Industrial Relations

• Industrial Relations (IR) is the study of the laws, conventions and

institutions that regulate 'the workplace’
• Industrial relations means different things to different people
Causes of Industrial unrest

Non-financial Administrative Government and

Financial Aspects
Aspects Aspects Political Aspects
• Wages, • Working Hours • Less • Inter-union
Allowances • Computer Motivation Rivalry
• Incentives Modernization • Forced
voluntary
retirement
schemes
Industrial relations laws - Purpose
• Promote the welfare of the workers and economic prosperity of the nation
• To pursue higher productivity
• Provide a safety net of minimum wages and conditions of employment
• Provide a framework for determining wages and conditions of pay according to
job roles performed
• Providing a framework of rights and responsibilities for employers and employees
• Ensuring freedom of association
• Enabling an independent statutory body to prevent and settle industrial disputes
as far as possible
• Assisting employees to balance their work and family responsibilities effectively
• Respecting and valuing the diversity of the work force
• Ensure international obligations in relation to labour standards are met
IR in Japan
• Japanese industrial relations system include workplace focused enterprises unions
• subcontracting and quality-focused, team based work
• achievement of stability in labour market, development of internal labour markets
• Permanent employment system, consensus decision making and patriotic leadership
• Japanese respect the senior and senior behaves just like a guardian not like a boss
• Seniority based wage system
• Bonus system:
I. Paid twice in a year.
II. Amount of bonus is determined by the annual collective
III. bargaining agreement.
Difference with India
JAPAN
• Seniority based wage system
• Bonus paid twice in a year.
• Bonus is 20% of annual wages.
• Stable employment
• Only regular workers
worker can join in trade union.
INDIA
merit based wage system
Bonus paid once in a year.
Mini bonus-8.33%,Max-20%
No stable employment
Both regular and temporary
make and join trade union.
Industrial Relations in Korea
• The number of labour disputes surged after 1997 and, although it has dropped
recently, IR is still unstable due to deep-seated mistrust amongst the parties. This
instability has constrained economic competitiveness.
• Disputes are related to restructuring, non-standard employment and industrial
bargaining.
• National labour centres have launched campaigns to organise non-standard
workers, and workers themselves have attempted to organise unions and take
collective action. This tends to be met with fierce resistance by employers.
• After laws to protect non-standard workers were introduced in 2006, many firms
replaced non-standard workers with subcontractors to avoid their legal
obligations.
• Industrial unionisation has been successful but these unions are confronted by
low organisational representation, limited resources, and opposition from
employers.
• Further challenges to unions are posed by legislation prohibiting wage payments
to union officials and permitting multiple unionisation at the enterprise level.
Industrial Relations in INDIA
With the advent of liberalization in1992, the industrial relations policy began to change. Now,the policy was tilted towards employers.
Employers opted for workforce reduction, introduced policies of voluntary retirement schemes and flexibility in workplace also
increased. Thus, globalization brought major changes in policy in India. The changes can be summarized as follows:
• Collective bargaining in India has mostly been decentralized, but now in sectors where it was not so, are also facing pressures to
follow decentralization.
• Some industries are cutting employment to a significant extent to cope with the domestic and foreign competition e.g.
pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, in other industries where the demand for employment is increasing are experiencing
employment growths.
• In the expansionary economy there is a clear shortage of managers and skilled labor.
• The number of local and enterprise level unions has increased and there is a significant reduction in the influence of the unions.
• Under pressure some unions and federations are putting up a united front e.g. banking.
• Another trend is that the employers have started to push for internal unions i.e. no outside affiliation.
• HR policies and forms of work are emerging that include, especially in multi-national companies,multi-skills, variable
compensation, job rotation etc. These new policies are difficult to implement in place of old practices as the institutional set up
still needs to be changed.
• HRM is seen as a key component of business strategy.