MG 204 Management Of Industrial Relations

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Management of Industrial Relations

Semester I – 2009


Assignment 1


The Labor Market and Employment Relations Changes.

This essay shall discuss the changes taking place in the labor market and employment relations in almost every country due to on-going globalization, technological revolution, management change and government reform policies.  The issues covered in this essay are broken into three parts; the first part will touch on the trends in new employment and management practices and the benefits to the employers and employees.  The second part will highlight the changes in employment relations and trade union movement due to management practices. Finally, the third part will talk on the reasons for which industrial disputes occur such as strikes and finally the conclusion of the essay summing up the body.

The various emerging issues and trends in the South Pacific labor markets and employment relations are based on cases reported in published reports, the news media and online publications. They reveal that the new employment practice of an organization by the employers is adopting good management practices.  The good management practices on managing the organization is by maintaining highly skilled people in full time employment and employing part-time / casual labors. The employers’ initiatives for the raise in part–time / casual employment are basically to:

  • Reduce operation costs of labor such as wage costs by eliminating the over time rates.
  • High productivity in operation.
  • Higher profitability of the firm.
  • Efficient workforce.
  • Reduce working hours to coincide with peak times.
  • Fewer disputes in the industry.
  • High retention of experienced and skilled worker.
  • No costs associated in training and development of part–timers / casuals.
  • Part–timers / casuals are non union members.

These initiatives of the employer have lead to an increase in creation of the part–time / casual employment over the past decade to reduce its costs and earning a higher return as profits.

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The reasons for part–time employment from the employees’ perspective are as follows:

  • Women are the majority part–time job holders, particularly mothers preferring part–time work to balance the work with the domestic duties of motherhood and a house wife basically saying work life balance.
  • Part-time workers can hold more than one job for the sake of high total income.
  • Part–time job holders have flexible working days and hours.
  • The part–time jobs also accounts for the low skilled opportunities.
  • Part–timers such as mother also get to maintain their skills while on maternity leave.
  • There are students who also take up part–time ...

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