties to IR

Employers & their Associations

Employers & their Associations

Government (Regulatory Body)

IR System Concept:A Causal Model Representation

Contexts

Rules or OutcomesProcesses

Ideology

Actors

IR Systems Concept (Dunlop 1958)Major Elements

• Actors (workers, unions, mgmt, government)• Contexts (labor and product markets,

technology, community)• Processes (unilateralism, individual

bargaining, legislation, adjudication, “CB”)• Ideology (minimal shared beliefs; the “glue”

that gives systems stability)• Rules (broadly defined) or Outcomes (pay,

benefits, work rules, working conditions, job satisfaction, industrial democracy, peace and conflict, productive efficiency)

Trade unions• Voluntary associations of employees or employers to

promote their interests through collective action.• Legislation : The Trade Unions Act, 1926• A combination, whether temporary or permanent formed :

– primarily for the purpose of regulating the relations between :• Workmen & employers• Workmen & Workmen • Employers & employers

or– for imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or

business and includes any federation of 2 or more trade unions.

Employers Associations in India

• CII

• FICCI

• ASSOCHAM

• NASSCOM

Employees Associations in India

• AITUC

• INTUC

• CITU

Why do employees join unions?

• Dissatisfaction with terms and consditions of employment

• Collective bargaining : more power than individual

• Security

• Welfare

Shift in the traditional Role of unions?

• Traditional Role : Opponent of management

• New Role : Cooperative partner

• e.g. Eicher, Parwanu, H.P

Approaches to IR

• Unitary

• Pluralist

• Marxist

Trade union movement in India

• 1919 – After the World War –I : workers realised the importance of STRIKE as a weapon of economic coercion.

• 1920 : AITUC

• 1926 : Trade Union Act

• Late 1920s: Split in Trade Union Movement

– AITUC : Communists

– AITUF : moderates

• 1930s : not favourable for trade union movement– Failure of Bombay textile strike– Retrenchment– Strikes failed

• 1945 : II World war

• Idealogical differences increased

• Govt. invoked Defence of India Rules : banned all strikes & Lock Outs

• Workers realised the need for an organised movement

• After Independence : dreams of increased salaries & better working conditions, not realised

• Large scale unrest : strikes & lock outs multiplied

• Disunity : 3 Central Labour Organisations– INTUC : 1947– HMS : 1948– UTUC : 1949

• MANY More unions formed

• Today : More than 60000 unions in India , affiliated to one of the Central Association of trade Unions

• Today’s Unions are – Matured, responsive & realistic– Reconciled to economic reforms– Trend towards de-politicisation