Institutionally, industrial relations was founded by John R. Commons when he created the first academic industrial relations program at the University of Wisconsin in 1920.
We can have three parties or participants or actors in an industrial unit:
- The workers and their unions,
- Employees and their associations, and.
- Government.
The industrial relations code is the third of four labour codes that have got approval from the Cabinet. The Bill consolidates essential elements of three laws—the Trade Unions Act, 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947—helping improve ease of doing business.
- Promote Dialogue and Communication. Poor communication is one of the most common employee relations issues .
- Focus on Company Missions and Values.
- Help Employees Feel Valued.
- Inspire and Reward.
- Offer Career Development.
- Promote Healthy Work-Life Balance.
- Use Software to Streamline Redundancy and Eliminate Mistakes.
The main aspects of industrial relations can be identified as follows:
- Promotion and development of healthy labour — management relations.
- Maintenance of industrial peace and avoidance of industrial strife. ADVERTISEMENTS:
- Development and growth of industrial democracy.
The Industrial Relations Commission conciliates and arbitrates to resolve industrial disputes, sets conditions of employment and fixes wages and salaries by making industrial awards, approves enterprise agreements and decides claims of unfair dismissal.
The most important benefit of industrial relations is that it ensures uninterrupted production. Reduced industrial dispute, industrial unrest, strike, lock outs can be avoided through good industrial relation. This ensures smooth running of the organization and continuous production.
Essentially, employee relations is a two person relationship between employee and employer. The focus is on how to effectively manage and strengthen this relationship. Industrial Relations on the other hand, is a three person relationship between the organisation, the union and the workforce that the union represents.
Managers and employees (and their collective associations), who were discussed respectively in the previous two chapters, are the parties that interact directly in employment relations. There is also a third important player, the State.
These labor laws were protective in nature and covered a wide range of aspects of workplace industrial relations like laws on health and safety of labors, layoffs and retrenchment policies, industrial disputes and the like.
Dunlop, as a labor economist, remodelled the work of sociologists and developed a framework of industrial relations system. He developed the System's Theory which stressed on the interrelationship of institutions and behaviors that enables one to understand and explain industrial relation rules.
This view of industrial relations is a by product of a theory of capitalist society and social change. Marxists argue that industrial relation is a relation of clashes of class interest between capital and labour. Employer (capital) tries to maximize profit by holding surplus value and underpaying workers remuneration.
The Industrial Disputes Act defines "Industrial dispute" as a dispute or difference between workmen and employers or between workmen and workmen, which is connected with employment or non-employment or the terms of employment or with the conditions of labour.
Industrial relations, for the employer, is about negotiations between workers and business owners/managers that lead to increased productivity and improved product quality in exchange for better pay and conditions of employment for workers.
