Industrial Relations- A birds eye view.

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”.
By “relations” we mean “the relationships that exist within the
industry between the employer and his workmen.

The term industrial relations explains the relationship between

employees and management which stem directly or indirectly
from union-employer relationship. 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 has a broad as well as a narrow

outlook. Originally, industrial relations was broadly defined to
include the relationships and interactions between employers and
employees. From this perspective, industrial relations covers all
aspects of the employment relationship, including human
resource management, employee relations, and union-
management (or labor) 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 labor-management relations, while human
resource management is a separate, largely distinct field that
deals with nonunion employment relationships and the personnel
practices and policies of employers.

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.

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”.

Factors of Industrial Relations:

In fact, industrial relation encompasses all such factors that
influence behavior of people at work. A few such important
factors are below:
1. Institution: It includes government, employers, trade
unions, union federations or associations, government
bodies, labor courts, tribunals and other organizations which
have direct or indirect impact on the industrial relations
systems.
2. Characters: It aims to study the role of workers unions and
employers’ federations officials, shop stewards, industrial
relations officers/ manager, mediator/conciliators /
arbitrator, judges of labor court, tribunal etc.
3. Methods: Methods focus on collective bargaining, workers’
participation in the industrial relations schemes, discipline
procedure, grievance redressal machinery, dispute
settlements machinery working of closed shops, union
reorganization, organizations of protests through methods
like revisions of existing rules, regulations, policies,
procedures, hearing of labor courts, tribunals etc.
4. Contents: It includes matter pertaining to employment
conditions like pay, hours of works, leave with wages,
health, and safety disciplinary actions, lay-off, dismissals
retirements etc., laws relating to such activities, regulations
governing labor welfare, social security, industrial relations,
issues concerning with workers’ participation in
management, collective bargaining, etc.

Three Faces of Industrial Relations as per Kaufman (In his “The

Global Evolution of Industrial Relations):
Industrial relations has three faces:
1. Science Building: In the science building face, industrial
relations is part of the social sciences, and it seeks to
understand the employment relationship and its
institutions through high-quality, rigorous research. It
 involves labor economics, industrial sociology, labor and
social history, human resource management, political
science, law, and other areas.

2. Problem Solving: In the problem solving face, industrial

relations seeks to design policies and institutions to help
the employment relationship work better.
3. Ethical: In the ethical face, industrial relations contains
strong normative principles about workers and the
employment relationship, especially the rejection of
treating labor as a commodity in favor of seeing workers
as human beings in democratic communities entitled to
human rights.

History of Industrial Relations:

As the society wrestled, grappled, tussled and struggled in the

“tug off war” between the “haves” and the “have nots” and the
massive economic and social problems gave birth to labor
problems, and when low wages, long working hours, monotonous
and dangerous work, abusive supervisory practices and
commodification of human life led to high employee turnover,
violent strikes, and the threat of social instability, there was the
heralding of the Industrial revolution or the Industrial
Renaissance which in turn gave birth to the concept of Industrial
Relations which created the modern employment relationship by
spawning free labor markets and large-scale industrial
organizations with thousands of wage workers. Intellectually,
industrial relations was formed at the end of the 19th century as
a middle ground between classical economics and Marxism,
which rejected the classical economics treatment of labor as a
commodity and its assumptions of perfect competition, while also
rejecting the Marxist assumption of irreconcilable class conflict
between labor and capital.

Industrial relations as it stands now is a strong problem-solving

orientation that rejects both the classical economists’ laissez faire
solutions to labor problems and the Marxist solution of class
revolution. It is this approach that has given birth to the present
day labour legislations.
Theoretical perspectives:
Industrial relations scholars have described three major
theoretical perspectives or frameworks, that contrast in their
understanding and analysis of workplace relations. The three
views are generally known as unitarism, pluralist and radical.
Each offers a particular perception of workplace relations and will
therefore interpret such events as workplace conflict, the role of
unions and job regulation vary differently. The radical perspective
is sometimes referred to as the "conflict model", although this is
somewhat ambiguous, as pluralism also tends to see conflict as
inherent in workplaces. Radical theories are strongly identified
with Marxist theories, although they are not limited to these.

1. Unitarist perspective:

In unitarianism, the organization is perceived as an

integrated and harmonious whole with the ideal of "one
happy family", where management and other members of
the staff all share a common purpose, emphasizing mutual
cooperation. Furthermore, unitarism has a paternalistic
approach where it demands loyalty of all employees, being
predominantly managerial in its emphasis and application.

Consequently, trade unions are deemed as unnecessary

since the loyalty between employees and organizations are
considered mutually exclusive, where there can't be two
sides of industry. Conflict is perceived as disruptive and the
pathological result of agitators, interpersonal friction and
communication breakdown.

2. Pluralist perspective

In pluralism the organization is perceived as being made up

of powerful and divergent sub-groups, each with its own
legitimate loyalties and with their own set of objectives and
leaders. In particular, the two predominant sub-groups in
the pluralistic perspective are the management and trade
unions.

Consequently, the role of management would lean less

towards enforcing and controlling and more toward
persuasion and co-ordination. Trade unions are deemed as
 legitimate representatives of employees, conflict is dealt by
collective bargaining and is viewed not necessarily as a bad
thing and, if managed, could in fact be channeled towards
evolution and positive change.

3. Radical perspective

This view of industrial relations looks at the nature of the

capitalist society, where there is a fundamental division of
interest between capital and labour, and sees workplace
relations against this history. This perspective sees
inequalities of power and economic wealth as having their
roots in the nature of the capitalist economic system.
Conflict is therefore seen as inevitable and trade unions are
a natural response of workers to their exploitation by
capital. Whilst there may be periods of acquiescence, the
Marxist view would be that institutions of joint regulation
would enhance rather than limit management's position as
they presume the continuation of capitalism rather than
challenge

Objectives of Industrial Relation

1. To safeguard the interest of labor and management by

securing the highest level of mutual understanding and good-will
among all those sections in the industry which participate in the
process of production.

2. To avoid industrial conflict or strife and develop harmonious

relations, which are an essential factor in the productivity of
workers and the industrial progress of a country.

3. To raise productivity to a higher level in an era of full

employment by lessening the tendency to high turnover and
frequency absenteeism.

4. To establish and nurse the growth of an Industrial Democracy

based on labor partnership in the sharing of profits and of
managerial decisions, so that ban individuals personality may
grow its full stature for the benefit of the industry and of the
country as well.

5. To eliminate, as far as is possible and practicable, strikes,

lockouts and gheraos by providing reasonable wages, improved
living and working conditions, said fringe benefits.

6. To establish government control of such plants and units as

are running at a loss or in which productions has to be regulated
in the public interest.

7. Improvements in the economic conditions of workers in the

existing state of industrial managements and political
government.

8. Control exercised by the state over industrial undertaking with

a view to regulating production and promoting harmonious
industrial relations.

9. Socializations or rationalization of industries by making he

state itself a major employer

10. Vesting of a proprietary interest of the workers in the

industries in which they are employed.