INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS VIS A VIS HUMAN RESOURCES

Definition of Human resources and Industrial Relations

The human resource management (HRM) function of an organisation manages the
individual aspects of the employment relationship - from employee recruitment and selection
to international employment relations, salaries and wages. HRM is a complex blend of
science and art, creativity and common sense. At one level, HR practice draws on economics,
psychology, sociology, anthropology, political studies, and strategic and systems thinking. At
an operational level, success depends on interpersonal relationships. HR professionals are
often the go to people in an organisation for advice and information.
Industrial relations is also a multidisciplinary field that studies the collective aspects of the
employment relationship. It is increasingly being called employment relations (ER) because
of the importance of non-industrial employment relationships. IR has a core concern with
social justice through fair employment practices and decent work. People often think
industrial relations is about labour relations and unionised employment situations, but it is
more than that. Industrial relations covers issues of concern to managers and employees at the
workplace, including workplace bargaining, management strategy, employee representation
and participation, union-management co-operation, workplace reform, job design, new
technology and skill development. An IR expert will more usually work for a trade union in
order to represent employees interests. However, they may work for an employer in an HRM
department, or for an employers' association or consultancy, serving the employers' interests.
Major tasks of HRM and IR are: hiring staff, negotiation of employment contracts and
conditions, performance management and reward systems, dispute resolution, disciplinary
processes, ensuring health and safety of staff, employee motivation, design of work, team and
organisation restructuring, and training and development.

Introduction to Industrial Relations

Industrial relation defined as relation of Individual or group of employee and employer for
engaging themselves in a way to maximize the productive activities
Industrial Relations comprise all the rules, practices and conventions governing interactions
between managements and their workforces, normally involving collective employee
representation and bargaining.(Graham and Bennett, 1998)
Industrial relations has become one of the most delicate and complex problems of modern
industrial society. Industrial progress is impossible without cooperation of labours and
harmonious relationships. Therefore, it is in the interest of all to create and maintain good
relations between employees (labour) and employers (management).
It is about the relationships and inter-relationship between workers, groups of workers,
managers and employers, group of employers, industrial tribunals and government.
Within these relationship and inter relations participants seek to establish the terms and
conditions of employment and the way in which the employment relationship is to operate.

Parties to IR
1) Employee/ worker
Employee is a person employed by another for salary, wage or commission.
Some countries make distinction between worker and employee. Former involved
in manual work, day labor, weekly wages. Latter includes clerical, supervisory,
technical and professional worker usually on a salary twice a month or monthly.
Employees sometimes believed to be white collar personnel who are too dignified to
join unions.
2) Trade Unions
Formal organizations that represent individuals employed in one organization
throughout an industry or in an occupation.
Trade unions traditionally focus on pay rates, conditions of work and job security
Legal protection and a monopoly over representing employee interest before tribunals
3) Employer Associations
Represent employer interest before tribunals and provide a range of IR advisory
services including dispute handling and how to counter union activity
One of its main purpose is to negotiate with Unions
Where Unions are organized, Employers are also organized
Sometimes abuse the right of association by forming a blacklist of employers and also
a national or international cartels which control prices, oppress workers , etc
4) Government
Major Employer in most countries
Responsible for establishing national objectives and priorities
Responsible for making and enforcing laws, not just in respect to labor relations, but
for the overall good order of a country
Through making Laws, policies it plays a significant role in imposing philosophies of
value bases, thus has strong influence in circumstances in which people work and live.

Concept of Industrial Relations

The term Industrial Relations comprises of two terms: Industry and Relations.
Industry refers to any productive activity in which an individual (or a group of
individuals) is (are) engaged.
Relations refers to the relationships that exist within the industry between the
employer and his workmen.
The term industrial relations explain the relationship between employees and management
which stem directly or indirectly from union-employer relationship.
Industrial relations are the relationships between employees and employers within the
organizational settings. The field of industrial relations looks at the relationship between
management and workers, particularly groups of workers represented by a union. Industrial
relations are basically the interactions between employers, employees and the government,
and the institutions and associations through which such interactions are mediated.
The term industrial relations have a broad as well as a narrow outlook. Originally, industrial
relations were broadly defined to include the relationships and interactions between
employers and employees. From this perspective, industrial relations cover all aspects of the
employment relationship, including human resource management, employee relations, and
union-management (or labour) relations. Now its meaning has become more specific and
restricted.
Accordingly, industrial relations pertains to the study and practice of collective bargaining,
trade unionism, and labour-management relations, while human resource management is a
separate, largely distinct field that deals with non-union employment relationships and the
personnel practices and policies of employers.
The relationships which arise at and out of the workplace generally include the relationships
between individual workers, the relationships between workers and their employer, the
relationships between employers, the relationships employers and workers have with the
organizations formed to promote their respective interests, and the relations between those
organizations, at all levels. Industrial relations also includes the processes through which
these relationships are expressed (such as, collective bargaining, workers participation in
decision-making, and grievance and dispute settlement), and the management of conflict
between employers, workers and trade unions, when it arises.

Need for Industrial Relations

Need of Industrial Relation arises to defend the interest of workers for adjusting the
reasonable salary or wages.
It also helps the workers to seek perfect working condition for producing maximum
output. Workers/employees are concerned with social security measures through this.
Industrial Relation also needed for achieving the democracy by allowing worker to take
part in management, which helps to protect human rights of individual.
Industrial Relations policy and practices covers these areas:
a. Procedures for setting terms and conditions of work, profit sharing, training targets,
equal opportunities policy and so on.
b. Disciplinary and grievance procedures, both individual and collective, including
external arbitration and conciliation.

c. Recognition of trade union to represent worker interests through the processes of

collective bargaining and consultation
d. Development of added or alternative mechanisms for employee representation and
consultation.
e. Determination of the structure and scope of consultation and employee involvement
in decision making, within the framework of collective bargaining agreements, works
councils, general HRM policies and so on.

Role of IR in HR
The basic objectives and roles are as follows:
1. The efficient production of goods and services and, at the same time, determination of
adequate terms and conditions of employment, in the interests of the employer, employees
and society as a whole, through a consensus achieved through negotiation.
2. The establishment of mechanisms for communication, consultation and cooperation in
order to resolve workplace issues at enterprise and industry level, and to achieve through a
tripartite process, consensus on labor policy at national level.
3. Avoidance and settlement of disputes and differences between employers, employees and
their representatives, where possible through negotiation and dispute settlement
mechanisms.
4. To provide social protection where needed e.g. in the areas of social security, safety and
health, child labor, etc.
5. Establishment of stable and harmonious relations between employers and employees and
their organizations, and between them and the State.
IR is essentially pluralistic in outlook, in that it covers not only the relations between
employer and employee (the individual relations) but also the relations between employers
and unions and between them and the State (collective relations).
HRM deals with the management of human resources, rather than with the management
of collective relations. There is of course a certain measure of overlap.
Individual grievance handling falls within the ambit of both disciplines, but dispute
settlement of collective issues more properly falls within the scope of IR.
Policies and practices relating to recruitment, selection, appraisal, training and
motivation form a part of HRM. Team-building, communication and cooperation,
though primarily HRM initiatives, have a collectivist aspect. Thus joint consultative
mechanisms are as much IR initiatives, which may supplement collective bargaining.
But IR has not, in regard to team-building for instance, developed any techniques or
theories about how to achieve it; in fact, it is not a focus of attention because it implies a
potential loyalty to the enterprise through the team and is seen as conflicting with loyalty
to the union. IR has a large component of rules which govern the employment
relationship. These rules may be prescribed by the State through laws, by courts or
tribunals, or through a bipartite process such as collective bargaining.

Role of HR in IR
The personnel manager's involvement in the system of industrial relations varies from
organization to organization, but identifiable functions, are:
1. To keep abreast of industrial law (legislation and precedents) and to advise managers
about their responsibilities e.g. to observe requirements in respect of employing disabled
persons, not to discriminate, not to disclose 'spent' convictions of employees, to observe
codes of practice etc. in relation to discipline and redundancy, and similarly to determine
organizational policies (in conjunction with other managers) relevant to legal and moral
requirements.
2. To conduct (or assist in the conduct) of either local negotiations (within the plant) or
similarly to act as the employer's representative in national negotiations. This could be as a
critic or advisor in respect of trade etc. association policies or as a member of a trade
association negotiating team.
3. To ensure that agreements reached are interpreted so as to make sense to those who must
operate them at the appropriate level within the organization (this can involve a lot of new
learning at supervisory level and new pay procedures and new recording requirements in
administration and even the teaching of new employment concepts like stagger systems
of work - at management level).
4. To monitor the observance of agreements and to produce policies that ensures that
agreements are followed within the organization. An example would be the policy to be
followed on the appointment of a new but experienced recruit in relation to the offered
salary where there is a choice of increments to be given for experience, ability or
qualification.
5. To provide the impetus (and often devise the machinery) for the introduction of joint
consultation and worker participation in decision-making in the organization. Formal
agreement in respect of working conditions and behaviour could never cover every
situation likely to arise. Moreover the more demanding the task the more highlyeducated
the workers need to be and the more they will want to be consulted about and involved in
the details of work life. Matters like the rules for a flexitime system or for determining the
correction of absenteeism and the contents of jobs are three examples of the sort of
matters.
6. To provide statistics and information about workforce numbers, costs, skills etc. as
relevant to negotiations (i.e. the cost of pay rises or compromise proposals, effect on
differentials and possible recruitment/retention consequences of this or whether agreement
needs to be known instantly); to maintain personnel records of training, experience,
achievements, qualifications, awards and possibly pension and other records; to produce
data of interest to management in respect of personnel matters like absentee figures and
costs, statistics of sickness absence, costs of welfare and other employee services,
statements about development in policies by other organizations, ideas for innovations; to
advise upon or operate directly, grievance, redundancy, disciplinary and other procedures.