Explanation of Industrial Relations
Industrial relations is a social science dealing with human relations within the workplace, referring to the relationship between the employers or management of an industrial enterprise and its employees, or workforce, particularly when they are represented by a union, as well as their dealings with each other. It also refers to the relationship between the national workforce and the government. Once, the term industrial relations was used to describe the entire range of labor issues, including human resource management, but this is now a separate field.
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Aim
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Industrial relations are intended to produce a workforce that is contented and efficient, because a breakdown in these can result in a strike, in which employees cease work as a means of settling a grievance. To avoid these and other crises within the workforce, an industrial relations system must meet the needs of employers and employees alike as well as society in general.
Benefits
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Good industrial relations significantly reduce strikes and other expressions of discontent on the part of the workforce. To ensure good industrial relations, among the factors to be considered would be hours of work, including shift patterns, welfare facilities such as cafeterias, first aid, safety procedures and so on. Good industrial relations produce industrial peace, leading to higher productivity.
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Government
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In nations where there is a high degree of nationalization, which is to say, the nationalization of industry, as opposed to nations in which much or most of the industry is privatized, the government is to a large degree an employer, so industrial relations between the government and workforce are of great importance. The government relates to the workforce through the regulation of the economy and the relationship between employers and trade unions, which represent their respective trades. In American and other Western economies, employers and workers are generally self-reliant and free to formulate their own rules, but there is still a degree of government involvement in these, relating to the establishment of a minimum wage, of a policy forbidding discrimination on the basis of gender and race and of abuses of power on the part of employers, of standards of safety, health and hygiene, etc.
Conflict
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There is a view among experts on industrial relations that conflict is an inevitable part of them. Means of avoiding conflict might include the active encouragement of the workforce to take part in decision-making and the management of conflict between employers, workers and trade unions, when it arises. Another is the process known as collective bargaining, whereby management and employees aim to reach an agreement regarding such matters as workers' wages and working hours and conditions. This was established in the U.S. in 1935 under the National Labor Relations Act.
Changes
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The U.S. system of industrial relations evolved out of the New Deal, but organized labor's influence began to decrease in the 1970s because of modern technological advances. This could be said to be especially true in the new century, with the rise of the Internet and information technology, as well as virtual or entirely web-based industries, unprecedented numbers of part-time, casual and home-based workers, as well as immigrant workers, with foreign-born workers currently making up 14 percent of the U.S. labor force.
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References
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- Photo Credit Industry image by GWJ from Fotolia.com
