Causes & Effects of Poor Industrial Relations… Approaches to Industrial Relations › HRM Megaposts

Administration of Human Resources in Organizations

Administration of Human Resources:

1. Industrial Relations
2. Causes & Effects of Poor Industrial Relations
3. Approaches to Industrial Relations
4. Collective bargaining
5. Principles of Collective Bargaining
6. Workers participation in Management
7. Levels and Forms of Workers Participation In Management
8. Employee welfare -Activities - Statuary welfare benefits
9. Occupational health and safety at workplace - legislation
10. Occupational healthy and safety (Indian context)
11. Industrial Disputes - causes of industrial disputes
12. Strikes ( Factory or Industry) | Definition of Strike | Types of Strike
13. Lockout (Factory or Industry) | Definition of Lockout | Reasons
14. Layoff / Laid off and Retrenchment
15. Labour Courts for disputes in India
16. Grievance procedure
17. Methods of Identifying Employee Grievances
18. Alternative Dispute Resolution
19. Arbitration & conciliation
20. Grievance Management in the USA

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Industrial Relations

Industrial relations has become one of the most delicate and complex problems of modern industrial society. Industrial progress is impossible without cooperation of labors and harmonious relationships. Therefore, it is in the interest of all to create and maintain good relations between employees (labor) and employers (management).

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”. 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.

Definitions:

The term ‘industrial relations’ has been variously defined. J.T. Dunlop defines industrial relations as “the complex interrelations among managers, workers and agencies of the governments”.
According to Dale Yoder “industrial relations is the process of management dealing with one or more unions with a view to negotiate and subsequently administer collective bargaining agreement or labour contract”.
The HR Employee Relations Manager directs the organization's employee relations function. They develop employee relations policies and ensure consistent application of company policies and procedures. In addition, they are responsible for employee dispute resolution procedures, performing internal audits, and taking appropriate action to correct any employee relations issues.
The School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University was the world's first school for college-level study in HR located in Ithaca, New York, USA. ILR (Industrial and Labor Relations) specializes in the fields of human resource management, labor relations, and dispute resolution.
The Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania was founded in 1921. The Center's mission is to foster research on the strategic role of HR management in such areas as employment, labor relations, public policy, diversity, and training and education. The Center supports its mission through research, regular meetings, information bulletins, and conferences and public forums.

Importance of Industrial Relations:

The healthy industrial relations are key to the progress and success. Their significance may be discussed as under –
• Uninterrupted production – The most important benefit of industrial relations is that this ensures continuity of production. This means, continuous employment for all from manager to workers. The resources are fully utilized, resulting in the maximum possible production. There is uninterrupted flow of income for all. Smooth running of an industry is of vital importance for several other industries; to other industries if the products are intermediaries or inputs; to exporters if these are export goods; to consumers and workers, if these are goods of mass consumption.
• Reduction in Industrial Disputes – Good industrial relations reduce the industrial disputes. Disputes are reflections of the failure of basic human urges or motivations to secure adequate satisfaction or expression which are fully cured by good industrial relations. Strikes, lockouts, go-slow tactics, gherao and grievances are some of the reflections of industrial unrest which do not spring up in an atmosphere of industrial peace. It helps promoting co-operation and increasing production.
• High morale – Good industrial relations improve the morale of the employees. Employees work with great zeal with the feeling in mind that the interest of employer and employees is one and the same, i.e. to increase production. Every worker feels that he is a co-owner of the gains of industry. The employer in his turn must realize that the gains of industry are not for him along but they should be shared equally and generously with his workers. In other words, complete unity of thought and action is the main achievement of industrial peace. It increases the place of workers in the society and their ego is satisfied. It naturally affects production because mighty co-operative efforts alone can produce great results.
• Mental Revolution – The main object of industrial relation is a complete mental revolution of workers and employees. The industrial peace lies ultimately in a transformed outlook on the part of both. It is the business of leadership in the ranks of workers, employees and Government to work out a new relationship in consonance with a spirit of true democracy. Both should think themselves as partners of the industry and the role of workers in such a partnership should be recognized. On the other hand, workers must recognize employer’s authority. It will naturally have impact on production because they recognize the interest of each other.
• Reduced Wastage – Good industrial relations are maintained on the basis of cooperation and recognition of each other. It will help increase production. Wastage of man, material and machines are reduced to the minimum and thus national interest is protected.
Thus, it is evident that good industrial relations is the basis of higher production with minimum cost and higher profits. It also results in increased efficiency of workers. New and new projects may be introduced for the welfare of the workers and to promote the morale of the people at work. An economy organized for planned production and distribution, aiming at the realization of social justice and welfare of the massage can function effectively only in an atmosphere of industrial peace. If the twin objectives of rapid national development and increased social justice are to be achieved, there must be harmonious relationship between management and labor.

Objectives of Industrial Relations:

The main objectives of industrial relations system are:-
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 promote 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 or minimize the number of strikes, lockouts and gheraos by providing reasonable wages, improved living and working conditions, said fringe benefits.
6. To improve the economic conditions of workers in the existing state of industrial managements and political government.
7. Socialization of industries by making the state itself a major employer
8. Vesting of a proprietary interest of the workers in the industries in which they are employed.

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[ 2 ]

Causes & Effects of Poor Industrial Relations

Perhaps the main cause or source of poor industrial relations resulting in inefficiency and labour unrest is mental laziness on the part of both management and labour. Management is not sufficiently concerned to ascertain the causes of inefficiency and unrest following the laissez-faire policy, until it is faced with strikes and more serious unrest. Even with regard to methods of work, management does not bother to devise the best method but leaves it mainly to the subordinates to work it out for themselves. Contempt on the part of the employers towards the workers is another major cause. However, the following are briefly the causes of poor industrial relations:
• Mental inertia on the part of management and labour;
• An intolerant attitude of contempt of contempt towards the workers on the part of management.
• Inadequate fixation of wage or wage structure;
• Unhealthy working conditions;
• Indiscipline;
• Lack of human relations skill on the part of supervisors and other managers;
• Desire on the part of the workers for higher bonus or DA and the corresponding desire of the employers to give as little as possible;
• Inappropriate introduction of automation without providing the right climate;
• Unduly heavy workloads;
• Inadequate welfare facilities;
• Dispute on sharing the gains of productivity;
• Unfair labour practices, like victimization and undue dismissal;
• Retrenchment, dismissals and lock-outs on the part of management and strikes on the part of the workers;
• Inter-union rivalries; and
• General economic and political environment, such as rising prices, strikes by others, and general indiscipline having their effect on the employees’ attitudes.
Facts
In USA there is no federal law or mandate that requires an employer to give workers lunch breaks or rest periods, although most companies allow and encourage them. Studies have found up to 58% of American workers skip their lunch break. Health and workplace experts suggest that this practice ultimately leads to worker burnout and diminished productivity.

Effects of Bad Industrial Relations

Industrial relations are of great importance in industrial life. These relations have great bearing on the economic, social and political spheres of our society. If in an organisation, relations between labour and management are cordial, there will be industrial peace and interests of both the parties will be automatically safeguarded. However, organisations where industrial relations are strained, the organisations have to face lot of problems. The atmosphere of such organisations is always surcharged with industrial unrest leading either to strikes or lockouts. Organisations which ignore the importance of industrial relations face high cost of production. Adverse effect on efficiency, low-grade production, negligence in the execution of work, absenteeism among the workers, high rate of labour turn-over etc. are the evils that result from poor industrial relations.
Lack of cordiality in industrial relations not only adversely affects the interests of the labourers and employers but also cause harm to different sections of society. They are faced with lot of difficulties and problems.

Demerits of bad industrial relations can be expressed as under:

• Effect on Workers: (i) Loss of wages, (ii) Physical injury or death on account of violence during labour unrest, (iii) Excesses by employers, (iv) Economic losses, (v) Bitterness in relations, (vi) Adverse affect on career.
• Effect on Employers / Industrialists: (i) Less production, (ii) Less Profit, (iii) Bad affect on organisation, (iv) Bad effect on human relations, (v) Damage to machines and equipments, (vi) Adverse effect on development of companies, (vii) Burden of fixed expenses.
• Effect on Government: (i) Loss of revenue (less recovery of income tax. sales tax, etc.) (ii) Lack of order in society, (iii) Blame by different parties.
• Effect on Consumers: (i) Rise in prices, (ii) Scarcity of goods, (iii) Bad affect on quality of goods.
• Other Effects: (i) Adverse affect on International Trade (Fall in exports and rise in imports), (ii) Hindrance in Economic Development of the country, (iii) Uncertainty in economy.
To conclude, it can be said that almost all sections of the society suffer loss in one way or the other due to bad industrial relations. In order to maintain peace in industrial units it is of utmost importance that employers and workers should make constant endeavour to establish cordial human relations.

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[ 3 ]

Approaches to Industrial Relations

Industrial conflicts are the results of several socio-economic, psychological and political factors. Various lines of thoughts have been expressed and approaches used to explain his complex phenomenon. One observer has stated, “An economist tries to interpret industrial conflict in terms of impersonal markets forces and laws of supply demand. To a politician, industrial conflict is a war of different ideologies – perhaps a class-war. To a psychologist, industrial conflict means the conflicting interests, aspirations, goals, motives and perceptions of different groups of individuals, operating within and reacting to a given socio-economic and political environment”.

Psychological approach

The problems of IR have their origin in the perceptions of the management, unions and the workers. The conflicts between labour and management occur because every group negatively perceives the behaviour of the other i.e. even the honest intention of the other party so looked at with suspicion. The problem is further aggravated by various factors like the income, level of education, communication, values, beliefs, customs, goals of persons and groups, prestige, power, status, recognition, security etc are host factors both economic and non-economic which influence perceptions unions and management towards each other. Industrial peace is a result mainly of proper attitudes and perception of the two parties.

Sociological approach

Industry is a social world in miniature. The management goals, workers’ attitudes, perception of change in industry, are all, in turn, decided by broad social factors like the culture of the institutions, customs, structural changes, status-symbols, rationality, acceptance or resistance to change, tolerance etc. Industry is, thus inseparable from the society in which it functions. Through the main function of an industry is economic, its social consequences are also important such as urbanization, social mobility, housing and transport problem in industrial areas, disintegration of family structure, stress and strain, etc. As industries develop, a new industrial-cum-social pattern emerges, which provides general new relationships, institutions and behavioural pattern and new techniques of handling human resources. These do influence the development of industrial relations.

Human relations approach

Human resources are made up of living human beings. They want freedom of speech, of thought of expression, of movement, etc. When employers treat them as inanimate objects, encroach on their expectations, throat-cuts, conflicts and tensions arise. In fact major problems in industrial relations arise out of a tension which is created because of the employer’s pressures and workers’ reactions, protests and resistance to these pressures through protective mechanisms in the form of workers’ organization, associations and trade unions.
Through tension is more direct in work place; gradually it extends to the whole industry and sometimes affects the entire economy of the country. Therefore, the management must realize that efforts are made to set right the situation. Services of specialists in Behavioural Sciences (namely, psychologists, industrial engineers, human relations expert and personnel managers) are used to deal with such related problems. Assistance is also taken from economists, anthropologists, psychiatrists, pedagogists, tec. In resolving conflicts, understanding of human behavior – both individual and groups – is a pre-requisite for the employers, the union leaders and the government – more so for the management. Conflicts cannot be resolved unless the management must learn and know what the basic what the basic needs of men are and how they can be motivated to work effectively.
It has now been increasingly recognized that much can be gained by the managers and the worker, if they understand and apply the techniques of human relations approaches to industrial relations. The workers are likely to attain greater job satisfaction, develop greater involvement in their work and achieve a measure of identification of their objectives with the objectives of the organization; the manager, on their part, would develop greater insight and effectiveness in their work.

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 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 kosala.

Unitary Perspective

In unitarism, the organization is perceived as an integrated and harmonious system, viewed as one happy family. A core assumption of unitary approach is that management and staff, and all members of the organization share the same objectives, interests and purposes; thus working together, hand-in-hand, towards the shared mutual goals. Furthermore, unitarism has a paternalistic approach where it demands loyalty of all employees. Trade unions are deemed as unnecessary and conflict is perceived as disruptive.
From employee point of view, unitary approach means that:
• Working practices should be flexible. Individuals should be business process improvement oriented, multi-skilled and ready to tackle with efficiency whatever tasks are required.
• If a union is recognized, its role is that of a further means of communication between groups of staff and the company.
• The emphasis is on good relationships and sound terms and conditions of employment.
• Employee participation in workplace decisions is enabled. This helps in empowering individuals in their roles and emphasizes team work, innovation, creativity, discretion in problem-solving, quality and improvement groups etc.
• Employees should feel that the skills and expertise of managers supports their endeavors.
From employer point of view, unitary approach means that:
• Staffing policies should try to unify effort, inspire and motivate employees.
• The organization's wider objectives should be properly communicated and discussed with staff.
• Reward systems should be so designed as to foster to secure loyalty and commitment.
• Line managers should take ownership of their team/staffing responsibilities.
• Staff-management conflicts - from the perspective of the unitary framework - are seen as arising from lack of information, inadequate presentation of management's policies.
• The personal objectives of every individual employed in the business should be discussed with them and integrated with the organization’s needs.

Pluralistic-Perspective

In pluralism the organization is perceived as being made up of powerful and divergent sub-groups - management and trade unions. This approach sees conflicts of interest and disagreements between managers and workers over the distribution of profits as normal and inescapable. 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.Realistic managers should accept conflict to occur. There is a greater propensity for conflict rather than harmony.
They should anticipate and resolve this by securing agreed procedures for settling disputes.
The implications of this approach include:
• The firm should have industrial relations and personnel specialists who advise managers and provide specialist services in respect of staffing and matters relating to union consultation and negotiation.
• Independent external arbitrators should be used to assist in the resolution of disputes.
• Union recognition should be encouraged and union representatives given scope to carry out their representative duties
• Comprehensive collective agreements should be negotiated with unions

Marxist Perspective

The Marxist approach looks at industrial relations from a societal perspective. It views industrial relations as a microcosm of the wider capitalist society. The basic assumption of this approach is that industrial relations under capitalism are an everlasting and unavoidable source of conflict According to this approach, industrial conflicts are the central reality of industrial relations, but open conflicts are uncommon.15 The Marxist approach views industrial disputes as a class struggle and industrial relations as a politicized concept and an element of the class struggle. As per the Marxist approach, the understanding of industrial relations requires an understanding of the capitalized society, the social relations of production and the mechanism of capital accumulation.
The Marxist approach views the power relationship between the two classes, namely, the employer (capital) and the employee (labour), as the crux of the industrial relations. Both classes struggle hard to consolidate their respective positions so that they can have a greater leverage over the other in the process of bargaining. The proponents of this approach perceive that the employers can survive longer without labour than the employees can without work. As far as theory is concerned, the compensation payable to the employees is an outcome of the power struggle. For instance, the employers seek to maximize their profits by paying less compensation to the employees, while the latter resist such attempts, and this resistance results in industrial conflicts. However, the weakness of this theory is that it is narrow in approach as it views industrial relations as a product or outcome of the industrial conflict.

The System Approach

The system approach was developed by J. P. Dunlop of Harvard University in 1958. According to this approach, individuals are part of an ongoing but independent social system. The behaviour, actions and role of the individuals are shaped by the cultures of the society. The three elements of the system approach are input, process and output. Society provides the cue (signal) to the individuals about how one should act in a situation. The institutions, the value system and other characteristics of the society influence the process and determine the outcome or response of the individuals. The basis of this theory is that group cohesiveness is provided by the common ideology shaped by the societal factors.
According to Dunlop, the industrial relations system comprises certain actors, certain contexts, and an ideology, which binds them together and a body of rules created to govern the actors at the workplace and work community. The actors in the system are the managers, the workers and their representatives, and the government agencies. The rules in the system are classified into two categories:
Substantive rules and Procedural rules.
The substantive rules determine the conditions under which people are employed. Such rules are normally derived from the implied terms and conditions of employment, legislations, agreements, practices and managerial policies and directives.
The procedural rules govern how substantive rules are to be made and understood. Ultimately, the introduction of new rules and regulations and revisions of the existing rules for improving the industrial relations are the major outputs of the industrial relations system. These may be substantive rules as well as procedural rules." The context in the system approach refers to the environment of the system which is normally determined by the technological nature of the organization, the financial and other constraints that restrict the actors of industrial relations, and the nature of power sharing in the macro environment, namely, the society.

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[ 4 ]

Collective bargaining

In the work situation, an individual worker has to face many problems such as, low wages, long hours of work, loss incentive etc. These problems of an individual or few individuals cannot attract the attention of the employer because of their less bargaining power. The growth of trade union increased the bargaining strength of workers and enables them to bargain for their better conditions collectively.
Collective bargaining is a source of solving the problems of employees in the work situation collectively. It provides a good climate for discussing the problems of workers with their employers. The employees put their demands before the employers and the employers also give certain concession to them. Thus it ensures that the management cannot take unilateral decision concerning the work ignoring the workers. It also helps the workers to achieve responsible wages, working conditions, working hours, fringe benefits etc. It provides them a collective strength to bargain with employer. It also provides the employers some control over the employees.
The process of collective bargaining is bipartite in nature, i.e. the negotiations are between the employers and employees without a third party’s intervention. Thus collective bargaining serves to bridge the emotional and physiological gulf between the workers and employers though direct discussions.
The HR Labor Relations Manager directs the organization's labor relations agreement in accordance with executive level instruction and endorsement. They supervise labor relations support staff and serve as the management representative in labor negotiation, bargaining, or interpretive meetings

Meaning

The term collective bargaining is made up of two words, ‘collective’ – which means a ‘group action’ through representation and ‘bargaining’, means ‘negotiating’, which involves proposals and counter-proposals, offers and counter-offers. Thus it means collective negotiations between the employer and the employee, relating to their work situations. The success of these negotiations depends upon mutual understanding and give and take principles between the employers and employees.

Definitions

The phrase collective bargaining is made up of two words collective which implies group action through its representatives; and bargaining which suggests haggling and / or negotiating. The phrase, therefore, implies collective negotiation of a contract between the management’s representatives on one side and those of the workers on the other. Thus collective bargaining is defined as a process of negotiation between the employer and the organized workers represented by their union in order to determine the terms and conditions of employment.
Stevens: Collective Bargaining as a ‘social control technique for reflecting and transmitting the basic power relationships which underlie the conflict of interest in an industrial relations system.’
Prof. Allan Flanders: Collective Bargaining is primarily a political rather than an economic process. He describes collective bargaining as a power relationship between a trade union organization and the management organization. The agreement arrived at is a compromise settlement of power conflicts. Collective Bargaining has also been described as “the great social invention that has institutionalized industrial conflict” Dubin
Richardson says, “Collective bargaining takes place when a number of work people enter into negotiation as a bargaining unit with an employer or a group of employers with the object of reaching agreement on conditions of the employment of the work people”.
The ILO has defined collective bargaining as "negotiations about working conditions and terms of employment between an employer and a group of employees or one or more employees' organizations with a view to reaching an agreement wherein the terms serve as a code of defining the rights and obligations of each party in their employment relations with one another; fix a large number of detailed conditions of employment, and derivatives validity, none of the matters it deals which can in normal circumstances be given as a ground for a dispute concerning an industrial worker".
A collective bargaining process generally consists of four types of activities- distributive bargaining, integrative bargaining, attitudinal restructuring and intra-organizational bargaining.
Distributive bargaining:
It involves haggling over the distribution of surplus. Under it, the economic issues like wages, salaries and bonus are discussed. In distributive bargaining, one party’s gain is another party’s loss. This is most commonly explained in terms of a pie. Disputants can work together to make the pie bigger, so there is enough for both of them to have as much as they want, or they can focus on cutting the pie up, trying to get as much as they can for themselves. In general, distributive bargaining tends to be more competitive. This type of bargaining is also known as conjunctive bargaining.
Integrative bargaining:
This involves negotiation of an issue on which both the parties may gain, or at least neither party loses. For example, representatives of employer and employee sides may bargain over the better training programme or a better job evaluation method. Here, both the parties are trying to make more of something. In general, it tends to be more cooperative than distributive bargaining. This type of bargaining is also known as cooperative bargaining.
Attitudinal restructuring:
This involves shaping and reshaping some attitudes like trust or distrust, friendliness or hostility between labor and management. When there is a backlog of bitterness between both the parties, attitudinal restructuring is required to maintain smooth and harmonious industrial relations. It develops a bargaining environment and creates trust and cooperation among the parties.
Intra-organizational bargaining:
It generally aims at resolving internal conflicts. This is a type of maneuvering to achieve consensus with the workers and management. Even within the union, there may be differences between groups. For example, skilled workers may feel that they are neglected or women workers may feel that their interests are not looked after properly. Within the management also, there may be differences. Trade unions maneuver to achieve consensus among the conflicting groups.

Characteristics Of Collective Bargaining

• It is a group process, wherein one group, representing the employers, and the other, representing the employees, sit together to negotiate terms of employment.
• Negotiations form an important aspect of the process of collective bargaining i.e., there is considerable scope for discussion, compromise or mutual give and take in collective bargaining.
• Collective bargaining is a formalized process by which employers and independent trade unions negotiate terms and conditions of employment and the ways in which certain employment-related issues are to be regulated at national, organizational and workplace levels.
• Collective bargaining is a process in the sense that it consists of a number of steps. It begins with the presentation of the charter of demands and ends with reaching an agreement, which would serve as the basic law governing labor management relations over a period of time in an enterprise. Moreover, it is flexible process and not fixed or static. Mutual trust and understanding serve as the by products of harmonious relations between the two parties.
• It a bipartite process. This means there are always two parties involved in the process of collective bargaining. The negotiations generally take place between the employees and the management. It is a form of participation.
• Collective bargaining is a complementary process i.e. each party needs something that the other party has; labor can increase productivity and management can pay better for their efforts.
• Collective bargaining tends to improve the relations between workers and the union on the one hand and the employer on the other.
• Collective Bargaining is continuous process. It enables industrial democracy to be effective. It uses cooperation and consensus for settling disputes rather than conflict and confrontation.
• Collective bargaining takes into account day to day changes, policies, potentialities, capacities and interests.
• It is a political activity frequently undertaken by professional negotiators.

The collective bargaining process comprises of five core steps:

1. Prepare: This phase involves composition of a negotiation team. The negotiation team should consist of representatives of both the parties with adequate knowledge and skills for negotiation. In this phase both the employer’s representatives and the union examine their own situation in order to develop the issues that they believe will be most important. The first thing to be done is to determine whether there is actually any reason to negotiate at all. A correct understanding of the main issues to be covered and intimate knowledge of operations, working conditions, production norms and other relevant conditions is required.
2. Discuss: Here, the parties decide the ground rules that will guide the negotiations. A process well begun is half done and this is no less true in case of collective bargaining. An environment of mutual trust and understanding is also created so that the collective bargaining agreement would be reached.
3. Propose: This phase involves the initial opening statements and the possible options that exist to resolve them. In a word, this phase could be described as ‘brainstorming’. The exchange of messages takes place and opinion of both the parties is sought.
4. Bargain: negotiations are easy if a problem solving attitude is adopted. This stage comprises the time when ‘what ifs’ and ‘supposals’ are set forth and the drafting of agreements take place.
5.Settlement: Once the parties are through with the bargaining process, a consensual agreement is reached upon wherein both the parties agree to a common decision regarding the problem or the issue. This stage is described as consisting of effective joint implementation of the agreement through shared visions, strategic planning and negotiated change.
Functions
Prof. Butler has viewed the functions as:
1. a process of social change
2. a peace treaty between two parties
3. a system of industrial jurisprudence
1. Collective bargaining as a process of social change
• Collective bargaining enhances the status of the working class in the society. Wage earners have enhanced their social and economic position in relation to other groups.
• Employers have also retained high power and dignity through collective bargaining.
2. Collective bargaining as a peace treaty
• Collective bargaining serves as a peace treat between the employers and employees. However the settlement between the two parties is a compromise.
3 Collective bargaining as an industrial jurisprudence
Collective bargaining creates a system of “Industrial Jurisprudence”. It is a method of introducing civil rights into industry. It establishes rules which define and restrict the traditional authority exercised by employers over their employees placing part of the authority under joint control of union and management.
In addition to the above, its functions include:
• Increasing the economic strength to employers and employers.
• Improving working conditions and fair wages.
• Maintaining peace in industry
• Prompt and fair redressel of grievances.
• Promoting stability and prosperity of the industry.

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[ 5 ]

Principles of Collective Bargaining

The success of collective bargaining is based on certain principles. These principles are to be followed by the employers and unions. Prof. Arnold. F. Campo has laid down certain principles for union and management, for management and for union.

For both union and management

1. Collective bargaining process should give due consideration to hear the problems on both sides. This will develop mutual understanding of a problem which is more important for arriving at the solutions.
2. Both the management and union should analyze the alternatives to arrive at the best solution.
3. There must be mutual respect on both the parties. The management should respect the unions and the unions should recognize the importance of management.
4. Both the union and management must have good faith and confidence in discussion and arriving at a solution.
5. Collective bargaining required effective leadership on both sides, on the union side and management side to moderate discussions and create confidence.
6. In collective bargaining both the union and management should observe the laws and regulations in practice in arriving at a solution.
7. In all negotiations, the labour should be given due consideration – in wage fixation, in working conditions, bonus etc.

For management

1. Management should think of realistic principles and policies for labour regulations.
2. The recognitions of a trade union to represent the problems is more essential. If there are more than one union, the management can recognize on which is having the support of majority of workers.
3. Management should follow a policy of goodwill, and cooperation in collective bargaining rather than an indifferent attitude towards the union.
4. Managements need not wait for trade union to represent their grievances for settlement. Management can voluntarily take m
easures to settle the grievances.
5. Managements should give due consideration to social and economic conditions of workers in collective bargaining.

For unions

1. Unions should avoid undemocratic practices.
2. Unions have to recognize their duties to the management also before emphasizing their demands.
3. Unions have to consider the benefits to all workers rather than a section of workers.
4. Strike lock-outs should be resorted to, only as a last measure. As far as possible they have to be avoided by compromise and discussion.

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[ 6 ]

Workers participation in Management

(The Constitution of India, Art 43A)
Article 43A of the Constitution of India deals with 'Participation of workers in management of industries' and falls under Part IV - Directive Principles of State Policy.
The State shall take steps, by suitable legislation or in any other way, to secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings, establishments or other organisations engaged in any industry.
This article was inserted by the Constitution (Forty-second Amendment) Act, 1976, s. 9 (w.e.f. 3-1-1977).
The High-powered Expert Committee on Companies and MRTP Acts headed by Justice Rajinder Sachar of the Delhi High Court has also made certain recommendations about provisions to be made for workers' participation in management of companies. (Vide paragraphs 18.127 to 18.143 of the Report). Parliament may take early steps to implement some of the recommendations made by the said Committee. It is significant that there is no recommendation made even in this Report about the right of trade unions to contest winding-up petitions. If the workers are issued shares then they would no doubt be entitled to participate in the winding-up proceedings as contributories. This may be one way of solving the problem by legislative means.
A process by which subordinate employees, either individually or collectively, become involved in one or more aspects of organizational decision making within the enterprises in which they work.
-------www.thefreedictionary.com
Workers’ participation in management is an essential ingredient of Industrial democracy. The concept of workers’ participation in management is based on Human Relations approach to Management which brought about a new set of values to labour and management. Traditionally the concept of Workers’ Participation in Management (WPM) refers to participation of non-managerial employees in the decision-making process of the organization. Workers’ participation is also known as ‘labour participation’ or ‘employee participation’ in management. In Germany it is known as co-determination while in Yugoslavia it is known as self-management. The International Labour Organization has been encouraging member nations to promote the scheme of Workers’ Participation in Management.
Workers’ participation in management implies mental and emotional involvement of workers in the management of Enterprise. It is considered as a mechanism where workers have a say in the decision-
The philosophy underlying workers’ participation stresses:
1. democratic participation in decision-making;
2. maximum employer-employee collaboration;
3. minimum state intervention;
4. realisation of a greater measure of social justice;
5. greater industrial efficiency; and
6. higher level of organisational health and effectiveness.
It has been varyingly understood and practised as a system of joint consultation in industry; as a form of labour management cooperation; as a recognition of the principle of co-partnership, and as an instrument of industrial democracy. Consequently, participation has assumed different forms, varying from mere voluntary sharing of information by management with the workers to formal participation by the latter in actual decision-making process of management.

Definitions:

The concept of WPM is a broad and complex one. Depending on the socio-political environment and cultural conditions, the scope and contents of participation change.
International Institute of Labour Studies:
WPM is the participation resulting from the practices which increase the scope for employees’ share of influence in decision-making at different tiers of organizational hierarchy with concomitant (related) assumption of responsibility.
ILO:
Workers’ participation, may broadly be taken to cover all terms of association of workers and their representatives with the decision-making process, ranging from exchange of information, consultations, decisions and negotiations, to more institutionalized forms such as the presence of workers’ member on management or supervisory boards or even management by workers themselves (as practiced in Yugoslavia).
The main implications of workers’ participation in management as summarized by ILO:
• Workers have ideas which can be useful;
• Workers may work more intelligently if they are informed about the reasons for and then intention of decisions that are taken in a participative atmosphere
• According to Keith Davis, Participation refers to the mental and emotional involvement of a person in a group situation which encourages him to contribute to group goals and share the responsibility of achievement.
• According to Walpole, Participation in Management gives the worker a sense of importance, pride and accomplishment; it gives him the freedom of opportunity for self-expression; a feeling of belongingness with the place of work and a sense of workmanship and creativity.
• Clegg says, “It implies a situation where workers representatives are, to some extent, involved in the process of management decision making, but where the ultimate power is in the hands of the management”.
• According to Dr. Davis, “it is a mental and emotional involvement of a person in a group situation which encourages him to contribute to goals and share responsibilities in them”.

Objectives of Workers Participation in Management

The objectives of workers’ participation in management are as follows:
• To raise level of motivation of workers by closer involvement.
• To provide opportunity for expression and to provide a sense of importance to workers.
• To develop ties of understanding leading to better effort and harmony.
• To act on a device to counter-balance powers of managers.
• To act on a panacea for solving industrial relation problems.
Gujarat High Court
Gujarat Kamdar Sahakari Mandal ... vs Ramkrishna Mills Ltd. on 7 April, 1994
The provisions of article 43A intended to herald industrial democracy and in the words of Krishna Iyer J., it marks the "end of industrial bonded labour". The Constitutional mandate is, therefore, clear that, the management of the enterprises should not be left entirely in the hands of suppliers of capital, but the workers should also be entitled to participate in it because in a socialist pattern of society the enterprise, which is the centre of economic area, should be controlled not only by suppliers of capital but also by labour, The workers, therefore, have a special place in a socialist pattern of society. They are not mere vendors of toil. They are not a marketable commodity to be purchased by the owners of capital. They are producers of wealth as much as capital. They supply labour without which the capital would be impeded and they are at the least equal partners with capital in the enterprise. It is in the light of the aforesaid Constitutional philosophy, that the scheme which is put forward by the society of workers is required to be approached.

Specific of Purpose of Workers' Participation

1. It helps in managing resistance to change which is inevitable. For the growth and development of industry, changes have to be welcomed, otherwise the organization will stagnate and be left behind. If the need for change is jointly felt by all partners of production its acceptance can be high. Workers' participation in change strategy can facilitate acceptable solutions with a view to secure effective and smooth implementations of decisions.
2. Workers' participation can encourage communication at all levels. Since both partners of production are involved in the decision-making there will be fewer changes of distortion and/ or failure in communicating the decision.
3. Joint decision- making ensures the there will be minimum industrial conflict an economic growth can be free form distracting strife.
4. Workers' participation at the plant level can be seen as the first step to establishing democratic values in society at large.

Elements of Participation

The term “participation” has different meanings for different purposes in different situations. McGregor is of the view that participation is one of the most misunderstood idea that has emerged from the field of human relations. Keith Davis has defined the term “participation” as the mental and emotional involvement of a person in a group situation which encourages him to contribute to group goals and share responsibilities in them. This definition envisages three important elements in participation. Firstly, it means mental and emotional involvement rather than mere physical activity; secondly, participation must motivate a person to contribute to a specific situation to invest his own resources, such as initiative, knowledge, creativity and ingenuity in the objectives of the organisation; and thirdly, it encourages people to share responsibility for a decision or activity. Sharing of responsibility commits people to ensure the success of the decision or activity.

Forms of Participation

Different forms of participation are discussed below:
Collective Bargaining: Collective bargaining results in collective agreements which lay down certain rules and conditions of service in an establishment. Such agreements are normally binding on the parties. Theoretically, collective bargaining is based on the principle of balance of power, but, in actual practice, each party tries to outbid the other and get maximum advantage by using, if necessary, threats and counterthreats like; strikes, lockouts and other direct actions. Joint consultation, on the other hand, is a particular technique which is intended to achieve a greater degree of harmony and cooperation by emphasising matters of common interest. Workers prefer to use the instrument of collective bargaining rather than ask for a share in management. Workers’ participation in the U.S.A has been ensured almost exclusively by means of collective agreements and their application and interpretation rather than by way of labour representation in management.
Works Councils: These are exclusive bodies of employees, assigned with different functions in the management of an enterprise. In West Germany, the works councils have various decision-making functions. In some countries, their role is limited only to receiving information about the enterprise. In Yugoslavia, these councils have wider decision-making powers in an enterprise like; appointment, promotion, salary fixation and also major investment decisions.
Joint Management Councils and Committees: Mainly these bodies are consultative and advisory, with decision-making being left to the top management. This system of participation is prevalent in many countries, including Britain and India. As they are consultative and advisory, neither the managements nor the workers take them seriously.
Board Representation: The role of a worker representative in the board of directors is essentially one of negotiating the worker’s interest with the other members of the board. At times, this may result in tension and friction inside the board room. The effectiveness of workers’ representative at the board depend upon his ability to participate in decision-making, his knowledge of the company affairs, his educational background, his level of understanding and also on the number of worker representatives in the Board.
Workers Ownership of Enterprise: Social self-management in Yugoslavia is an example of complete control of management by workers through an elected board and workers council. Even in such a system, there exist two distinct managerial and operative functions with different sets of persons to perform them. Though workers have the option to influence all the decisions taken at the top level, in actual practice, the board and the top management team assume a fairly independent role in taking major policy decisions for the enterprises, especially in economic matters.
Levels of Participation
Workers’ participation is possible at all levels of management; the only difference is that of degree and nature of application. For instance, it may be vigorous at lower level and faint at top level. Broadly speaking there is following five levels of participation:
1. Information participation: It ensures that employees are able to receive information and express their views pertaining to the matters of general economic importance.
2. Consultative participation: Here works are consulted on the matters of employee welfare such as work, safety and health. However, final decision always rests at the option of management and employees’ views are only of advisory nature.
3. Associative participation: It is extension of consultative participation as management here is under moral obligation to accept and implement the unanimous decisions of employees.
4. Administrative participation: It ensure greater share of works in discharge of managerial functions. Here, decision already taken by the management come to employees, preferably with alternatives for administration and employees have to select the best from those for implementation.
5. Decisive participation: Highest level of participation where decisions are jointly taken on the matters relation to production, welfare etc. is called decisive participation.
Pre-requisites for Effetive Participation
The pre-requisites for the success of any scheme of participative management are the following:
1. Firstly, there should be a strong, democratic and representative unionism for the success of participative management.
2. Secondly, there should be mutually-agreed and clearly-formulated objectives for participation to succeed.
3. Thirdly, there should be a feeling of participation at all levels.
4. Fourthly, there should be effective consultation of the workers by the management.
5. Fifthly, both the management and the workers must have full faith in the soundness of the philosophy underlying the concept of labour participation.
6. Sixthly, till the participative structure is fully accepted by the parties, legislative support is necessary to ensure that rights of each other are recognised and protected.
7. Seventhly, education and training make a significant contribution to the purposeful working of participative management.
8. Lastly, forums of participation, areas of participation and guidelines for implementation of decisions should be specific and there should be prompt follow-up action and feedback.

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[ 7 ]

Levels and Forms of Workers Participation In Management

Workers participation in management includes following.
• Workers participation in management provides a chance to employees in organisation's decision making process.
• The workers participation may be at the shop level, departmental level or at the top level.
• The workers participation in the management is that the willingness to share the responsibility and accept commitment by workers in executing decisions of management with consultation of workers.
• The workers participation is conducted through the mechanism of forums which provide for association of workers representatives.
• the idea behind worker's participation in management is to dole of self discipline and control among workers and for the smooth running of management.

levels of workers participation in management

workers participation may exist in all levels of management, however it may vary from management to management. Participation of workers in management is more likely at lower level and less involvement at top level of management. Broadly speaking there are following file levels of participation of workers in management.
1. Information participation of workers: It ensures that employees are able to receive information and express their views pertaining to the matters of general economic importance.
2. Consultative participation of workers: Under this kind of workers participation in management, May act as a consultant in the matters of workers safety, health and their welfare at workplace. Even so, ultimate decision lie in the hands of management, only employees views are considered as advise.
3. Associative participation of workers: This kind of workers participation in management is next level to consultative participation. under associative participation of workers in management, morally bound to accept and implement the opinion of employees.
4. Administrative participation of workers: Under this kind of participation of workers in management, workers the part in discharge of managerial functions. Here employees take part in decisions, which were already taken by the management, thereupon employees have to select the best from those decisions for the purpose of implementation.
5. Decisive participation of workers: Decisive participation is the highest level of workers participation in management, where employees and management together taking decisions on the matters related to workers welfare and production related issues.

Forms of Workers’ Participation in Management

The forms of workers participation in management vary from industry to industry and country to country depending upon the political system, pattern of management relations and subject or area of participation. The forms of workers participation may be as follows:
1. Joint Consultation Model
2. Joint Decision Model
3. Self Management, or Auto Management Scheme
4. Workers Representation on Board
1. Joint consultation model: In the joint consultation model the management consults with the workers before taking decisions. The workers represent their view through ‘Joint consultative Committees’. This form is followed in United Kingdom, Sweden and Poland.
2. Joint decision model: In this form both the workers and management jointly decide and execute the decisions. This form of participation is followed in U.S.A. and West Germany.
3. Self management of auto management: In this model, the entire control is in the hands of workers. Yugoslavia is an example to this model. Where the state industrial units are run by the workers under a scheme called ‘Self Management or Auto Management Scheme’.
4. Workers’ representation on board: Under this method, the workers elect their representative and send them to the Board to participate in the decision making process.
The workers participation in management maybe informal or formal. In the formal form of workers participation in management takes the formal structures such as Works Committee, Shop Councils, Production Committee, Safety Committee, Joint Management Councils, Canteen Committee etc. The informal form of workers participation may be such as the supervisor consulting the workers for granting leave, overtime, and allotment of worked or transfer of workers from one department to another.

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[ 8 ]

Employee welfare -Activities - Statuary welfare benefits

However, the (International Labour Organization) ILO at its Asian Regional Conference, defined labour welfare as a term which is understood to include such services, facilities and amenities as may be established in or in the vicinity of undertakings to enable the persons employed in them to perform their work in healthy, congenial surroundings and to provide them with amenities conducive to good health and high morale.
Welfare includes anything that is done for the comfort and improvement of employees and is provided over and above the wages. Welfare helps in keeping the morale and motivation of the employees high so as to retain the employees for longer duration. The welfare measures need not be in monetary terms only but in any kind/forms. Employee welfare includes monitoring of working conditions, creation of industrial harmony through infrastructure for health, industrial relations and insurance against disease, accident and unemployment for the workers and their families.
Labor welfare entails all those activities of employer which are directed towards providing the employees with certain facilities and services in addition to wages or salaries.

Labor welfare has the following objectives:

• To provide better life and health to the workers
• To make the workers happy and satisfied
• To relieve workers from industrial fatigue and to improve intellectual, cultural and material conditions of living of the workers.

The basic features of labor welfare measures are as follows:

• Labor welfare includes various facilities, services and amenities provided to workers for improving their health, efficiency, economic betterment and social status.
• Welfare measures are in addition to regular wages and other economic benefits available to workers due to legal provisions and collective bargainin.
• Labor welfare schemes are flexible and ever-changing. New welfare measures are added to the existing ones from time to time.
• Welfare measures may be introduced by the employers, government, employees or by any social or charitable agency.
• The purpose of labor welfare is to bring about the development of the whole personality of the workers to make a better workforce.
The very logic behind providing welfare schemes is to create efficient, healthy, loyal and satisfied labor force for the organization. The purpose of providing such facilities is to make their work life better and also to raise their standard of living. The important benefits of welfare measures can be summarized as follows:
• They provide better physical and mental health to workers and thus promote a healthy work environment
• Facilities like housing schemes, medical benefits, and education and recreation facilities for workers’ families help in raising their standards of living. This makes workers to pay more attention towards work and thus increases their productivity.
• Employers get stable labor force by providing welfare facilities. Workers take active interest in their jobs and work with a feeling of involvement and participation.
• Employee welfare measures increase the productivity of organization and promote healthy industrial relations thereby maintaining industrial peace.
• The social evils prevalent among the labors such as substance abuse, etc are reduced to a greater extent by the welfare policies.
Facts
India. TheFactories act >> was enacted in the year 1948. The main objective of this law is to maintain healthy, safety and welfare of every employee at workplace in factory . According to this law any factory with above 500 workers should have separate welfare officer, factory with 1000 above workers should have separate safety officer, for 500 workers should have ambulance facility and for above 250 workers canteen facility with concession should be provided.

Employee Welfare Benefits Schemes

Organizations provide welfare facilities to their employees to keep their motivation levels high. The employee welfare schemes can be classified into two categories viz. statutory and non-statutory welfare schemes. The statutory schemes are those schemes that are compulsory to provide by an organization as compliance to the laws governing employee health and safety. These include provisions provided in industrial acts like Factories Act 1948, Dock Workers Act (safety, health and welfare) 1986, Mines Act 1962. The non-statutory schemes differ from organization to organization and from industry to industry.

Statuary welfare benefits

The statutory welfare benefits schemes include the following provisions:
1. Drinking Water: At all the working places safe hygienic drinking water should be provided.
2. Facilities for sitting: In every organization, especially factories, suitable seating arrangements are to be provided.
3. First aid appliances: First aid appliances are to be provided and should be readily assessable so that in case of any minor accident initial medication can be provided to the needed employee.
4. Latrines and Urinals: A sufficient number of latrines and urinals are to be provided in the office and factory premises and are also to be maintained in a neat and clean condition.
5. Canteen facilities: Cafeteria or canteens are to be provided by the employer so as to provide hygienic and nutritious food to the employees.
6. Spittoons: In every work place, such as ware houses, store places, in the dock area and office premises spittoons are to be provided in convenient places and same are to be maintained in a hygienic condition.
7. Lighting: Proper and sufficient lights are to be provided for employees so that they can work safely during the night shifts.
8. Washing places: Adequate washing places such as bathrooms, wash basins with tap and tap on the stand pipe are provided in the port area in the vicinity of the work places.
9. Changing rooms: Adequate changing rooms are to be provided for workers to change their cloth in the factory area and office premises. Adequate lockers are also provided to the workers to keep their clothes and belongings.
10. Rest rooms: Adequate numbers of restrooms are provided to the workers with provisions of water supply, wash ba
11. sins, toilets, bathrooms, etc.
12. Maternity & Adoption Leave – Employees can avail maternity or adoption leaves. Paternity leave policies have also been introduced by various companies.
13. Medi-claim Insurance Scheme: This insurance scheme provides adequate insurance coverage of employees for expenses related to hospitalization due to illness, disease or injury or pregnancy.
14. Sexual Harassment Policy: To protect an employee from harassments of any kind, guidelines are provided for proper action and also for protecting the aggrieved employee. For more information go through - Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013
NON STATUTORY BENEFITS
Many non-statutory welfare benefits may include the following schemes:
Big Business, Bad Suppliers
Walmart
Walmart workers in some supplier companies in Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Nicaragua and Swaziland were denied minimum wages and mandated health care and they were forced to work overtime without compensation.
Apple Inc.
March, 2002: and Apple Company commissioned audit at Foxconn Electronics, with a big presence in China, had documented violations like unpaid wages, excessive over time and low salaries.
Sports goods major
the report said Adidas, Reebok, Nike and Puma were sourcing from companies whose workers suffered seven working days a week, 16 to 18 working hours a day, sexual harassment of women, and forced to do overtime without payment for over time.
Nestlé USA
Its suppliers have been accused of child labour, repression of workers rights, and violation of National health and in government the laws. In 2006, the International labour rights fund and Birmingham-based law firm filed a class action suit against Nestlé and some of its suppliers on behalf of former child slaves.
source: the economic times
1. Personal Health Care (Regular medical check-ups): Some of the companies provide the facility for ext
2. ensiv
3. e health check-up
4. Flexi-time: The main objective of the flextime policy is to provide opportunity to employees to work with flexible working schedules. Flexible work schedules are initiated by employees and approved by management to meet business commitments while supporting employee personal life needs
5. Employee Assistance Programs: Various assistant programs are arranged like external counseling service so that employees or members of their immediate family can get counseling on various matters.
6. Employee Referral Scheme: In several companies employee referral scheme is implemented to encourage employees to refer friends and relatives for employment in the organization.
APPROACHES TO LABOUR WELFARE
Approaches to employee welfare refer to the beliefs and attitudes held by agencies which provide welfare facilities. Some agencies provide welfare facilities inspired by religious faith, others as a philanthropic duty and the like.
The various approaches to labour welfare reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the agen¬cies which are engaged in welfare activities. Welfare facilities may be provided on religious, philanthropic or some other grounds. Moreover, the different approaches to labour welfare reflect the evolution of the concept of welfare. In bygone days, the government of the land had to compel the owner of an industrial establishment to provide such basic amenities as canteens, rest rooms, drinking water, good working conditions, and so forth, for their employees. Such compulsion was necessary because the employer believed in exploiting labour and treating it in an unfair manner. But times have changed, and the concept of welfare, too, has undergone changes. Many progressive managements today provide welfare facilities, voluntarily and with enlight¬ened willingness and enthusiasm. In fact, welfare facilities are not restricted to the workers alone. They have now been extended to the society in general. In other words, labour welfare has been extended to include social welfare. Tata Steel Works at Jamshedpur, for example, spends Rs 10 crore each year on social welfare. Brooke Bond have set up a free animal welfare clinic at Gevrai, Aurangabad, under the direct charge of a qualified veterinary doctor. Jindal Aluminium, Bangalore, maintains the famous Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences Centre and a public school for the benefit of the public. The Jindal Scholarship Trust has been set up, under which deserving students are given scholarships. The Hindustan Machine Tools has a big playground and a community hall, which are let out for competitions and functions.
A study of the approaches to labour welfare is desirable for the management, the workers and the general reader. For the general reader, a study of approaches is essential because his/her knowledge of the subject is incomplete without a knowledge of these approaches, and a knowledge of approaches enables the manager and the worker to have a better perspective on welfare work.
The approaches and their brief descriptions are:
1. The policing theory of labour welfare.
2. The religion theory of labour welfare.
3. The philanthropic theory of labour welfare.
4. The paternalistic theory of labour welfare.
5. The placating theory of labour welfare.
6. The public relations theory of labour welfare.
7. The functional theory of labour welfare.
8. The social theory of labour welfare.
Policing Theory
According to this view, the factory and other industrial workplaces provide ample opportunities for owners and managers of capital to exploit workers in an unfair manner. This could be done by making the labour work for long hours, by paying workers low wages, by keeping the workplaces in an unhygienic condition, by neglecting safety and health provisions, and by ignoring the provision of elementary human amenities, such as drinking water, latrines, rest rooms and canteens. Clearly, a welfare state cannot remain a passive spectator of this limitless exploitation. It enacts legislation under which managements are compelled to provide basic amenities to the workers. In short, the state assumes the role of a policeman, and compels the managers of industrial establishments to provide welfare facilities, and punishes the non-complier. This is the policing theory of labour welfare.8
Religion Theory
The religion theory has two connotations, namely, the investment and atonement aspects. The investment aspect of the religion theory implies that the fruits of today's deeds will be reaped tomorrow. Any action, good or bad. is therefore treated as an investment. Inspired by this belief, some employers plan and organise canteens and creches. The atonement aspect of the religion theory implies that the present disabilities of a person are the result of the sins committed by him/her previously. He/she should undertake to do good deeds now to atone or compensate for his/her sins. There is the story of a big Jain employer who firmly held the belief that the provision of welfare facilities for workers was outside the duties of the management. Whatever he did provide was under government compulsion and supervision. It so happened, however, that the children born to him died as soon as they were born. Later, his own health suffered. He felt that, as a compensation, or expiration or even as an investment in a good deed (punyam), he should liberally contribute to the creche in the factory (as well as to other child-welfare institutions), and also to medical services for his workers. Consequently, in this particular factory, there came to exist an excellent creche and a well-organised dispensary.9
Philanthropic Theory
Philanthropy means affection for mankind. The philanthropic theory of labour welfare refers to the provi¬sion of good working conditions, creches and canteens out of pity on the part of the employers who want to remove the disabilities of the workers. Robert Owen of England was a philanthropic employer, who worked for the welfare of his workers. The philanthropic theory is more common in social welfare. Student hostels, drinking water facilities, the rehabilitation of crippled persons, donations to religious and educational institutions, and so forth are examples of philanthropic deeds.
Paternalistic Theory
According to the paternalistic theory, also called the trusteeship theory, of labour welfare, the industrialist or the employer holds the total industrial estate, properties and the profits accruing from them, in trust. The property which he/she can use or abuse as he/she likes is not entirely his/her own. He/she holds it for his/her use, no doubt, but also for the benefit of his/her workers, if not for the whole society. For several reasons, such as low wages, lack of education, and so forth the workers are at present unable to take care of themselves. They are, therefore, like minors, and the employers should provide for their well-being out of funds in their control. The trusteeship is not actual and legal, but it is moral and, therefore, not less real.
Placating Theory
This theory is based on the assumption that appeasement pays when the workers are organised and are militant. Peace can be bought by welfare measures. Workers are like children who are intelligent, but not fully so. As crying children are pacified by sweets, workers should be pleased by welfare works.
Public Relations Theory
According to this theory, welfare activities are provided to create a good impression on the minds of the workers and the public, particularly the latter. Clean and safe working conditions, a good canteen, creche and other amenities, make a good impression on the workers, visitors and the public. Some employers proudly take their visitors round the plant to show how well they have organised their welfare activities.
Functional Theory
Also known as the efficiency theory of labour welfare, the functional theory implies that welfare facilities are provided to make the workers more efficient. If workers are fed properly, clothed adequately and treated kindly, and if the conditions of their work are congenial, they will work efficiently. Welfare work is a means of securing, preserving and increasing the efficiency of labour.
Social Theory
The social obligation of an industrial establishment has been assuming great significance these days. The social theory implies that a factory is morally bound to improve the conditions of the society in addition to mproving the condition of its employees. Labour welfare, as mentioned earlier, is gradually becoming social welfare.

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[ 9 ]

Occupational health and safety at workplace - legislation

Human resources professionals are assuming health, safety, and security responsibilities within organizations. Such responsibilities include the identification of hazardous conditions and practices, exposure control and mitigation strategies, legal compliance, development of a safety culture, and measurement of health, safety and security program effectiveness.
Occupational health and safety is a cross-disciplinary area concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment. The goal of all occupational health and safety programs is to foster a safe work environment. As a secondary effect, it may also protect co-workers, family members, employers, customers, suppliers, nearby communities, and other members of the public who are impacted by the workplace environment. It may involve interactions among many subject areas, including occupational medicine, occupational (or industrial) hygiene, public health, safety engineering,chemistry, health physics.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates the costs associated with repetitive strain injury (RSI) to businesses to be between $15 billion and $20 billion per year in the U.S. RSI in the workplace may be reduced by providing ergonomic workstation configuration and by providing appropriate pointing devices, monitors and keyboards to computer users.
USA.The National Whistleblower Center was established in 1988 to improve environmental protection, nuclear safety, and government and corporate accountability. Its primary goal is to ensure that disclosures about government or industry actions that violate the law or harm the environment are fully heard, and that the people who risk their careers to expose wrongdoing are defended.
Definition
Since 1950, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have shared a common definition of occupational health. It was adopted by the Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health at its first session in 1950 and revised at its twelfth session in 1995. The definition reads: "Occupational health should aim at: the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations; the prevention amongst workers of departures from health caused by their working conditions; the protection of workers in their employment from risks resulting from factors adverse to health; the placing and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment adapted to his physiological and psychological capabilities; and, to summarize, the adaptation of work to man and of each man to his job". This standard is based on the methodology known as Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)
Human resources professionals are assuming health, safety, and security responsibilities within organizations. Such responsibilities include the identification of hazardous conditions and practices, exposure control and mitigation strategies, legal compliance, development of a safety culture, and measurement of health, safety and security program effectiveness.
Elements of Workplace Safety and Health and legislation
• Safety: Involves protecting employees from injuries due to work-related accidents.
Facts
India. The Factories act 1948 >> was enacted in the year 1948. The main objective of this law is to maintain healthy, safety and welfare of every employee at workplace in factory . According to this law any factory with above 500 workers should have separate welfare officer, factory with 1000 above workers should have separate safety officer, for 500 workers should have ambulance facility and for above 250 workers canteen facility with concession should be provided.
Occupational Safety and Health Act 1970 is the law of United States governs safety and health of the employees working in factories or companies. This law prescribe safety and health measures to be followed and implemented to ensure safety and healthy working environment where employees are working especially in manufacturing places. United States gives emphasis on mass production which is only possible only through use of high-level of machines where ensuring safety of employee become must according to this law.
Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 is the principle Act in Malaysia is "To make provision for ensuring the safety, health and welfare of employees at working environment, for protecting employees or workers against risks maintaining safety or health environment in connection with the activities relating to manufacturing process and to establish the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.USA. The Fair Labor Standards Act was passed in June 1938. The main objective of the law was to establish minimum standards of living necessary for health, efficiency, and well being of workers. A major provision of the act was the establishment of a minimum wage, initially 25 cents an hour, along with a maximum workweek of 44 hours. Child labor standards were also enacted.
The United States Department of Labor is a Cabinet department of the United States government responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, re-employment services, and some economic statistics. Many U.S. states also have such departments. The department is headed by the United States Secretary of Labor.
The Employment Standards Administration (ESA) is the largest agency within the U.S. Department of Labor. The ESA enforces and administers a wide array of employment and labor laws, such as wages and working conditions, child labor, overtime and family and medical leave, equal employment opportunity, workers' compensation, labor unions, and employment standards and practices.
TAIPEI: Foxconn Technology Group, the top maker of Apple Inc's iPhones and iPads whose factories are under scrutiny over labour practices. Working practices at Foxconn's huge plants in China came under intense scrutiny in 2010 after a series of suicides among young workers. Last June three workers died in an explosion at a Foxconn plant in Chengdu, western China.
In Jan 2012 New York Times published an investigation into working practices at Apple supplier's plants in China that documented poor health and safety conditions and long working hours. In response Apple said the Washington D.C.-based Fair Labor Association would monitor conditions at supplier plants.
The unintended costs associated with irregular schedules, night shifts and extended hours are eroding the profits of American businesses, according to a study by Circadian Technologies, Inc. The profit-eroding factors for businesses with shift operations include lower productivity, higher absenteeism, greater employee turnover, increased health care costs, and more job-related accidents.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is the government's principal fact-finding agency for labor economics and statistics. The BLS is an independent national statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates essential statistical data to the American public, Congress, other federal agencies, state and local governments, business, and labor.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the most dangerous jobs in America are: timber cutters, fishers, pilots and navigators, structural metal workers, drivers-sales workers, roofers, electrical power installers, farm occupations, construction laborers, and truck drivers.
On an average U.S. workday, 152 workers will lose their lives as a result of workplace injuries and illnesses, and nearly 12,000 more will be injured. The workplace fatality rate has been cut by nearly 78% since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970.
• Health: Refers to the employees’ freedom from physical or emotional illness.
Facts
U.S. companies pay significantly higher employee health care costs in comparison to all other industrialized nations. U.S. companies take two approaches to address the higher costs associated with health care. They look for ways to reduce or eliminate health care costs through changes in coverage levels. They also try to reduce the number of individuals covered by eliminating jobs.
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), asthma costs nearly $14 billion in medical expenses and results in 14.5 million missed days of work for adults each year. Based on factors such as the prevalence of asthma, outdoor air quality, and smoking laws, AAFA identified the top three U.S. metro areas for the prevalence of asthma as Knoxville, Little Rock, and St. Louis.
Safety programs may be designed to accomplish their purposes in two primary ways. The first approach is to create a psychological environment and attitudes that promote safety. A strong company policy emphasizing safety and health is crucial. The second approach to safety program design is to develop and maintain a safe physical working environment.
• Physical Conditions: Conditions resulting from the workplace environment that include occupational diseases and accidents, such as:
o Repetitive motion injuries
o Back pain
o Cancer Etc.
• Psychological Conditions: Conditions resulting from the workplace environment that result from organizational stress and low quality of working life. These include:
o Dissatisfaction, withdrawal
o Mistrust in others, irritability

Safety Programs

Today, it has become clear that optimal health can generally be achieved through environmental safety, organizational changes, and different lifestyles.
a) Developing Safety Programs—Organizational safety programs require planning for prevention of workplace accidents. Plans may be relatively simple or more complex and highly sophisticated in order to fit the organization’s size. Top management’s support is essential if safety programs are to be effective. Tremendous economic losses can result from accidents.
1. Job hazard analysis: The main goal of safety and health professionals is to prevent job-related injuries and illnesses.
2. Employee involvement: One way to strengthen a safety program is to include employee input, which provides workers with a sense of accomplishment.
Facts
Software employees, More hours spent in front of computer screens is increasing incidents of eye stress and strain. Suggestions for reducing eye strain include: reduce glare by positioning computer monitors away from windows, position screens five to nine inches below line of sight, use drops for dry eyes or contact lenses, take a 20-second break every 20 computer work minutes.
b) Accident Investigation—Accidents can happen even in the most safety-conscious firms. Each accident, whether or not it results in an injury, should be carefully evaluated to determine its cause and to ensure that it doesn’t recur. The safety engineer and the line manager jointly investigate accidents—why, how, and where they occur and who is involved. Main causes that can create accidents at workplace are:
• Chance occurrences
• Unsafe working conditions
• Unsafe acts by employees
• Unsafe conditions
o Physical conditions
 Defective Equipment
 Inadequate Machine Guards
 Lack of Protective Equipment
o Environmental conditions
 Noise
 Dust, Fumes
 Stress
 Unsafe behaviors
c) Evaluation of Safety Programs—perhaps the best indicator that a safety program is succeeding is a reduction in the frequency and severity of injuries and illnesses.
d) Rationale for Safety and Health Trends—Firms are spending an increasing amount of money on safety. Reasons include; (1) profitability—employees can produce only while they are on the job, (2) employee relations—firms with good safety records can attract and retain good employees, (3) reduced liability—an effective safety program can reduce corporate and executive liability, (4) marketing—a good safety record may well provide companies with a competitive edge, and productivity—(5) an effective safety program may boost morale and productivity while simultaneously reducing rising costs.
Coca- Cola Company Health & Welfare Facilities:
Medical (including vision), Dental, Accidental Death & Dismemberment, Group Life Insurance, Dependent Life Insurance, Flexible Spending Accounts, Business Travel Accident Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, Survivor's Benefits Program and an Employee Assistance Program with confidential counseling services.

Ways to manage Safe and Healthy environment in organization

To cope with physical hazards and other hazards such as stress, unsafe behavior, and poor health habits, employers often design comprehensive safety and health programs. Among these are safety programs, employee assistance programs, and wellness programs.
a. Safety Programs
A safe working environment does not just happen; it has to be created. The organizations with the best reputations for safety have developed well-planned and thorough safety programs.
b. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
EAPs are programs designed to help employees whose job performance is suffering because of physical, mental, or emotional problems.
c. Wellness Programs
As health care costs have skyrocketed over the last two decades, organizations have become more interested in preventative programs. A complete wellness program has three components:
• It helps employees identify potential health risks through screening and testing.
• It educates employees about health risks such as high blood pressure, smoking, poor diet, and stress.
• It encourages employees to change their lifestyles through exercise, good nutrition, and health monitoring.
Facts
Many organizations are using "wellness management" as a proactive approach to employee health benefits. The emphasis is to identify preventable, long-term health problems that represent significant medical expenses, with the goal of prevention versus treatment. Employees with potential health problems work with health educators and coaches to plan and track their health progress.
d. Smoking in The work place
Numerous studies have concluded that workplace smoking not only is hazardous to employees’ health, but also is detrimental to the firm’s financial health. Increased costs of insurance premiums, higher absenteeism, and lost productivity cost huge amount a year. These factors, along with rising opposition from nonsmokers and widespread local and state laws, have spurred many firms into action, and the trend continues.
Effective safety programs share the following features:
• They include the formation of safety committee and participation by all departments within the company. Employees participate in safety decision and management carefully considers employee suggestions for improving safety.
• They communicate safety with a multimedia approach that includes safety lectures, films, poster, pamphlets, and computer presentations.
• They use incentives, rewards, and positive reinforcement to encourage safe behavior.
• They communicate safety rules and enforce them.
• They use safety directors and/or the safety committee to engage in regular self-inspection and accident research to identify potentially dangerous situations, and to understand why accidents occur and how to correct th em.

Policies to prevent workplace violence

Every organization should have a two-pronged policy in place to (a) prevent workplace violence and (b) to deal with violent incidents when they occur. An HR manager's major responsibility is to be certain that s election policies include careful screening and reference checking. Furthermore, the HR manager should take the lead to enforce policies pertaining to the fair treatment of employees. This may require training managers to recognize performance problems, refer troubled employees for counseling, and apply disciplinary procedures consistently.

Benefits of a Safe and Healthy Workforce

• More productivity
• Increased efficiency and quality
• Reduced medical and insurance costs
• Lower workers’ compensation rates and payments
• Greater workforce flexibility

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[ 10 ]

Occupational healthy and safety (Indian context)

Occupational health and Safety (Indian context)

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS
Psychologists are concerned with the theoretical considerations of accident causation and the research into accident control, through proper selection, training and education of the employee; and the social and psychological factors that influence the individual's behaviour in general. Engineers and safety officers usually render necessary practical advice on certain aspects of safety in the industry. They look upon prevention of accidents basically as an engineering problem to be tackled through proper designing of mechanical safety devices. In fact, accident prevention and safety are inter-related and, therefore, require a multi-dimensional approach. Its importance has increased because of large-scale industrialisation in which human beings are subject to mechanical, chemical, electrical and radiation hazards.
Industrial Accident and Industrial Injury
An industrial accident may be defined as "an occurrence which interrupts or interferes with the orderly progress of work in an industrial establishment." According to the Factories Act of 1 948, it is "an occurrence in an industrial establishment causing bodily injury to a person which makes him unfit to resume his duties in the next 48 hours." In other words, it is an unexpected event which is neither-anticipated nor designed to occur. It is always sudden for a gradual process does not constitute or accident.
An industrial injury has been defined as "a personal injury to an employee which has bee-caused by an accident or an occupational disease, and which arises out of, or in the course of, employment, and which would entitle such an employee to compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923."

Causes of Accidents

According to safety experts, there are three basic causes/factors that contribute to accidents in organisations. Chance occurrences, unsafe conditions and unsafe acts on the part of employees.

1. Unsafe Conditions (work-related causes)

: are the biggest cause of accidents. Such causes are associated with defective plants, equipment, tools materials, buildings etc. These can be termed 'technical causes.' They arise when there are improper or inadequate safety guards on machines; when machines break down; when improper personal: protection equipment is installed; when mechanical or construction designs are defective and unsafe and when control devices, which have been installed to make the operation of machines safe and accident free are lacking or defective; or when there is an absence of proper maintenance and supervision of these devices.
Thus, unsafe conditions include:
• Improperly guarded equipment.
• Defective equipment.
• Hazardous arrangement or procedure in and or around, machines or equipment.
• Unsafe storage; congestion, overloading.
• Inadequate safety devices.
• Wrong and faulty lay-out, and bad location.
• Improper illumination — glare, insufficient light.
• Improper ventilation — insufficient air charge, impure air source.
• Poor house-keeping.
The other work related causes of accidents are:
a) The job itself: Some jobs are inherently more dangerous than others, such as the job of craneman in comparison to that of the foreman. Similarly, work in some departments (like personnel) is inherently safer than the work in others (like production department).
b) Work schedules, accidents increase late in the day. They do not usually occur during the early hours of the work day. They are more frequent during the night shift. This is due partly to fatigue and partly to the fact that night is the period when one requires rest.
c) Psychological climate of the work place also affects the accident rate. Psychological, mental and emotional imbalances are at the root of several accidents.

2. Unsafe Acts:

These acts may be the result of lack of knowledge or skill on the part of the employee, certain physical defects and wrong attitudes. These acts include acts like:
• Operating without authority.
• Failing to secure equipment or warning other employees of possible danger.
• Failing to use safe attire or personal protective equipment.
• Throwing materials on the floor carelessly.
• Operating or working at unsafe levels of speed, either too fast or too slow.
• Making safety devices inoperative by removing, adjusting, disconnecting them.
• Using unsafe equipment or using equipment unsafely.
• Using unsafe procedures in loading, placing, mixing, combining.
• Taking unsafe positions, under suspended loads.
• Lifting improperly.
• Cleaning, adjusting, oiling, repairing, etc. or moving a dangerous equipment.
• Distracting, teasing, abusing, startling, quarreling, day-dreaming, horseplay.
Personal Characteristics also influence accident behaviours of individuals. For example, characteristics like personality and motivation serve as a basis for certain behaviour tendencies such as tendencies to take risks and undesirable attitudes.
Statutory Provisions for Safety In India Under the Factories Act, 1948
The Factories Act, 1948, >> insists the following preventive measures must be adopted in industrial establishments:
1. Cleanliness: Every factory should be kept clean and free from effluvia - from drain and
privy refuse, and from dirt. It should be whitewashed at least once in 1 4 months or painted at least once in five years. Floors should be swept and cleaned, at least once every week, with some disinfecting fluid.
2. Disposal of Wastes and Effluents: Effective arrangements should be made for their disposal and/or treatment.
3. Ventilation and Temperature: Provision should be made for the circulation of fresh air, and temperature should be maintained by building walls and roofs of such materials as would keep it within reasonable limits. High temperature may be controlled by whitewashing, spraying and insulating the factory premises and by screening outside walls, roofs and windows.
4. Dust and Fumes: Effective measures should be taken to prevent, or at any rate reduce, the inhalation and accumulation of dust and fumes. Exhaust appliances should be used near the point of the origin of dust and fumes.
5. Lighting: Sufficient and suitable lighting, natural or artificial or both should be made available in the factory premises,
6. Overcrowding: No room should be overcrowded. There should be at least 500 cu. ft. of space for every worker.
7. Drinking Water: A sufficient quantity of cool drinking water should be made available for the employees throughout the year, particularly during the hot summer months.
8. Latrines and Urinals: Adequate latrines and urinals should be separately provided for men and women employees.
9. First Aid Appliances: There should be an adequate number of boxes containing first aid materials, qualified personnel to administer first aid, and an ambulance or at least a room where an injured employee may be given first aid.
Safety Officer: where 500 or more workers employeed in factory, there should be safety officer
The role of a safety officer in an organization should be:
1. To formulate safety procedure, safety policy, safety requirements and standard of the company.
2. To promote schemes to guarantee observance of legal requirements.
3. To act as chairman or secretary or, in any other capacity on the works safety committees.
4. To promote formation of such committees, where they do not exist.
5. To administer safety suggestion schemes.
6. To organise safety education, training, publicity at various levels of companys operations.
7. To investigate the causes of industrial injuries and the circumstances leading to accidents.
8. To prepare and circulate accident stabilities.
9. To act in close liaison with governmental and non-governmental agencies.
10. To co-ordinate the safety effort of the company in every possible way.
11. To assess critically the safety performance of the organisation and if necessary, conduct safety training programmes and feedback sessions on an ongoing basis.
12. To perform the job of a salesman of safety to the top executives, and as a technician, planner, organiser and stimulator of safety.
INDUSTRIAL HEALTH
Importance of Industrial Health
Since a large number of workers spend a great deal of their time in an industrial setting, their environment is not usually conducive to a healthy life. Moreover, malnutrition, insanitary and psychological conditions, and the strains and stresses under which they live impair their health. "On the one hand, efficiency in work is possible only when an employee is healthy; on the other, the industry (in which he is employed) exposes him to certain hazards which he would not meet elsewhere and which may affect his health. It is with the intention of reducing these hazards and improving the worker's health that the discipline of industrial health came into being as a branch of public health in its own right." The symptoms of bad health area high' rate of absenteeism and turnover, industrial discontent and indiscipline, poor performance and low productivity. That is the reason why, when industrial health programmes are introduced, both employers and workers benefit. A reduction in the rate of labour turnover, absenteeism, accidents and occupational diseases have been the natural consequence of industrial health programmes. The other benefits, which cannot be easily measured, include reduced spoilage, improved morale, increased productivity per employee and a longer working period of an individual.
Occupational Hazards and Risks
Employees in an industrial establishment are often subject to certain health hazards and occupational diseases.
According to Roland Blake, the normal occupational health hazards may be classified into chemical, biological, environmental, and psychological hazards.5
Chemical substances, such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide, hydro-carbons, ozone, sulfuric acid, acetic acid, fumeric acid and tannic acid, limes and alkalies cause injury when they are absorbed by the skin, or when they are ingested or inhaled. The results are often disastrous. Workers may suffer from respiratory diseases, skin diseases, allergy, heart disease, cancer and neurological disorders, all of which often shorten life expectancy. The disease or sickness may be chronic or acute, and it may appear after a long dormant period, when it may be difficult or impossible to treat it effectively. Often, a disease may be difficult to diagnose because its symptoms are not apparent at all.
Gases, fumes and dust raised by such processes as grinding and crushing of stones or minerals may be inhaled by workers and cause a serious injury, or even death. Coalminers often suffer from what is known as "black lung" disease. Employees in manufacturing industries are often exposed to such health hazards as arise from dust and fumes, while those working on lead or zinc smelters often show indications of zinc or lead poisoning.
Among the biological hazards are included diseases which are caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses, insects, dietary deficiencies, excessive drinking, imbalances, allergies, brain fever, tetanus, emotional stresses and strains with their psychological concomitants of fear, rage, worry and anxiety. All these affect the health of employees.
Among the environmental hazards may be included radiation, noise, vibrations, shocks, and improper atmospheric conditions.
The increasing use of X-rays or radioactive isotopes exposes the workers, in an industrial setting, to the risks of undetected radiation, and may cause redness of eyes, and pain, genetic disorders, cancer, sterility or even death.
Noise is another serious problem. Many manufacturing processes are accompanied by such noise as is capable of impairing the hearing of a worker, making him irritable and inefficient,'and making it difficult if not impossible for him to hear any warning cries of an impending danger.6 It has been found that a worker may suffer substantial damage if the noise level is above 80 decibels (1,200 cycles per second). There may be temporary or permanent deafness, nervousness, difficulty in communication and loss of efficiency.
Occupational Diseases
Occupational diseases are the results of physical conditions and the presence of industrial poisonous and non-poisonous dust in the atmosphere. Raw materials, products, by-products and waste products may, in the process of being extracted or manufactured enter the body in such quantities as to endanger the health of the workers. For example, workers on lead (as cable makers, lead pipe makers, compositors, painters, plumbers, etc.) are subject to "painter's colic" or "wrist drop" disease which may result in loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, stomach pains, muscular and joint pains, anaemia and intestinal disorders; and it might even cause death.
The Schedule attached to Sections 89 and 90 of the Factories Act, 1948, specially mentions the following occupational diseases which have to be notified to the authorities under the Act:
1. Lead poisoning, including poisoning resulting from any compound at lead or its sequel,
2. Lead tetra-ethyl poisoning.
3. Phosophorous poisioning
4. Manganese poisioning or its sequel
5. Mercury poisoning.
6. Arsenic poisoning.
7. Poisoning from nitrous fumes.
8. Carbon bisulphide poisoning.
9. Benzene poisoning.
10. Chrome ulceration.
11. Anthrax.
12. Silicosis.
13. Poisoning from halogens or halogen derivatives of the hydro-carbon of the alphabet : series.
14. Pathological manifestations due to
1. Radium or other radio-active substances; and
2. X-rays.
15. Primary cancer of the skin.
16. Toxic jaundice due to poisonous substances.
17. Dermatitis due to the action of mineral oil.
18. Bysionosis.
19. Asbestosis.
20. Toxic anaemia.
21. Occupational or contract dermatitis caused by direct contact with chemicals and paints.
22. Loss of hearing induced by noise.
In addition to the above, the following diseases have been included under the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923:
1. a) Occupational contract caused by infra-red radiation;
2. b) Telegraphist's cramp; and
3. c) Begassoise.
Protection against Health Hazards
An industrial establishment should protect its employees against health hazards:
• By substituting a less toxic substance for the hazardous chemical, by isolating the process, or
• By providing protective clothing, handling and warning devices, and by providing safety education;
• By ensuring that firms using radiation in their manufacturing process insist that their employees
• wear badges which indicate the amount of radiation they have been exposed to;
• By controlling noise in factories, by segregating noisy equipment, by dampening vibration, or by redesigning noisy equipment or by the use of vibration-absorbing material at certain points. The employee may be asked to wear ear-coverings or ear-plugs;
• By devoting adequate attention to lighting, temperature, and atmospheric conditions, by controlling dust, fumes and gases, and by providing protective devices, clothing, goggles and shields.

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[ 11 ]

Industrial Disputes - causes of industrial disputes

Thus form the legal point of view, industrial dispute does not merely refer to difference between labour and capital as is generally thought, but it refers to differences that affect groups of workmen and employers engaged in an industry. Essentially, therefore, the differences of opinions between employers and workmen in regard to employment, non-employment, terms of employment or the conditions of labour where the contesting parties are directly and substantially interested in maintaining their respective contentious constitute the subject-matter of an industrial dispute.
The HR Employee Relations Manager directs the organization's employee relations function. They develop employee relations policies and ensure consistent application of company policies and procedures. In addition, they are responsible for employee dispute resolution procedures, performing internal audits, and taking appropriate action to correct any employee relations issues.

Causes of Industrial Disputes

Causes of industrial disputes can be broadly classified into two categories: economic and non-economic causes. The economic causes will include issues relating to compensation like wages, bonus, allowances, and conditions for work, working hours, leave and holidays without pay, unjust layoffs and retrenchments. The non economic factors will include victimization of workers, ill treatment by staff members, sympathetic strikes, political factors, indiscipline etc. (The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 governs rules for the settlement of disputes between the management of industrial establishments and workmen.)
• Wages and allowances: Since the cost of living index is increasing, workers generally bargain for higher wages to meet the rising cost of living index and to increase their standards of living. In 2002, 21.4% of disputes were caused by demand of higher wages and allowances. This percentage was 20.4% during 2003 and during 2004 increased up to 26.2%. In 2005, wages and allowances accounted for 21.8% of disputes.
• Personnel and retrenchment: (Forced lay-off of employees by a firm, usually to cut down its payroll.) The personnel and retrenchment have also been an important factor which accounted for disputes. During the year 2002, disputes caused by personnel were 14.1% while those caused by retrenchment and layoffs were 2.2% and 0.4% respectively. In 2003, a similar trend could be seen, wherein 11.2% of the disputes were caused by personnel, while 2.4% and 0.6% of disputes were caused by retrenchment and layoffs. In year 2005, only 9.6% of the disputes were caused by personnel, and only 0.4% were caused by retrenchment.
• Indiscipline and violence: From the given table, it is evident that the number of disputes caused by indiscipline has shown an increasing trend. In 2002, 29.9% of disputes were caused because of indiscipline, which rose up to 36.9% in 2003. Similarly in 2004 and 2005, 40.4% and 41.6% of disputes were caused due to indiscipline respectively. During the year 2003, indiscipline accounted for the highest percentage (36.9%) of the total time-loss of all disputes, followed by cause-groups wage and allowance and personnel with 20.4% and11.2% respectively. A similar trend was observed in 2004 where indiscipline accounted for 40.4% of disputes.
Facts
18-july-2012, India: leading car manufacturer Maruthi Suzuki, India, Maneser (Haryana), workers created violence by burning company's general manager human resource (Awanish Kumar Dev) to death, burnt down office furniture, several executives, managers, supervisors were attacked by them and the Japanese manager of the factory was also attacked. 91 workers were arrested for this brutal act done by them and they also caused damage to the company property.
The sequence of events began in the morning with a worker beating up a supervisor on the shop floor. Workers union alleges that this incident was caused due to the supervisor made objectionable remark against a permanent worker, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste category. When we opposed it, they misbehaved with us and suspended the worker that led to violence. But the management alleges that the workers' union prevented the management from taking disciplinary action against the worker. Finally management declared to temporary close down the car Manufacturing plant produces about 1600 units per day. In terms of value the per day loss is about Rs. 70 crores. Cars waiting for delivery to its customers were more than one lakh units that may take more than five months to begin delivery due to lockout.
As company manufactures market demanded key models Swift hatchback and Dzire sedan faces a huge backlog. Maruthi Suzuki competitors like Ford, Skoda and Hyundai get benefited in the market as many people shift to other brands in the view of long waiting period for delivery of cars from Maruthi Suzuki.
• Bonus: Bonus has always been an important factor in industrial disputes. 6.7% of the disputes were because of bonus in 2002 and 2003 as compared to 3.5% and 3.6% in 2004 and 2005 respectively.
• Leave and working hours: Leaves and working hours have not been so important causes of industrial disputes. During 2002, 0.5% of the disputes were because of leave and hours of work while this percentage increased to 1% in 2003. During 2004, only 0.4% of the disputes were because of leaves and working hours.
• Miscellaneous: The miscellaneous factors include
o Inter/Intra Union Rivalry
o Charter of Demands
o Work Load
o Standing orders/rules/service conditions/safety measures
o Non-implementation of agreements and awards etc.
Facts
There are four distinct generations working side-by-side in the workplace: traditionalist (1922-1945), baby boomer (1946-1964), generation x (1965-1980), and generation y (1981-2000). Research shows that people communicate based on their generational backgrounds. Understanding each generation may help reduce confrontations and misunderstandings, resulting in happier, more productive workers.

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[ 12 ]

Strikes ( Factory or Industry) | Definition of Strike | Types of Strike

Strike is a very powerful weapon used by trade unions and other labor associations to get their demands accepted. It generally involves quitting of work by a group of workers for the purpose of bringing the pressure on their employer so that their demands get accepted. When workers collectively cease to work in a particular industry, they are said to be on strike.
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve (of French: grève), or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines. In most countries, they were quickly made illegal, as factory owners had far more political power than workers. Most western countries partially legalized striking in the late 19th or early 20th centuries.
No doubt strike is the ultimate weapon in the hands of worker and labour laws also support strikes if it does in accordance with , if we go through the history of strikes and analyse, core reason we find ultimately is non payment of wages to workers by their employer, followed by irregular payment of wages and then less payment of the wages.
If we take very recent incidents of strikes in various industries, non payment of the wages were obvious reasons for resorting strikes by workers, real examples in 2012 year as follows
• KINGFISHER AIRLINES employees were on strike for several days for not paying salary by company for almost period of seven months. strike took many turns and aggregated subsequently employees agitations came on to roads as demonstrations against non payment of salaries. At worst, wife of an employee of this airlines had committed suicide due to unbearable financial crisis caused due non payment of wages for months to his husband.
• Chennai, March, 2012: Nurses employed at different hospitals did strike for almost 7 days against hospital managements for their demands.
• Hundreds of nurses, several of them junior staff, have struck work across major private hospitals in the city – Apollo, Fortis Malar and Madras Medical Mission – demanding a hike in basic salary to Rs 15,000, besides annual increments and leave benefits.

Causes of strikes:

• Strikes can occur because of the following reasons:
• Dissatisfaction with company policy
• Salary and incentive problems
• Increment not up to the mark
• Wrongful discharge or dismissal of workmen
• Withdrawal of any concession or privilege
• Hours of work and rest intervals
• Leaves with wages and holidays
• Bonus, profit sharing, Provident fund and gratuity
• Retrenchment of workmen and closure of establishment
• Dispute connected with minimum wages
Facts
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Oct-2012: the United States giant retail store the Walmart workers have decided to go on a nationwide strike on a busy day of store in different cities were Walmart store has been located. Payment of low wages, unfair labour practices, poor working conditions and cutting the holidays were the reasons for going on a nationwide strike at different cities by Walmart stores workers. Workers claim that they need to have additional benefits when they are putting additional efforts by working for long hours especially on busy day.

Types of Strike

1) Economic Strike:Under this type of strike, labors stop their work to enforce their economic demands such as wages and bonus. In these kinds of strikes, workers ask for increase in wages, allowances like traveling allowance, house rent allowance, dearness allowance, bonus and other facilities such as increase in privilege leave and casual leave.
2) Sympathetic Strike:When workers of one unit or industry go on strike in sympathy with workers of another unit or industry who are already on strike, it is called a sympathetic strike. The members of other unions involve themselves in a strike to support or express their sympathy with the members of unions who are on strike in other undertakings. The workers of sugar industry may go on strike in sympathy with their fellow workers of the textile industry who may already be on strike.
3) General Strike: It means a strike by members of all or most of the unions in a region or an industry. It may be a strike of all the workers in a particular region of industry to force demands common to all the workers. These strikes are usually intended to create political pressure on the ruling government, rather than on any one employer. It may also be an extension of the sympathetic strike to express generalized protest by the workers.
4) Sit down Strike:
In this case, workers do not absent themselves from their place of work when they are on strike. They keep control over production facilities. But do not work. Such a strike is also known as 'pen down' or 'tool down' strike. Workers show up to their place of employment, but they refuse to work. They also refuse to leave, which makes it very difficult for employer to defy the union and take the workers' places. In June 1998, all the Municipal Corporation employees in Punjab observed a pen down strike to protest against the non-acceptance of their demands by the state government.
5) Slow Down Strike: Employees remain on their jobs under this type of strike. They do not stop work, but restrict the rate of output in an organized manner. They adopt go-slow tactics to put pressure on the employers.
6) Hunger strike: in this form of industrial protest, workmen resort to fasting near the workplace in order to demand the employer to redress their grievances.
Bajaj Auto workers - two-day hunger strike
On January 7 and 8 of 2017 the hunger strike was held by workers to protest the management's anti-worker and anti-union activities. The strike was called by Vishwa Kalyan Kamgar Sanghatana which had stated that Bajaj Auto had adopted a strategy of terrorising and harassing workers. It stated that the union's active members have been transferred and issued false charge sheets and show-cause letters. Later, Bajaj Auto issued a statement regarding the hunger strike called by its workers. It states that "the facts are contrary to reasons being cited by Vishwa Kalyan Kamgar Sanghatana (VKKS).
The statement said, "As far as transfer/deputation of workmen from one plant to another is concerned, it has been a regular practice in the company to transfer the workmen on the basis of requirement of skills and need at other plants. In the present context, the union has filed four cases in the court challenging the transfer of workmen from Chakan to other plants. In three cases, where order has come, the Industrial Court, Pune, in its interim order, has held that the company has every right to transfer employees from one plant to other plants of the company. VKKS leadership is always unreasonable and raises unrelated demands. During last wage review, which was due from April 2013, the union had come up with a similar unrealistic demand of allotment of shares to workmen and resorted to strike which lasted for 50 days causing huge financial losses to the workmen and ultimately realised their mistakes and came back to work unconditionally. This time, it is the demand for reinstatement of dismissed workmen.The union should not raise the issues which are in fact non-existent and extend full support in growth and development of the company rather than creating unnecessary hindrances in smooth functioning of the company," the statement mentioned.
Bajaj Auto says that various proposals were made to the union for the salary increase, and negotiation was about to conclude. However, the union put forth an unreasonable demand of reinstatement of the workers of Chakan plant who were dismissed in the year 2013-14 from the services of the company for committing various acts of misconduct. Their cases are pending for adjudication before the court.
7) Wild cat strikes: These strikes are conducted by workers or employees without the authority and consent of unions. In 2004, a significant number of advocated went on wildcat strike at the City Civil Court premises in Bangalore. They were protesting against some remarks allegedly made against them by an Assistant Commissioner.
Strike hits flight services at Frankfurt
Berlin, Feb 18, 2012: A small group of airfield traffic controllers caused severe disruptions to the flight operations at Germany’s Frankfurt airport for the second day as they stepped up their strike demanding shorter working hours and higher salaries.
Around 200 traffic controllers guiding the taxiing of aircraft on the tarmac, who struck work between 8 pm and 10 pm local time , forced the cancellation of around 300 flights at Germany’s largest airport.
“Airfield traffic controllers are determined to continue our strike until our demands are met,” GdF management board member, Mr Markus Siebers, told a German TV channel.
A seven-hour warning strike held on 14-2-2012 afternoon led to the cancellation of more than 170 flights and severe disruption to the flight operations.
They have been demanding between 40 and 50 per cent increase in their average annual salary of €45,000 and around ten per cent cut in their working hours to compensate for what they claim a “sharp increase in their workload” since the airport opened its fourth runway.
Cancellation of flights for the first two days of the strike, Fraport expects a loss of €4 million, the spokesman said.
Legal provisions on strikes in India
According to Industrial Disputes Act 1947, a strike is “a cessation of work by a body of persons employed in an industry acting in combination; or a concerted refusal of any number of persons who are or have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment; or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of such persons to continue to work or to accept employment”.
This definition throws light on a few aspects of a strike. Firstly, a strike is a referred to as stoppage of work by a group of workers employed in a particular industry. Secondly, it also includes the refusal of a number of employees to continue work under their employer.
In a strike, a group of workers agree to stop working to protest against something they think is unfair where they work. Labors withhold their services in order to pressurize their employment or government to meet their demands. Demands made by strikers can range from asking for higher wages or better benefits to seeking changes in the workplace environment. Strikes sometimes occur so that employers listen more carefully to the workers and address their problems.
According to Industrial Disputes Act 1947, Strike (Sec. 2 (q)): Strike means "a cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any industry acting in combination or a concerted refusal under a common understanding of any number of persons who are or have been so employed, to continue to work or to accept employment". Mere stoppage of work does not come within the meaning of strike unless it can be shown that such stoppage of work was a concerted action for the enforcement of an industrial demand.
PROCEDURE OF STRIKES IN INDIA
According to Sec. 22(1)
No person employed in a public utility service shall go on strike in breach of contract-
(a) without giving to the employer notice of strike, as hereinafter provided, within six weeks before striking; or
(b) within fourteen days of giving such notice; or
(c) before the expiry of the date of strike specified in any such notice as aforesaid; or
(d) during the pendency of any conciliation proceedings before a conciliation officer and seven days after the conclusion of such proceedings.
Significance of "within fourteen days & within six weeks":¬
The clauses 'a' and 'b' appearing in sub-section (1) of Section 22 are significantly incorporated to prohibit the workmen from going on strike without giving a minimum of 14 days' notice to the employer, a copy of which is also served on the Conciliation Officer. The purpose is quite obvious. It intends to give some time for the employer to consider. over the demands of the workers who are now appeared to be more serious to go on strike in furtherance of their . demand. It also imposes statutory obligation on the Conciliation Officer to commence conciliation proceedings immediately so that the strife between the workmen and employer shall not result in stoppage of work and production.
The sub-section(l) also prohibits the workers from going on strike before the expiry of the date mentioned in the strike (clause (c)). It necessarily follows that such date can be fixed after the period of fourteen days during which workers cannot go on strike (clause b). Now in clause (a) the phrase “within six weeks before striking” is incorporated to determine the effectiveness of the notice given by the workmen. In other words the notice of strike given by the workmen in accordance with Section 22 will be effective only for a period of six weeks, after the expiry of which, another fresh notice would be required. This can be explained more clearly by an example. Suppose workmen give a notice of strike under Section 22 on 1.1.2001 and fix the date to go on strike as 20.1.2001. Now they cannot go on strike before 20.1.2001 as is required under clause c. They cannot fix any date in the notice in this case before 14.1.2001 as they are prevented from going on strike “within 14 days” of giving such notice by virtue of clause (b). Thus the requirements of both the clauses (b) and (c) arc complied with. Now suppose workmen do not go on strike on or after 20.1.2001, the date fixed by them in the notice of strike and kept quite for several months. Then suddenly they go on strike on any day after several months. This situation would defeat the very purpose of the I.D. Act to avert stoppage of
work. Therefore to avoid such situation it is laid down in clause (a) that the workmen cannot go on strike “without giving to the employer notice of strike within six weeks before striking”. It means that, in this example, the workmen cannot go on strike in consequence to their notice given on 1.1.2001 after the expiry of six weeks i.e. 15.2.2001, thus the effect of the notice is confined to a period of six weeks requiring the notice “within six weeks before striking”.
Lastly the workmen cannot go on strike during the period of pendency of any conciliation proceeding before the Conciliation Officer and seven days after the conclusion of such proceedings (clause d).
Same conditions are incorporated under sub-section (2) relating to the employers who, too, cannot declare lockout without following the requirements laid down in clauses (a) to (d) of sub-section 2.
It must be noted .hat Section 2? of the I.D. Act does not totally prohibit the strike or lockout, but requires the parties engaged in Public Utility Service to give notice before resorting to the double-edged weapon of strike or lockout. This was also clarified by Court in State of Bihar v. Deodhar Jha
Facts
New Delhi,2012: Air India pilots was called for strike on May 7 and continued till July 3, is the second longest strike Indian aviation history, has caused loss of Rs. 600 crores to Air India Management. The reasons behind commencement of strike by Air India pilots were irregularities and non-payment of salaries to pilots by Air India management. On this reason 101 pilots were dismissed from the services for not attending their duties to run flights and for causing loss to the management and Air India management approached the Delhi High Court requesting it to consider as illegal strike by pilots. Delhi High Court supported Air India management and declared it as illegal strike on the grounds of not following the procedure of strike. On July 4 Delhi High Court gave them 48 hours to join duty and asked the management to consider their grievances. Pilots on strike have agreed to join duties and also demanded to reinstate dismissed pilots into the services.
Air India management is believed to have offered to withdraw legal proceedings on 11-july-2012 related to the pilots' strike during negotiations before the Deputy Labour Commissioner but little headway was made on the issue of reinstatement of 101 sacked pilots.
On day two of the conciliation (mediation) proceedings, it is understood that there was some amount of cooling off from both sides which had remained adamant on their respective stands on key issues.
In France
In France, the right to strike is recognized and guaranteed by the Constitution.
A "minimum service" during strikes in public transport was a promise of Nicolas Sarkozy during his campaign for the French presidential election. A law "on social dialogue and continuity of public service in regular terrestrial transports of passengers" was adopted on August 12, 2007, and it took effect on 1 January 2008.
This law, amongst other measures, forces certain categories of public transport workers (such as train and bus drivers) to declare to their employer 48 hours in advance if they intend to go on strike. Should they go on strike without having declared their intention to do so beforehand, they leave themselves open to sanctions.
The unions did and still do oppose this law and argue these 48 hours are used not only to pressure the workers but also to keep files on the more militant workers, who will more easily be undermined in their careers by the employers. Most importantly, they argue this law prevents the more hesitant workers from making the decision to join the strike the day before, once they've been convinced to do so by their colleagues and more particularly the union militants, who maximise their efforts in building the strike (by handing out leaflets, organising meetings, discussing the demands with their colleagues) in the last few days preceding the strike. This law makes it also more difficult for the strike to spread rapidly to other workers, as they are required to wait at least 48 hours before joining the strike.
This law also makes it easier for the employers to organise the production as it may use its human resources more effectively, knowing beforehand who is going to be at work and not, thus undermining, albeit not that much, the effects of the strike.
However, this law has not had much effect as strikes in public transports still occur in France and at times, the workers refuse to comply by the rules of this law. The public transport industry - public or privately owned - remains very militant in France and keen on taking strike action when their interests are threatened by the employers or the government.
The public transport workers in France, in particular the "Cheminots" (employees of the national French railway company) are often seen as the most radical "vanguard" of the French working class. This law has not, in the eyes of many, changed this fact.
In the United Kingdom
The Industrial Relations Act 1971 was repealed through the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974, sections of which were repealed by the Employment Act 1982.
The Code of Practice on Industrial Action Ballots and Notices, and sections 22 and 25 of the Employment Relations Act 2004, which concern industrial action notices, commenced on 1 October 2005.
Legislation was enacted in the aftermath of the 1919 police strikes, forbidding British police from both taking industrial action, and discussing the possibility with colleagues. The Police Federation which was created at the time to deal with employment grievances, and provide representation to police officers, has increasingly put pressure on the government, and repeatedly threatened strike action.
In the United States
The Railway Labor Act bans strikes by United States airline and railroad employees except in narrowly defined circumstances. The National Labor Relations Act generally permits strikes, but provides a mechanism to enjoin strikes in industries in which a strike would create a national emergency. The federal government most recently invoked these statutory provisions to obtain an injunction requiring the International Longshore and Warehouse Union return to work in 2002 after having been locked out by the employer group, the Pacific Maritime Association.
Some jurisdictions prohibit all strikes by public employees, under laws such as the "Taylor Law" in New York. Other jurisdictions impose strike bans only on certain categories of workers, particularly those regarded as critical to society: police and firefighters are among the groups commonly barred from striking in these jurisdictions. Some states, such as Michigan, Iowa or Florida, do not allow teachers in public schools to strike. Workers have sometimes circumvented these restrictions by falsely claiming inability to work due to illness — this is sometimes called a "sickout" or "blue flu", the latter receiving its name from the uniforms worn by police officers, who are traditionally prohibited from striking. The term "red flu" has sometimes been used to describe this action when undertaken by firefighters.
Postal workers involved in 1978 wildcat strikes in Jersey City, Kearny, New Jersey, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. were fired under the presidency of Jimmy Carter, and President Ronald Reagan fired air traffic controllers and the PATCO union after the air traffic controllers' strike of 1981.
PICKETING
When workers are dissuaded from work by stationing certain men at the factory gates, such a step is known as picketing. If picketing does not involve any violence, it is perfectly legal. Pickets are workers who are on strike that stand at the entrance to their workplace. It is basically a method of drawing public attention towards the fact that there is a dispute between the management and employees.
The purpose of picketing is:
• to stop or persuade workers not to go to work
• to tell the public about the strike
• to persuade workers to take their union's side GHERAO
Gherao in Hindi means to surround. It denotes a collective action initiated by a group of workers under which members of the management are prohibited from leaving the industrial establishment premises by workers who block the exit gates by forming human barricades. The workers may gherao the members of the management by blocking their exits and forcing them to stay inside their cabins.The main object of gherao is to inflict physical and mental torture to the person being gherao and hence this weapon disturbs the industrial peace to a great extent.

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[ 13 ]

Lockout (Factory or Industry) | Definition of Lockout | Reasons

Lockout means temporary shutdown of the factory by the employer, but not winding up (permanent) of the factory. Lockout of the factory maybe happened due to the failure in the management affected by internal disturbances or maybe by external disturbances. Internal disturbances maybe caused when the factory management goes in to financial crisis or got succumbed into financial debts, disputes between workers and workers, disputes between workers and management or may be caused by ill-treatment of workers by the management. Sometimes factory lockouts may be caused by external influences, such as unnecessary political parties involvement in management of workers union may be provoked for unjustified demands that may be unaffordable by the management, which may ultimately lead to lockout of the factory. Factory lockout is procedural aspects governed by the labour legislation of that country. Lockout of the factory is a major issue, which affects workers as well as management and cannot be initiated for a simple reason.
Unlike the strikes, lockout is declared by the management out of the consequences of clashes between management and the workers, due to unjustified demands by the workers.
Management Of Kairbetta ... vs Rajamanickam And Others on 24 March, 1960
Supreme Court of India court observed as follows;
"Just as a strike is a weapon available to the employees for enforcing their industrial demands, a lockout is a weapon available to the employer to persuade by a coercive process the employees to see his point of view and to accept his demands. In the struggle between capital and labour, the weapon of strike Is available to labour and is often used by it, so is the weapon of lockout available to the employer and can be used by him. The use of both the weapons by the respective parties Must, however, be subject to the relevant provisions of the I D Act. Chapter V which deals with strikes and lockouts clearly brings out the antithesis between the two weapons and the limitations subject to which both of them must be exercised."
When the lockout of the factory is illegal and justified, workers are not entitled to pay wages by the management, as the principal of 'no work no pay'. The question of illegality or unjustified of lockout, mainly arises when it has been done without issuing notice in advance to the workers. Besides, there must be justified reasons by the management to declare lockout of the factory, which ultimately affect earnings of the workmen and also the management.

Why the word 'lockout' ?

Lock made is not permanent that can be closed and opened. The word 'out' can be understood as keeping temporarily away management and employees from the factory, till settlement of the issues caused to lockout.
Factory lockout is the ultimate weapon in the hands of the management when an uncontrollable situations arises in the factory. No matter what it is factory lockout will cause great loss to the management and to the workers. If lockout re-occurs, it may become threat for the existence of the factory, which finally leads to the loss of the jobs of workers.
Kingfisher airlines of India went into losses amounts of 8,000 crores due to failure in meeting competition in the aviation industry eventually had not paid salaries to its employees for a period of six months which led to agitation among employees eventually resorted for strike. With the loss of Rs. 8,000 crores by Kingfisher airlines additionally got a burden of another Rs. 7,000 crores hence declare partial lockout by its top officials on 1st September 2012.

Lockouts in INDIA

lockout of any factory or industry is governed by the law called the Industrial Disputes Act 1947. According to section 22 of this Act, lockout of factory or industry must be done only after issuing prior notice to concern employees. If not, such lockout shall be treated as illegal lockout and concerned factory or industry shall be penalised according to the Industrial Disputes Act 1947.
A lockout is a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. It is declared by employers to put pressure on their workers to come to their way by consensus about settlement of issued lead to lockout. This is different from a strike, in which employees refuse to work. Thus, a lockout is employers’ weapon while a strike is raised on part of employees. According to (section 2(1)) of Industrial Disputes Act 1947, lock-out means the temporary closing of a place of employment or the suspension of work or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons employed by him.
According to Industrial Disputes Act 1947,Lockout (Sec. 2(1)): Lockout means "the temporary closing of a place of employment, or the suspension of work, or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons employed by him". Lockout is the antithesis of strike.
• It is a weapon of the employer while strike is weapon in the hands of workers.
• Just as the strike as a weapon in the hands of the workers for enforcing their demands, lockout is a weapon available to the employer to make their employees to come to their way and to make accept them to the management terms and conditions.
• The Industrial Dispute Act does not intend to take away these rights.
• However, the rights of strikes and lockouts have been restricted to achieve the purpose of the Act, namely peaceful investigation and settlement of the industrial disputes.
General Labour Unlon (Red Flag) ... vs B. V. Chavan And Ors on 16 November, 1984
Supreme Court of India expressed
"Imposing and continuing a lockout deemed to be illegal under the Act is an unfair labour practice."
PROCEDURE OF LOCKOUTS
According to Sec. 22(2)
No person employed in a public utility service shall go on Lockout in breach of contract-
(a) without giving to the employer notice of Lockout, as hereinafter provided, within six weeks before lockout; or
(b) within fourteen days of giving such notice; or
(c) before the expiry of the date of lockout specified in any such notice as aforesaid; or
(d) during the pendency of any conciliation proceedings before a conciliation officer and seven days after the conclusion of such proceedings.
THE REASONS BEHIND THE LOCKOUTS
• Disputes or clashes in between workers and the management.
• Unrest, disputes or clashes in between workers and workers.
• Illegal strikes, regular strikes or continuous strikes by workers may lead to lockout of factory or industry.
• External environmental disturbance due to unstable governments, may lead to lockouts of factories or industries.
• Continuous or accumulated financial losses of factory or industry, may lead to opt lockout by the management.
• Maybe lockout, if any company involves in any fraudulent or illegal activities.
• Failure in maintaining proper industrial relations, industrial peace and harmony.
Lockout of the factory is regarded as major issue which affects both management of the factory and their employees. Management should always monitor employees behaviour and relationship between employees and relationship in between management and employees To avoid disputes which leads to lockouts.
Facts
18-july-2012, India: leading car manufacturer Maruthi Suzuki at Maneser (Haryana), workers created extreme violence by burning alive company's general manager human resource (Awanish Kumar Dev) to death, burnt down office furniture, injured several executives, supervisors, managers and the Japanese manager of the factory was also attacked. 91 workers were arrested for this brutal act including causing heavy damage to the company's property. The sequence of events began in the morning with a worker beating up a supervisor on the shop floor. Workers union alleges that this incident happened due to the supervisor made objectionable remark against a permanent worker, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste category. When we opposed it, they misbehaved with us and suspended the worker that led to violence. But the management alleges that the workers' union prevented the management from taking disciplinary action against the worker. Finally management declared temporary close down of the car Manufacturing plant that produces about 1600 units per day. In terms of value the per day loss is about Rs. 70 crores. By then Cars waiting for delivery to its customers were more than one lakh units that may take more than five months to begin delivery due to lockout.
As company manufactures market demanded key models like Swift hatchback and Dzire sedan faces a huge backlog. Maruthi Suzuki competitors like Ford, Skoda and Hyundai got benefited in the market as many people shift to other brands in the view of long waiting period for delivery of cars from Maruthi Suzuki.
No payment for 2000 staff on August 1st,2012
Company decided that no one working at the Manesar plant will be given salary. According to the rule, after the company's lockout, workers are not paid till the time it (lockout) is revoked. The monthly salaries of its employees for the period before the incident, will be paid only after the lockout is withdrawn and the plant starts functioning. Workers had damaged everything like computers, server cables and entire data on July 18. Eventually company has no records of its employees and their duty-hours details for the entire month and finally company decided to pay its employees only after retrieving their data.
United States
In the United States, under federal labor law, an employer may hire only temporary replacements during a lockout. In a strike, unless it is an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike, an employer may legally hire permanent replacements. Also, in many U.S. states, employees who are locked out are eligible to receive unemployment benefits, but are not eligible for such benefits during a strike.
For the above reasons, many American employers have historically been reluctant to impose lockouts, instead attempting to provoke a strike. However, as American unions have increasingly begun to resort to slowdowns rather than strikes, lockouts have come "back in fashion" for many employers. Even as incident of strikes are on the decline, incidents of lockouts are on the rise in the U.S.
Recent notable lockout incidents have been reported in professional sports, notably involving the National Basketball Association in the 1995 offseason, the 1998–99 season and 2011 offseason, the National Hockey League in the 1994–95 and 2004–05 seasons, and the National Football League in the 2011 offseason. In 2005, the NHL became the first major professional sports league in North America to cancel an entire season due to a lockout.•

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[ 14 ]

Layoff / Laid off and Retrenchment

Layoffs and Laid off are the nomenclatures that convey the same meaning that is temporary refusal by an employer to give employment to an employee who is already employed. Many people get confused about the difference in between two terms but they are one and the same. The only difference is, Laid off is used in passive voice and its Past participle of Lay off. for an example:
Active voice: In this year, company lay off 100 employees.
passive voice: In this year,100 employees are laid off by the company

Meaning

Termination of employment (with or without notice) by the employer or management. Layoffs are not caused by any fault of the employees but by reasons such as lack of work, cash, or material. Permanent l h layoff is called redundancy. But in view of the Industrial disputes act, 1947 (India), layoff means temporary removal of employees because of deficit and shortage of inputs which are related to productivity, breakdown of machinery or effect of natural calamity. Layoff of employees does not mean that they are terminated from the job, such employees could be reinstated after revivifying of deficit or shortages which effected productivity.

Definition:

According to (section 2 (kkk)) of Industrial disputes act, 1947
"lay-off" (with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions) means the failure, refusal or inability of an employer on account of shortage of coal, power or raw materials or the accumulation of stocks or the break-down of machinery (or natural calamity or for any other connected reason) to give employment to a workman whose name is borne on the muster rolls of his industrial establishment and who has not been retrenched;
Explanation : Every workman whose name is borne on the muster rolls of the industrial establishment and who presents himself for work at the establishment at the time appointed for the purpose during normal working hours on any day and is not given employment by the employer within two hours of his so presenting himself shall be deemed to have been laid-off for that day within the meaning of this clause:
PROVIDED that if the workman, instead of being given employment at the commencement of any shift for any day is asked to present himself for the purpose during the second half of the shift for the day and is given employment then, he shall be deemed to have been laid-off only for one-half of that day:
PROVIDED FURTHER that if he is not given any such employment even after so presenting himself, he shall not be deemed to have been laid-off for the second half of the shift for the day and shall be entitled to full basic wages and dearness allowance for that part of the day;)

Dictionary meanings

When someone stops employing someone, sometimes temporarily, because there is no money to pay them or because there is no work for them -----dictionary.Cambridge
Temporary or permanent discharge of a worker or workers: -----Oxford Dictionary

Layoff

(in British and American English), also called redundancy in the UK, is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or (more commonly) a group of employees for business reasons, such as when certain positions are no longer necessary or when a business slow-down occurs. Originally the term layoff referred exclusively to a temporary interruption in work, as when factory work cyclically falls off. The term however nowadays usually means the permanent elimination of a position, requiring the addition of "temporary" to specify the original meaning.

Maximum days allowed to Layoff of employee by employer

According to section 25C of Industry and dispute Act 1947, maximum days allowed to Layoff of employee by employer is 45 days, for those days, employee who is laid-off is entitled for compensation equal to 50% of the total of the basic wages and dearness allowance that would have been payable to him,had he not been so laid off.
However, if this contingency is prolonging beyond a reasnable time, say 45 days, it would be matter of serious concern. both to the employer and to the workmen because both of them are put to a loss of 50% wages i.e. The employer is required pay lay-off compensation without extracting work from workmen and workmen too, would be losing 50% wages which he would have earned had he not been so laid-off. Therefore the parties can enter into an agreement not to continue lay-off after a period of 45 days in a year.

Retrenchment

Definition of retrenchment of employee
(Section 2(oo))
"retrenchments" means the termination by the employer of the service of a workman for any reason whatsoever, otherwise than as a punishment inflicted by way of disciplinary action but does not include-
(a) voluntary retirement of the workman; or
(b) retirement of the workman on reaching the age of superannuation if the contract of employment between the employer and the workman concerned contains a stipulation in that behalf; or
43((bb) termination of the service of the workman as a result of the non-renewal of the contract of employment between the employer and the workman concerned on its expiry or of such contract being terminated under a stipulation on that behalf contained therein; or)
(c) termination of the service of a workman on the ground of continued ill-health;)
In Duryodhan Naik v. Union of lndia, the Court held that the discharge of surplus labour by the employer• for any reason whatsoever, otherwise than as a punishment inflicted by way of disciplinary action is called retrenchment, but where the services of all workmen have been terminated by the employer on a real and bona fide closure of business or the undertaking is taken over by another employer, it has no application of retrenchment.
In Santosh Gupta v. State Bank of India, a female employee was discharged on the grounds that she failed to qualify herself in the prescribed test for confirmation of services. The Tribunal held that the termination does not amount to retrenchment. But the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Tribunal and ordered reinstatement of the employee with full back wages. The Supreme Court further held that the expression “termination of service for any reason whatsoever” is wide enough to include every kind of termination of service except those which are expressly excluded by the proviso to the definition of retrenchment as given in Section 2(oo)|.
In Tatanagar Foundry Co. v. Their Workmen, it was held that employer cannot lay-off the workmen with mala fide intention or by way of victimisation.

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[ 15 ]

Labour Courts for disputes in India

What is an industrial dispute?

Dismissal, etc., of an individual workman to be deemed to be an industrial dispute. Where any employer discharges, dismisses, retrenches or otherwise terminates the services of an individual workman, any dispute or difference between that workman and his employer connected with, or arising out of, such discharge, dismissal, retrenchment or termination shall be deemed to be an industrial dispute notwithstanding that no other workman nor any union of workmen is a party to the dispute.
(Section 2A) of the Industrial Dispute Act 1947.
If Central Government is of opinion that any industrial dispute exists or is apprehended and the dispute involves any question of national importance or is of such a nature that industrial establishments situated in more than one State are likely to be interested in, or affected by, such dispute and that the dispute should be adjudicated by a National Tribunal, (Section 10 (1A)) of the Industrial Dispute Act 1947.
Labourt Court cader: It is constituted in the cader of District judge or an Additional District Judge
The following are the disputes mentioned in the second schedule of the Industrial Dispute Act 1947, that are adjudicated and are dealt by labour courts in India.
THE SECOND SCHEDULE
Matters within the jurisdiction of Labour Courts
1. The propriety or legality of an order passed by an employer under the standing orders;
2. The application and interpretation of standing order;
3. Discharge or dismissal of workmen including reinstatement of, or grant of relief to, workmen wrongfully dismissed;
4. Withdrawal of any customary concession or privilege;
5. Illegality or otherwise of a strike or lock-out; and
6. All matters other than those specified in the Third Schedule.
THE THIRD SCHEDULE
Note: Where the dispute relates to any matter specified in the Third Schedule and is not likely to affect more than one hundred workmen, the appropriate Government may, if it so thinks fit, make the reference to a Labour Court.
1. Wages, including the period and mode of payment;
2. Compensatory and other allowances;
3. Hours of work and rest intervals;
4. Leave with wages and holidays;
5. Bonus, profit sharing, provident fund and gratuity;
6. Shift working otherwise than in accordance with standing orders;
7. Classification by grades;
8. Rules of discipline;
9. Rationalisation;
10. Retrenchment of workmen and closure of establishment; and
11. Any other matter that may be prescribed.

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[ 16 ]

Grievance procedure

Grievance means any type of dissatisfaction or discontentment’s arising out of factors related to an employee’s job which he thinks are unfair. A grievance arises when an employee feels that something has happened or is happening to him which he thinks is unfair, unjust or inequitable. In an organization, a grievance may arise due to several factors such as:
1. Violation of management’s responsibility such as poor working conditions
2. Violation of company’s rules and regulations
3. Violation of labor laws
4. Violation of natural rules of justice such as unfair treatment in promotion, etc.
Various sources of grievance may be categorized under three heads: (i) management policies, (ii) working conditions, and (iii) personal factors

1.Grievance resulting from management policies include:

• Wage rates
• Leave policy
• Overtime
• Lack of career planning
• Role conflicts
• Lack of regard for collective agreement
• Disparity between skill of worker and job responsibility

2. Grievance resulting from working conditions include:

• Poor safety and bad physical conditions
• Unavailability of tools and proper machinery
• Negative approach to discipline
• Unrealistic targets

3. Grievance resulting from inter-personal factors include

• Poor relationships with team members
• Autocratic leadership style of superiors
• Poor relations with seniors
• Conflicts with peers and colleagues
It is necessary to distinguish a complaint from grievance. A complaint is an indication of employee dissatisfaction that has not been submitted in written. On the other hand, a grievance is a complaint that has been put in writing and made formal.
Grievances are symptoms of conflicts in industry. Therefore, management should be concerned with both complaints and grievances, because both may be important indicators of potential problems within the workforce. Without a grievance procedure, management may be unable to respond to employee concerns since managers are unaware of them. Therefore, a formal grievance procedure is a valuable communication tool for the organization.

Grievance Procedure

Grievance procedure is a Step by step process an employee must follow to get his or her complaint addressed satisfactorily. In this process, the formal (written) complaint moves from one level of authority (of the firm and the union) to the next higher level.
Grievance procedure is a formal communication between an employee and the management designed for the settlement of a grievance. The grievance procedures differ from organization to organization.
1. Open door policy
2. Step-ladder policy
Open door policy: Under this policy, the aggrieved employee is free to meet the top executives of the organization and get his grievances redressed. Such a policy works well only in small organizations. However, in bigger organizations, top management executives are usually busy with other concerned matters of the company. Moreover, it is believed that open door policy is suitable for executives; operational employees may feel shy to go to top management.
Step ladder policy: Under this policy, the aggrieved employee has to follow a step by step procedure for getting his grievance redressed. In this procedure, whenever an employee is confronted with a grievance, he presents his problem to his immediate supervisor. If the employee is not satisfied with superior’s decision, then he discusses his grievance with the departmental head. The departmental head discusses the problem with joint grievance committees to find a solution. However, if the committee also fails to redress the grievance, then it may be referred to chief executive. If the chief executive also fails to redress the grievance, then such a grievance is referred to voluntary arbitration where the award of arbitrator is binding on both the parties.
GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE IN INDIAN INDUSTRY
The 15th session of Indian Labor Conference held in 1957 emphasized the need of an established grievance procedure for the country which would be acceptable to unions as well as to management. In the 16th session of Indian Labor Conference, a model for grievance procedure was drawn up. This model helps in creation of grievance machinery. According to it, workers’ representatives are to be elected for a department or their union is to nominate them. Management has to specify the persons in each department who are to be approached first and the departmental heads who are supposed to be approached in the second step. The Model Grievance Procedure specifies the details of all the steps that are to be followed while redressing grievances. These steps are:
STEP 1: In the first step the grievance is to be submitted to departmental representative, who is a representative of management. He has to give his answer within 48 hours.
STEP 2: If the departmental representative fails to provide a solution, the aggrieved employee can take his grievance to head of the department, who has to give his decision within 3 days.
STEP 3: If the aggrieved employee is not satisfied with the decision of departmental head, he can take the grievance to Grievance Committee. The Grievance Committee makes its recommendations to the manager within 7 days in the form of a report. The final decision of the management on the report of Grievance Committee must be communicated to the aggrieved employee within three days of the receipt of report. An appeal for revision of final decision can be made by the worker if he is not satisfied with it. The management must communicate its decision to the worker within 7 days.
STEP 4: If the grievance still remains unsettled, the case may be referred to voluntary arbitration.

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[ 17 ]

Methods of Identifying Employee Grievances

Methods of Identifying Grievances

The following methods can help the employer to identify the grievances:
1. Directive observation:
Knowledge of human behaviour is requisite quality of every good manager. From the changed behaviour of employees, he should be able to snuff the causes of grievances. This he can do without its knowledge to the employee. This method will give general pattern of grievances. In addition to normal routine, periodic interviews with the employees, group meetings and collective bargaining are the specific occasions where direct observation can help in unfolding the grievances.
2. Grip boxes:
The boxes (like suggestion boxes) are placed at easily accessible spots to most employees in the organisation. The employees can file anonymous complaints about their dissatisfaction in these boxes. Due to anonymity, the fear of managerial action is avoided. Moreover management’s interest is also limited to the free and fair views of employees.
3. Open door policy:
Most democratic by nature, the policy is preached most but practiced very rarely in Indian organizations. But this method will be more useful in absence of an effective grievance procedure, otherwise the organisation will do well to have a grievance procedure. Open door policy demands that the employees, even at the lowest rank, should have easy access to the chief executive to get his grievances redressed.
4. Exit interview:
Higher employee turnover is a problem of every organisation. Employees leave the organisation either due to dissatisfaction or for better prospects. Exit interviews may be conducted to know the reasons for leaving the job. Properly conducted exit interviews can provide significant information about the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation and can pave way for further improving the management policies for its labour force.

Principles or Guidelines for Grievance Handling

In handling grievances, a considerable amount of time must be spent in talking to employees; gathering data from them and passing on various types of information. Such talks to be most effective, should conform to definite patterns and adhere to well tested rules.
• The manager must seek to develop an attitude towards employees that should be helpful in gaining their confidence. The management should also display a sincere interest in the problems of employees and their constructive willingness to be to help to them with a view to gain not only their confidence but also their utmost loyal by and genuine cooperation.
• The procedure adopt by the management in handling the grievances must be apparent.
• Grievances should be handled in terms of their total effect on the organisation and not solely their immediate or individual effect.

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[ 18 ]

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Sometimes workplace issues are easier to solve when an impartial person helps to create the solution. Therefore, at various points in the discipline process, the employee or organization might want to bring in someone to help with problem solving. Rather than turning to the courts every time an outsider is desired, more and more organizations are using alternative dispute resolution (ADR). A variety of ADR techniques show promise for resolving disputes in a timely, constructive, cost-effective manner.
ADR is generally classified into at least four types: negotiation, mediation, collaborative law, and arbitration. (Sometimes a fifth type, conciliation, is included as well, but for present purposes it can be regarded as a form of mediation. See conciliation for further details.) ADR can be used alongside existing legal systems such as sharia courts within common law jurisdictions such as the UK.
ADR traditions vary somewhat by country and culture

Pros of ADR

• Much cheaper than formal litigation
• More relaxed procedure
• Fast moving and efficient
• Private and confidential
• Disputing parties are more in control of the process
• Informal investigation allowed
• Parties can agree to exchange documentation beneficial to the award
• Parties may select the arbitrator
• No jury of one's peers
In general, a system for alternative dispute resolution proceeds through the four stages shown in the figure below
1. Open-door policy. On the expectation that two people in conflict should first try to arrive at a settlement together, the organization has a policy of making managers available to hear complaints. Typically, the first "open door" is that of the employee's immediate supervisor, and if the employee does not get a resolution from that person, the employee may appeal to managers at higher levels. This policy works only to the degree that managers who hear complaints listen and are able to act.
Organizations such as Turner Brothers Trucking, Northrop-Grumman, Polaroid, and Citicorp consider one of the benefits of the peer-review svstem to be the sense of justice rhar it creates among employees. The peer-review system can be used as the sole method lor resolving employee complaints, or it can be used in conjunction with a step-review system. For example, it an employee is not satisfied with management's action at step 1 or 2 in the step-review system, the employee can submit the complaint to the peer-review committee for final resolution.
2. Peer review. If the people in conflict cannot reach an agreement, they take their conflict to a panel composed of representatives from the organization at the same levels as the people in the dispute. The panel hears the case and tries to help the parties arrive at a settlement.
3. Mediation. If die peer review does not lead to a settlement, a neutral party from outside the organization hears the case and tries to help the people in conflict arrive at a settlement. The process is not binding, meaning the mediator cannot force a solution.
Mediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties. A third party, the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate their own settlement (facilitative mediation). In some cases, mediators may express a view on what might be a fair or reasonable settlement, generally where all the parties agree that the mediator may do so (evaluative mediation).
The process is private and confidential. The presence of a mediator is the key distinguishing feature of the process. There may be no obligation to go to mediation, but in some cases, any settlement agreement signed by the parties to a dispute will be binding on them.
4. Arbitration. If mediation fails, a professional arbitrator from outside the organization hears the case and resolves it by making a decision. Most arbitrators are experienced employment lawyers or retired judges. The employee and employer both have to accept the person's decision.
Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons (the "arbitrators", "arbiters" or "arbitral tribunal"), by whose decision (the "award") they agree to be bound. It is a settlement technique in which a third party reviews the case and imposes a decision that is legally binding for both sides.

What are the advantages of arbitration?

Similar to mediation, arbitration as an alternative to litigation can allow for the saving of time and money to resolve a dispute. The parties can set limits on discovery and the issues to be decided by the arbitrator. These limitations can affect who will testify at the arbitration and what type of evidence will be allowed. The parties have more control of the arbitration process compared to court administered litigation, including where and when the hearing will be conducted. Monetary limits can also be set preventing an arbitration award from exceeding a certain value or assuring that a minimum monetary recovery is obtained.
Each stage reflects a somewhat broader involvement of people outside the dispute. The hope is that the conflict will be resolved at earlier stages, at which the costs, time, and impact of employees and other organizational stakeholders are lowest.

Mediation vs Arbitration

Mediation and Arbitration are generally contractually agreed upon substitutes for resolving disputes as opposed to resorting to a court to resolve it. The purpose and goals of Mediation and Arbitration, however, are quite different and often misunderstood.
The purpose of Mediation is to have the parties sit down with a neutral third party who tries to facilitate a monetary or other settlement to the dispute. Neither party has a legal obligation to settle the dispute, and any statements made during a Mediation are not admissible evidence in the event no settlement is reached. Mediation can be a highly efficient, cost effective tool. It can conclude quickly or it can take several hours as the mediator conducts multiple rounds of shuttle diplomacy between the parties. After many hours the parties feel personally invested in the process and neither wishes to leave without settling the dispute. It is important to remember, however, that because the mediator’s job is to get a settlement, regardless of its terms, it is up to you to determine if you can live with the settlement terms. In the event the Mediation fails and an Arbitration provision is not contained in the contract, you can enforce your rights in a court of law.
Binding Arbitration provisions, on the other hand, are a substitute for the formal process of a court. Binding Arbitration is typically conducted in front of one or three arbitrators and the Arbitration is much like a mini trial with rules of evidence. Arbitration typically proceeds somewhat faster than a case in court, and typically at a somewhat lower cost in attorney time and expense. The result of the Arbitration is final.
MEDIATION . . .
• Is a facilitated negotiation process
• Is an informal amicable resolution
• Allows the parties to clear the air and resolve misunderstandings
• Provides assistance from the Mediator to move forward
• Give both parties full control over the final resolution
• Is conducted by an experienced Mediation Officer who makes no decisions effecting the parties
• Resolution is NOT mandatory; parties can still go to Arbitration
• Is a Win-Win situation
ARBITRATION . . .
• Is NOT a negotiation process; it is a structured hearing
• Is a formal procedure decided by a hearing panel
• Allows the structured presentation of evidence, testimony and witnesses
• Gives the Panel full authority to decide the outcome
• Gives full control to the Hearing Panel
• Is conducted by a panel of experienced REALTORS who make the final decision and the award
• Hearing Panel decision is final
• Is a Win-Lose situation

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[ 19 ]

Arbitration & conciliation

ADR is generally classified into at least four types: negotiation, mediation, collaborative law, and arbitration. (Sometimes a fifth type, conciliation, is included as well, but for present purposes it can be regarded as a form of mediation. See conciliation for further details.) ADR can be used alongside existing legal systems such as sharia courts within common law jurisdictions such as the UK.
ADR traditions vary somewhat by country and culture

India

Alternative dispute resolution in India is not new and it was in existence even under the previous Arbitration Act, 1940. The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 has been enacted to accommodate the harmonisation mandates of UNCITRAL Model. To streamline the Indian legal system the traditional civil law known as Code of Civil Procedure, (CPC) 1908 has also been amended and section 89 has been introduced. Section 89 (1) of CPC provides an option for the settlement of disputes outside the court. It provides that where it appears to the court that there exist elements, which may be acceptable to the parties, the court may formulate the terms of a possible settlement and refer the same for arbitration, conciliation, mediation or judicial settlement.
Due to extremely slow judicial process, there has been a big thrust on Alternate Dispute Resolution mechanisms in India. While Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 is a fairly standard western approach towards ADR, the Lok Adalat system constituted under National Legal Services Authority Act, 1987 is a uniquely Indian approach.
Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996
Part I of this act formalizes the process of Arbitration and Part III formalizes the process of Conciliation. (Part II is about Enforcement of Foreign Awards under New York and Geneva Conventions.)

Arbitration

The process of arbitration can start only if there exists a valid Arbitration Agreement between the parties prior to the emergence of the dispute. As per Section 7, such an agreement must be in writing. The contract regarding which the dispute exists, must either contain an arbitration clause or must refer to a separate document signed by the parties containing the arbitration agreement. The existence of an arbitration agreement can also be inferred by written correspondence such as letters, talex, or telegrams which provide a record of the agreement. An exchange of statement of claim and defence in which existence of an arbitration agreement is alleged by one party and not denied by other is also considered as valid written arbitration agreement.
Any party to the dispute can start the process of appointing arbitrator and if the other party does not cooperate, the party can approach the office of Chief Justice for appointment of an arbitrator. There are only two grounds upon which a party can challenge the appointment of an arbitrator – reasonable doubt in the impartiality of the arbitrator and the lack of proper qualification of the arbitrator as required by the arbitration agreement. A sole arbitrator or a panel of arbitrators so appointed constitute the Arbitration Tribunal.
Except for some interim measures, there is very little scope for judicial intervention in the arbitration process. The arbitration tribunal has jurisdiction over its own jurisdiction. Thus, if a party wants to challenge the jurisdiction of the arbitration tribunal, it can do so only before the tribunal itself. If the tribunal rejects the request, there is little the party can do except to approach a court after the tribunal makes an award. Section 34 provides certain grounds upon which a party can appeal to the principal civil court of original jurisdiction for setting aside the award.
Once the period for filing an appeal for setting aside an award is over, or if such an appeal is rejected, the award is binding on the parties and is considered as a decree of the court.
Conciliation
Conciliation is a less formal form of arbitration. This process does not require an existence of any prior agreement. Any party can request the other party to appoint a conciliator. One conciliator is preferred but two or three are also allowed. In case of multiple conciliators, all must act jointly. If a party rejects an offer to conciliate, there can be no conciliation.
Parties may submit statements to the conciliator describing the general nature of the dispute and the points at issue. Each party sends a copy of the statement to the other. The conciliator may request further details, may ask to meet the parties, or communicate with the parties orally or in writing. Parties may even submit suggestions for the settlement of the dispute to the conciliator.
When it appears to the conciliator that elements of settlement exist, he may draw up the terms of settlement and send it to the parties for their acceptance. If both the parties sign the settlement document, it shall be final and binding on both.
Note that in USA, this process is similar to Mediation. However, in India, Mediation is different from Conciliation and is a completely informal type of ADR mechanism.
Conciliation is an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process whereby the parties to a dispute (including future interest disputes) agree to utilize the services of a conciliator, who then meets with the parties separately in an attempt to resolve their differences. They do this by lowering tensions, improving communications, interpreting issues, providing technical assistance, exploring potential solutions and bringing about a negotiated settlement.
Conciliation differs from arbitration in that the conciliation process, in and of itself, has no legal standing, and the conciliator usually has no authority to seek evidence or call witnesses, usually writes no decision, and makes no award.
Conciliation differs from mediation in that the main goal is to conciliate, most of the time by seeking concessions. In mediation, the mediator tries to guide the discussion in a way that optimizes parties needs, takes feelings into account and reframes representations.
In conciliation the parties seldom, if ever, actually face each other across the table in the presence of the conciliator.
Lok Adalat
It roughly means "people's court". India has had a long history of resolving disputes through the mediation of village elders. The system of Lok Adalats is an improvement on that and is based on Gandhian principles. This is a non-adversarial system, where by mock courts (called Lok Adalats) are held by the State Authority, District Authority, Supreme Court Legal Services Committee, High Court Legal Services Committee, or Taluk Legal Services Committee, periodically for exercising such jurisdiction as they thinks fit. These are usually presided by retired judge, social activists, or members of legal profession. It does not have jurisdiction on matters related to non-compoundable offences.
There is no court fee and no rigid procedural requirement (i.e. no need to follow process given by Civil Procedure Code or Evidence Act),
which makes the process very fast. Parties can directly interact with the judge, which is not possible in regular courts.
Cases that are pending in regular courts can be transferred to a Lok Adalat if both the parties agree. A case can also be transferred to a Lok Adalat if one party applies to the court and the court sees some chance of settlement after giving an opportunity of being heard to the other party.
The focus in Lok Adalats is on compromise. When no compromise is reached, the matter goes back to the court. However, if a compromise is reached, an award is made and is binding on the parties. It is enforced as a decree of a civil court. An important aspect is that the award is final and cannot be appealed, not even under Article 226 because it is a judgement by consent.
All proceedings of a Lok Adalat are deemed to be judicial proceedings and every Lok Adalat is deemed to be a Civil Court.

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[ 20 ]

Grievance Management in the USA

Unions and employers know that employee dissatisfaction is a potential source of trouble, whether it is expressed or not. Hidden dissatisfaction grows and creates reactions that may be completely out of proportion to the original concerns. Therefore, it is important that dissatisfaction be given an outlet. A complaint, which is merely an indication of employee dissatisfaction that has not been submitted in writing, is one outlet.
If the employee is represented by a union, and the employee says, “I should have received the job transfer because I have more seniority, which is what the union contract states,” and she submits it in writing, then that complaint is a grievance. A grievance is a complaint that has been put in writing and thus made formal. Management should be concerned with both complaints and grievances, because both may be important indicators of potential problems within the workforce. Without a grievance procedure, management may be unable to respond to employee concerns because managers are unaware of them. Therefore, a formal grievance procedure is a valuable communication tool for the organization.

Grievance Responsibilities

Table shows the typical division of responsibilities between the HR unit and line managers for handling grievances. These responsibilities vary considerably from one organization to another, even between unionized firms. But the HR unit usually has more general responsibilities. Managers must accept the grievance procedure as a possible constraint on some of their decisions. Management should recognize that a grievance is a behavioral expression of some underlying problem. This statement does not mean that every grievance is a symptom of something radically wrong. Employees do file grievances over petty matters as well as over important concerns, and management must be able to differentiate between the two. However, to ignore a repeated problem by taking a legalistic approach to grievance resolution is to miss much of what the grievance
procedure can do for management.
HR Unit
• Assists in designing the grievance procedure
• Monitors trends in grievance rates for the organization
• May assist in preparing grievance cases tor arbitration
• May have responsibility for settling grievances
Managers
• Operate within provisions of the grievance procedure
• Attempt to resolve grievances where possible "closest to the problem'"
• Document grievance cases for the grievance procedure
• Engage in grievance prevention efforts
Grievance Procedures
Grievance procedures are formal communications channels designed to settle a grievance as soon as possible after the problem arises. First-line supervisors are usually closest to a problem; however, the supervisor is concerned with many other matters besides one employee’s grievance, and may even be the subject of an employee’s grievance.
Supervisory involvement presents some problems in solving a grievance at this level. For example, William Dunn, a 27-year-old lathe operator at a machine shop, is approached by his supervisor, Joe Bass, one Monday morning and told that his production is lower than his quota. Bass advises Dunn to catch up. Dunn reports that a part of his lathe needs repair. Bass suggests that Dunn should repair it himself to maintain his production because the mechanics are busy. Dunn refuses, and a heated argument ensues; as a result, Bass orders Dunn to go home for the day.
The illustration shows how easily an encounter between an employee and a supervisor can lead to a breakdown in the relationship. This breakdown, or failure to communicate effectively, could be costly to Dunn if he loses his job, a day’s wages, or his pride. It also could be costly to Bass, who represents management, and to the owner of the machine shop if production is delayed or halted. Grievance procedures can resolve such conflicts.
In this particular case, the machine shop has a contract with the International Brotherhood of Lathe Operators, of which Dunn is a member. The contract specifically states that company plant mechanics are to repair all manufacturing equipment. Therefore, Bass appears to have violated the union contract. What is Dunn’s next step? He may use the grievance procedure provided for him in the contract. The actual grievance procedure is different in each organization. It depends on what the employer and the union have agreed on and what is written in the labor contract.
A unionized employee generally has a right to union representation if he or she is being questioned by management and if discipline may result. If these socalled Weingarten rights (named after the court case that established them) are violated and the employee is dismissed, he or she usually will be reinstated with back pay.
STEPS IN A GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
Grievance procedures can vary in the number of steps they include. Figure shows a typical procedure, which includes the following steps:
1. The employee discusses the grievance with the union steward (the union’s representative on the job) and the supervisor.
2. The union steward discusses the grievance with the supervisor’s manager.
3. The union grievance committee discusses the grievance with appropriate company managers.
4. The representative of the national union discusses the grievance with designated company executives.
5. The final step may be to use an impartial third party for ultimate disposition of the grievance.
Steps in a Grievance Procedure

If the grievance remains unsettled, representatives for both sides would continue to meet to resolve the conflict. On rare occasions, a representative from the national union might join the process. Or, a corporate executive from headquarters (if the firm is a large corporation) might be called in to help resolve the grievance.
If not solved at this stage, the grievance goes to arbitration.Arbitration is flexible and can be applied to almost any kind of controversy except
those involving criminal matters. Advisory, or voluntary, arbitration may be used in negotiating agreements or in interpreting clauses in existing agreements. Because labor and management generally agree that disputes over the negotiation of a new contract should not be arbitrated in the private sector, the most important role played by arbitration in labor relations is as the final step in the grievance procedure.
Grievance arbitration is a means by which disputes arising from different interpretations of a labor contract are settled by a third party. This should not be confused with contract or issues arbitration, discussed earlier, when arbitration is used to determine how a contract will be written.
Grievance arbitration presents several problems. It has been criticized as being too costly, too legalistic, and too time-consuming. One study found that arbitrators generally treated women more leniently than men in disciplinary grievance situations. In addition, many feel that there are too few qualified and experienced arbitrators. Despite these problems, arbitration has been successful and is currently seen as a potentially superior solution to traditional approaches to resolving union-management problems.

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Source: Human resource management (web). www.whatishumanresource.com (english)