Industrial Relations

The term Industrial Relations comprises Industry and relations. Industry means any productive activity in which an individual is engaged and relations means the relations that exist in the industry between the employer and his workmen. Industrial relations is used to denote the collective relationships between management and the workers. Traditionally, the term industrial relations is used to cover such aspects of industrial life as trade unionism, collective bargaining, workers participation in management, discipline and grievance handling, industrial disputes and interpretation of labor laws and rules and code of conduct. V.Agnihotri defines the term industrial relations explain the relationship between employees and management which stem directly or indirectly from union-employer relationship. According to C.B. Kumar Industrial relations are broadly concerned with bargaining between employers and trade union on wages and other terms of employment. In the words of Lester, "Industrial relations involve attempts at arriving at solutions between the conflicting objectives and values; between the profit motive and social gain; between discipline and freedom, between authority and industrial democracy; between bargaining and co-operation; and between conflicting interests of the individual, the group and the community. The National Commission on Labor (NCL) also emphasize on the same concept. According to NCL, industrial relations affect not merely the interests of the two participants- labor and management, but also the economic and social goals to which the State addresses itself. To regulate these relations in socially desirable channels is a function, which the State is in the best position to perform.

Nature of industrial Relations: Industrial relations are concerned with the organisation and practice of multi-pronged relationship between the workers and the union in an industrial enterprise. Such relationships may be either in organised form or unorganised plants. Industrial relation do not function in a vacuum but multi-dimensional in nature and are conditioned with three determinants (i) Institutional factors (ii) Economic factors (iii) Technological Factors. (i) Under institutional factors are included items such as state policy, labour laws, voluntary codes, collective agreements, labourers unions and employers organisation, social institution like the community, caste, joint family, creed, system of beliefs, etc, attitudes of work, systems

of power status, relative nearness to the centers of power; motivation and influence and industrial relations. (ii) Under economic factors are included economic organisation (socialist, capitalist, communist, individual ownership, company ownership, government ownership) power of labour and employers, the nature and composition of the labour force and the sources of supply and demand in the labour market. (iii) Under technological factors come the techniques of production, modernization and rationalisation schemes, capital structures etc. Impact of Industrial revolution:

1. Elimination of Physical labor.(machines replaced the human labor) 2. Mass production at low cost. 3. Specialization of functions. 4. Elaborate control mechanism.(too many checks and control over working people) 5. Reduction in work skills. 6. Increased sense of alienation among working people. 7. Hard work and higher capital formation. 8. Evolution of entrepreneurial Elite. 9. Interdependence 10. Strict discipline 11. Unhygienic harsh working and living conditions.