Employee relations

1. Employee relations Unit 4 Area of Study 1

2. Aims of Employee Relations • To achieve an optimum working relationship between employees and management • To focus on using specific strategies to retain, reward, and motivate effective and skilled employees • To create optimum worker and organisational productivity, which leads to increased business competitiveness

3. Relationship of employee relations to business objectives and strategies • Effective management of ER: ► Leads to a harmonious work environment ► Allows for maximum workplace productivity ► Increases business competitiveness ► Decreases levels of conflict ► Promotes the concept of an organisational team ► To make sure employees are readily adaptable to change

4. Overview of employee relations participants/stakeholders

5. 1. Employees and Trade Unions • Employees work under a collective agreement, award or individual contract • Employees look to improve wages and conditions and flexibility in work practices • Trade Unions are an organisation formed to represent and protect the rights of workers in a particular industry • Unions provide a number of services to members in order to protect their rights

6. 2. Employers and employer Associations • Employers try to negotiate workplace agreements at workplace • Employer associations represent and assist employer groups and promote their common interest in employee relations

7. 3. Government • Dual role – largest employer in Australia • As the government enacts legislation that directly controls and influences the conduct of employee relations in areas such as • Employee contracts • Taxation • Occupational Health and Safety • Equal opportunity • Pay and working conditions • Responsible for economic management which impacts on economic activity

8. 4. Fair Work Australia Institutions • Provides information, advice and assistance on workplace issues • Fair Work Australia: power to vary awards, make minimum wage orders, approve collective agreements, determine unfair dismissal claims • Fair Work Ombudsman: promotes legislative compliance, educates, informs and provides assistance, appoints Fair Work Inspectors • Fair Work Inspectors: assist employees and employers to comply with National Employment Standards (NES), awards and collective agreements

9. Centralised approach to employee relations • Where awards (pay and working conditions) were determined by a central body (AIRC) relating to an industry • Conflict resolution used conciliation and arbitration • Awards were negotiated directly between employers and the AIRC and the unions representing workers • Considered to be centralised due to its reliance on one central body (the AIRC) • AIRC established industrial awards – minimum conditions of employment for employees doing a particular job

10. Centralised approach

11. Decentralised approach to employee relations • Where employers and employees at each workplace determine their pay and working conditions and work through their differences without outside interference • Workplace Relations Act 1996: Collective/certified agreement – enterprise bargaining agreements which result from negotiations between an employer and union • Fair Work Act 2008: main aims to strengthen the safety net of minimum wages and conditions, abolishing AWAs and restoring collective bargaining as the main means of creating an agreement and restoring to all employees protection against unfair dismissal.

12. Decentralised approach

13. Forms of industrial action • Passive resistance • Work to rule • Boycott • Stop work meeting • Picket line • Strike • Lockout

14. Protected vs unprotected industrial action • Protected industrial action - action that occurs during a protected period when a new collective agreement is being negotiated • Unprotected industrial action - industrial action taken outside the negotiating and bargaining process • Fair Work Australia has the power to suspend or terminate protected industrial action. Fair Work Australia may also make orders to stop or prevent unprotected industrial action. Such orders are enforceable in the courts

15. Employee relations and HRM under a decentralised approach • Role of the HRM greatly increased under decentralised approach. Must: • Negotiate with employees and/or their representatives on employment relations issues such as the establishment of collective agreements • Act as an intermediary between employees/unions and senior management • Should aim to facilitate positive, productive relationships with its employees • Should attend to employee complaints in such a way as they do not escalate

16. Factors that help Create an optimal workplace environment • Commitment by management and employees to achieve organisational objectives (ie common purpose and teamwork) • Adopting participative and open management style • Treating employees and their complaints seriously • Promotion and acceptance that workplace change is inevitable and essential for business competitiveness • Effective communication skills and methods

17. Factors that help create optimal workplace environment (cont’d) • Providing fair pay & working conditions • Recognition of employee achievements • Maintenance of good working relationships between management and unions • Establishment of fair and accessible grievance procedures for any possible disputes

18. How do you know if it has worked? Performance Indicators (workplace audit) • Level of employee participation in decision making (high) • Degree of consultation in workplace indicates level of worker empowerment • Communication channels (open) • Values – shared and positive • Productivity levels – demonstrate motivation and satisfaction. Links to profitability • Staff morale levels (high) • Incidence of industrial action • Rate of union membership