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14890742

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v onepiece
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Week eight: managing


labour conflict in the
employment relationship
Employment Relations
LUBS 5334 – NOTE MODULE EVALUATION THIS
WEEK

Today’s news
Aims and objectives of the module:
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• To understand the nature of conflict in the employment


relationship.
• To understand power and power imbalance between
workers/unions and management and why this may lead to
conflict.
• To account for industrial action and the consequences for
workers/union and management
• To assess the degree of industrial unrest at the current time.
• To assess the nature and significance of labour conflict to HRM
practice.
The ‘moral imperative’ of the
employment relationship?
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Is there a moral imperative?

Should there be a balance between:

Efficiency––economic production of goods and


services?
Equity––providing fair compensation and working
conditions ?
Employee voice––both individual and collective ?
WORKSHOP ACTIVITY: 20
MINUTES
SHOULD THERE BE MORAL IMPERATIVE
IN THE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP?

What do you think?


Why do you think that?
What are the counter arguments?
Which side do you come down on and why?
The difference between the employment relationship and other
contractual exchange in a capitalist economy
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1. The imperative to create an economic surplus

2. The coexistence of cooperation and conflict

3. The indeterminate nature of the exchange relationship


between employer and employee

4. The asymmetry of power in the employment relationship


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What are the signs of dsgruntled employees?
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Forms of conflict
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1926 General Strike:
days lost 162 million

• 1972: 23.9 million lost mainly due


to a strike by coal miners
• 1979: 29.5 million mainly due to
the so-called ‘winter of discontent’
• 1984: 27.1 million lost due mainly
to a strike by coal miners.
• 2018: 273,000 working days lost
involving 39,000 workers
Over the last 4 decades unions have not
adapted to the adverse changing political
and economic climate––neoliberalism,
financialisation and restrictive labour law
Reflecting on have made it difficult for unions to
exercise power
and
rethinking
But a greater focus on understanding
power power would have helped unions in
building their strategic capacity.

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Thinking about social power
‘The workers strategies constructed in the
industrial age have been undermined not
because globalisation has eviscerated labor
power but because it weakened old labor
strategies and spurred aggressive new elite
strategies with which labor has yet to cope.’

(Fox Piven and Cloward 2000: 414)


Soft power:
hard power
Associational power

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Industrial or
structural
power
Institutional
Power

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Political power

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Moral power

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Discursive
power

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Why does conflict occur in the


employment relationship?
Work with your neighbour to list as
many reasons as you can think of
video
video
WORKSHOP ACTIVITY: 60
MINUTES
Researching industrial action in the UK

Search for industrial action/strikes. Find one that


interests you and then answer the questions on the
following slides.

Work together in groups of 3.


WORKSHOP ACTIVITY: 60
MINUTES
What is the cause of the dispute?
Who are the actors involved in the dispute? What do each ‘side’ say about the issues
What are the ‘sticking’ points in the negotiations?
Why have negotiations broken down?
What is the impact/likely impact of the dispute on the parties (but also the general public)
Has the state/government intervened - if so what has been the response?
Did the power balance shift in the dispute – if so in which way? What form of power was
used by both sides?
Did the issue get resolved in favour of the workers or the management? If so, was is
distributive or integrative?
How do you think the dispute could have been resolved?
What would you as a HR professional have done to avoid this conflict.
Link to video

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ANY
QUESTIONS?

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