Managing Industrial Relations: Conflict Management Techniques Essay.

Conflict Management Techniques

Discuss about the Manage Industrial Relations.

Dispute Resolution Procedures

In order to manage the disputes on industrial relations for the company Colesworths, disputes with respect to payments to workers can be resolved by using the procedures of conciliation and arbitration. Apart from that, the disputes can also be resolved through the loop- back procedures or low to high cost chain of procedures (Moore & Taylor, 2016). Workplace disputes are required to be resolved by considering the mutual agreements for the benefits of both company and its employees.  

1. Legal remedies

Other than the conciliation and arbitration, adjudication is another remedy to solve the industrial conflicts between managers and workers. This remedy is conducted by the government either with or without the consent of the parties to the dispute. If the conflicts referred to the adjudicating authority with the consent of the managers and workers, it is called as “voluntary adjudication” (Lucas, Lénárt & Solymosi, 2015).

In the given case of Colesworths, the grievances with respect to the increase in commission on sales and reduction on penalty rates with no TOIL are easier to eliminate. Since the commission on sales is paid on works done by employees more than the target work, the company will not be required to pay the amount on regular basis to each of the workers (Batstone, 2015). Additionally, the penalty payment, which is also to be paid only if the worker works on Saturdays and Sundays. The company can manage these grievances by examining the facts and causes by considering the remedial actions.

In the given case, the major issues of the industrial conflicts are increase in basic wage rate at lower rate 3% despite of expected increase in sales at 10% and profit margin by 5%. Another issue that raised the dispute between managers and workers is about reduction in penalty rates by including one-day time off in lieu (TOIL). Inclusion of this condition is a sign of discouragement for the performance of workers because of the lower rate of penalty as well as inclusion of one day TOIL (Gumerov et al., 2015). Similarly, lower rate of increase in commission on sales is another major dispute between the managers and employees because it would demoralize the workers in better performance.  

As a retail company, Colesworths the first option to approach for a expert advice is conciliation officer under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The officer has powers of civil court and the judgment of the officer is binding on both the disputing parties. Another option to approach for the specialist advice is arbitrator who provides judgment on considering the matter of dispute. Even though the arbitrator does not have judicial powers yet the decisions is binding on the conflicting parties (Van Geenhuizen & Nijkamp, 2016).

Grievances to Alleviate or Eliminate

Trade union is referred to the organization of laborers to achieve common goals for protecting the rights and benefits of the workers. In the given case, the single trade union would represent all the workers of the organization.

Best outcome

Considering the demands of the workers and offers of the company’s management, the best outcome would be a win- win situation based on the relationship, interests and aim for producing best result. Accordingly, the best outcome of would be increase of basic wages at 6% as well as the penalty rates can be imposed with no TOIL (Garbie, 2015). This modification in the payment to the workers would motivate the performance of the workers because increment of wage rate would be regular whereas commission on sales is irregular that can be maintained at lower rate. The commission on sales represents the incentive payments based on the quality and efficiency of the performance of workers. Therefore, there should be moderate increase in rate of sales commission that motivates the employees in their performance. Hence, it is advised to increase the sales commission at 3.5% to have the win- win situation between the management of the company and workers.W

Worst outcome

Worst outcome of the negotiation would be win- lose approach by stating company’s requirements and policies without any communication and discussion. In case the management implements the new policy of payments to workers without communication then it will not reflect a positive impact on the employees. Since the workers have not agreed with the increased rates of payment policies, the management is responsible to discuss the requirements with the workers (Zhuang & Chen, 2015). If the management takes one side decision and implement the payment policy, the worst outcome would be lack of proper performance of the workers and labor turnover. Stability growth of the company depends on the performance of the workforce therefore; its worst outcome reflects negative impact on the company’s productivity. 

Negotiations Strategy

Negotiation of the industrial dispute can be carried on with the objective of providing benefits to both the companies and workers. The company is required to get the business activities done while the workers are required to get paid for the work. Therefore, it is essential to examine the facts and requirements of the workers to implement the payment policy. In the given case, there is huge difference in the rates of basic wage and sales commission between management and workers (Hikmany et al., 2016). The strategy would be to conduct a meeting session with the workers to understand their needs. The percentage rates would be discussed to reach at mutual agreement.

Main Issues in the Dispute

Time Frame to Rreach Agreement

Considering the facts and actions on the dispute agreements, the meeting session would be considered for one day followed with examining the facts and industrial market scenario, total time to reach the agreement would take one month.  

In case of Colesworths for industrial relations plan, it is observed that the company has expected increase in sales by 10% and profit margin at 5%. Accordingly, increase in payment to workers as per their requirement by 7.5% does not seem to be justified along with the 5% increase in the sales commissions. Considering the present situation of payment policy to workers, include sales commission at 10% and penalty rates on the basic wage at 25% for Saturdays and at 100% on Sundays. The company has also a policy on 20 days annual leave as well as 10 days of personal leave. Accordingly, increase of 3% in basic wage and 2.5% on sales commissions are appropriate with the view of expected rise in sales. Expected rise in sales is uncertain, also the percentage rate of rise is uncertain due to which company is not in a position to increase the wage rate by more than 3%.

However, decrease in penalty rate is quite demoralizing for the workers that included on day TOIL yet the workers agreed to it only with the modification of elimination of TOIL. It is advised that the management should communicate the offers and requirements of workers for the payment rates increment (Tsurumi, 2015). It is suggested that the company should increase the rate of basic wage by 5% and eliminate the clause of one day TOIL that will serve the purpose of company and workers at the same time.

In case of failure in negotiations for the industrial plan, the company is recommended to approach the “The Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission”. This tribunal has been formed to conduct the non-judicial activities on disputes like industrial planning. The Colesworths is required to approach the Arbitration Commission by presenting the dispute matter and disputing party i.e. workers (Martin, 2015). The concerned officer would consider the matter by examining the facts, data and requirements of the workers and company. On analyzing the essential matters and communication with the conflicting parties, the officer would place the decision which will be binding on the company and workers.

Any agreement is legally valid only if it is appropriately certified and documented by the legislations and statutes. At first, the agreement decided by the commission should be accepted by the disputing parties and signed by the concerned officer. At the second step, the documents of the agreement presenting the payment policy, rates of payment, duration should be certified by the management and commission officer. A copy of the industrial plan is required to be provided to the workers to maintain the record and work policy.

Options for Expert Advice

In case of votes against the agreement by some of the workers who had been absent on weekend work schedule, the management of the company can initiate by conducting a meeting session. The management can communicate with the workers to understand the reasons of unfavorable working strategy (Hikmany et al., 2016). Another remedy company can take is imposing the strict actions by serving warning letters stating the deduction in basic pay in proportion to the amount of loss that the company bears due to poor performance of such workers. The management can also take the step to terminate the workers for not providing the responsible performance on their allocated work.

Reference List:

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Garbie, I. (2015, March). Investigation of Sustainability index in Omani manufacturing firms: Evidence from industrial company. In Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM), 2015 International Conference on (pp. 1-7). IEEE.

Gumerov, A. V., Pavlova, A. V., Kharisova, G. M., Abdullina, S. N., Matveeva, E. S., Vyukov, M. G., & Khairullina, E. R. (2015). The role of the quality production process of the business entitles in volatile environment.Review of European Studies, 7(1), 200.

Hikmany, A. N. H., Hikmany, A. N. H., Oseni, U. A., & Oseni, U. A. (2016). Dispute resolution in the Islamic banking industry of Tanzania: learning from other jurisdictions. International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, 9(1), 125-142.

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Tsurumi, Y. (2015). Labor Relations and Industrial Adjustment in Japan and the United States: A Comparative Analysis. Yale Law & Policy Review, 2(2), 5.

Van Geenhuizen, M., & Nijkamp, P. (2016, February). Industrial dynamics, company life histories and the core-periphery dilemma. In Geography Research Forum (Vol. 15, pp. 49-69).

Zhuang, W., & Chen, F. (2015). “Mediate First”: The Revival of Mediation in Labour Dispute Resolution in China. The China Quarterly, 222, 380-402.