Industrial relations and labour laws: Industrial relations

Industrial relation refers to the relation

between all the parties related to the industry or organization. It is very important to maintain good industrial relation that all the parties cooperate with each other. Parties to the industrial relation are following

Employees

Employer

State Government

Relation may be among employees, among employers or between employee and employer and between government, employers and employee collectively.

Government plays a vital role for the regulation of industrial peace by making rules and regulationsregarding conduct in organization. Employees organization i.e. trade unions are political ins titutions that put pressure on management for the better economic and social interest of the workers.

Employers and their organizations always try to regulate the behavior of the employees for getting better output. Industrial dispute arises commonly due to their high demands from the workers at low economic rewards.

Significance of Good Industrial relation:

For the good industrial relation or industrial peace all parties should play their individual role fairly. Industrial peace is the situation when there is no industrial dispute and there is a pleasant relation between labour unions & management and among workers also. Following are the factors which indicates the good industrial relation..

High Productivity: - Workers will work efficiently which result in higher productivity.

Industrial democracy: - Sound industrial relations are achieved in democratic environment and when there

is a provision of expression of views by workers and management consults them in routine transactions which can affect workers. Long term agreement can be done by collective bargaining under which there is a mutual decision regarding employment terms.

Fair benefits to workers: - If the workers are getting economic and non economic benefits time by time it shows that there is a cordial relation between workers and management.

Facilitation to change: - Process of change can be made easily by creating work environment friendly and cooperative and advantage of new technology inventions and innovation can be taken easily. Moreover under industrial peace workers morale will be high and they will contribute for the organizations development by giving high productivity also workers will get high income recognition and increased job satisfaction.

Causes of industrial dispute:

Wages and allowances: - When there is no proper and fair wage policy

Bonus: - When bonus is not given as expected

Personnel retrenchment: - Whenever employees are dismissed and there are layoffs due to some reasons.

Indiscipline and violence: - When employees create indiscipline in work premises and there

Working hours and leave: - Problems regarding working hours and leave also create industrial unrest.

Miscellaneous reasons: - Resistance to change, rumours, non recognition of trade unions, lack of proper communication.

INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE
A situation of clash or difference in opinions between

Workers and employer

Employers and employers

or workers and workers

in connection with employment terms and conditions is known as industrial dispute.

Forms of Industrial Dispute:

The outcome of industrial dispute is locking out from the employer side and workers may resort to strike, Gherao, picketing etc.

Strike: - Strike is quitting work by a group of workers for getting their demands accepted by the employer. It is a powerful tool used by the trade unions to pressurize the management to accept their demands. Various types of strikes are Economic Strike: - Strike in concern with economic reason like wages bonus or working conditions. Sympathetic Strike: - Strike to support the other group of workers on strike within the organization or for the sympathy to union workers on strike in other industries. General Strike: - Strike of all the unions in a region or workers of a particular industry for the common demands of the workers concerned. Sit down Strike: - When workers stop doing the work but also do not leave the place of work. It is also known as tool down or pen down strike. Slow Down strike: - When workers remain on their jobs but slow down the output of their work.

Lock Out: - Lockout is the step taken by the employer to put pressure on workers. Employer close down the workplace until the workers agree to continue the work on the terms and conditions as given by the employer

Gherao: - Gherao is the action taken by workers under which they restrict the employer to leave the work premises or residence. The person concerned is put away in a ring made of human beings i.e. workers. Gheraos are also being adopted by educational and others institutions. It is an illegal act according to the Law.

Picketing: - When workers are not allowed to report for the work by deputing some men at the factory gates. If picketing does not involve any violence it is perfectly legal. It is done to bring into the notice of public that there is dispute between workers and management.

the Causes of Grievance?

the following causes have been given of employee grievances: (i) Promotions; (ii) Amenities; (iii) Continuity of service; (iv) Compensation; (v) Disciplinary action; (vi) Fines; (vii) Increments (viii) Leave; (ix) Medical Benefits; (x) Nature of the job; (xi) Payment of wages; (xii) Acting promotion; (.xiii) Recovery of dues; (xiv) Safety appliance; (xv) Superannuation; (xvi) Supersession; (xvii) Transfer; (xviii) Victimization; and (xix) Conditions of work. Grievances may arise from various causes related to the work and working conditions of the employees. The typical areas where causes of grievances may occur are: (a) Wage structure including bonus, incentives, overtime, leave facilities etc. (b) Seniority, job classification, promotion, transfer, lay-off and discharge; (c) Supervision and discipline, (d) Physical environment and working conditions in general (e) Welfare arrangements including health and safety; (f) Employer's attitude towards interpretation of the service contract or collective bargaining agreement, settlement of grievances etc. Grievance by an employee taking recourse to the formal procedure may not in all cases solve the real problem. It is true that in many cases the grievance could be taken care of through the grievance process, but there are instances and occasions when a much deeper analysis of the systems, procedures, practices and personalities in the organization need to be examined for the possible casual relationship between them and the grievance, it is well known that the formally stated grievance is not always the real grievance. There may be hidden reason, such as a problem supervisor for instance, of an individual may have difficulty in relating to a work group with a totally different value system. The factors contributing to the grievance should be properly studied and analyzed to ensure that in fact the expressed grievance represents the problem stated and not any other problem.

Causes of Grievance
Grievances generally arise from the day-do-day working relations in the undertaking, usually a employee or trade union protest against an act or omission or management that is considered to violate workers rights. There are certainly some of the causes that can lead to grievance. Some of them are listed below: Morality: there are some rights which must be provided by the company. Which shows morality for the company:
It gives an opportunity to the workers to express their feelings. The management comes to know that what the workers think.

It highlights the morale of the people. There may be some complaints, which cannot be solved at supervisory level. They must have been resolved by a systematic grievance handling procedure. It improves the policies and practices of the company.

Working environment: an fulfill environment means so many thing for

each staff, they

always wants a perfect and wonderful work place for them and to create a manageable work place, company has to be persuade, and some effective steps are:
Poor working conditions Faulty machines and equipments Attitude of supervisor Behavior of top management Favoritism and nepotism Strained relations Excessive discipline Defective promotion Lay off and retrenchment Inadequate health and safety devices

Economic manners: its an effective motivator for the staffs almost all staffs get motivated for good amount of wages and other relative facilities and some factors are given below:
Wage fixation and revision Payment of overtime Inadequate bonus Demand for welfare and equipments Incentive Allowances Increments

Supervision:some staffs likes to take responsibilities in different situation, specially, project management, promotion, and other exiting activities, its attributed by the interest of the individual staffs, and supervisory is also can be a motivator. Work group:
many employees are unable to adjust with colleagues Suffer from feeling of neglect Victimization an object of ridicule and humiliation.

GRIEVANCE REDRESS Grievance Redress Mechanism is part and parcel of the machinery of any administration. No administration can claim to be accountable, responsive and user-friendly unless it has established an efficient and effective grievance redress mechanism. In fact, the grievance redress mechanism of an

organization is the gauge to measure its efficiency and effectiveness as it provides important feedback on the working of the administration. The functioning of Public Grievance Redress Machineries in various Ministries/Departments/Organisations is regularly reviewed by a Standing Committee of Secretaries under the Chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary with Additional Secretary Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances as member-secretary. With a view to ensure prompt and effective redress to the grievances, a number of instructions have been issued by Department of AR&PG from time to time which, inter alia include:(a) Observe every Wednesday as a meetingless day in the Central Secretariat Offices when all the officers above a specified level should be available their desks from 1000hrs.to 1300hrs. to receive and hear public grievances. Field level offices having contact with the public have also to declare one day in the week as a meetingless day. (b) Designate a Joint Secretary level officer as Director of Grievances including in autonomous bodies and public sector undertakings. (c) Deal with every grievance in a fair, objective and just manner and issue reasoned speaking reply for every grievance rejected. (d) Analyse public grievances received to help identification of the problem areas in which modifications of policies and procedures could be undertaken with a view to making the delivery of services easier and more expeditious. (e) Issue booklets/pamphlets about the schemes/services available to the public indicating the procedure and manner in which these can be availed and the right authority to be contacted for service as also the grievance redress authority. (f) Pick up grievances appearing in newspaper columns which relate to them and take remedial action on them in a time bound manner. Issue rejoinders to newspapers after investigation in cases which are found to be baseless and/or damaging to the image of the Organisation. (g) Strengthen the machinery for redress of public grievance through, strictly observing meetingless day, displaying name designation, room number, telephone number etc. of Director of Grievances at the reception and other convenient places, placing locked complaint box at reception. (h) Set up Staff Grievance Redress Machinery and designate a Staff Grievance Officer. (i) Include the public grievances work and receipt/disposal statistics relating to redress of public grievances in the Annual Action Plan and Annual Administrative Report of the Ministries/Departments.

(j) Fix time limits for disposal of work relating to public grievances and staff grievances and strictly adhere to them. (k) Acknowledge each grievance petition within three days of receipt, indicating the name, designation and telephone number of the official who is processing the case. The time frame in which a reply will be sent should also be indicated. (l) Constitute Lok Adalats/Staff Adalats, if not already constituted, and hold them every quarter for quicker disposal of public as well as staff grievances and pensioners grievances. (m) Constitute a Social Audit Panel or such other machinery, if not already constituted, for examining areas of public interface with a view to recommending essential changes in procedures to make the organization more people-friendly. (n) Establish a single window system at points of public contact, wherever possible to facilitate disposal of applications. (o) Indicating telephone/fax number of the officer whose signature over a communication regarding the decision/reply is to issue to the petitioner. (p) Monitoring of grievances in organisations under Ministries/Departments on a monthly basis. (q) Publicising the grievance redress mechanism through the print and electronic media. (r) Review of receipt and disposal of grievances by Secretaries of Ministries/Departments in the weekly meetings taken by them. Citizens Charter Formulation and effective implementation of Citizens Charters, which should, inter-alia, include disclosure of time norms for providing various services to the citizens/clients and details of all levels of grievance redress machinery that may be approached. Information & Facilitation Counters (IFC) Setting up and effective operationalisation of IFCs civic society may be involved in the functioning of IFCs to make them citizen- friendly and effective. ROLE OF REGULATORS, OMBUDSMAN AND LIKE BODIES An explosive issue today in context of public grievance redress is the pace and phasing of the movement towards open markets after the gradual abandonment of centralized planning model. This has significant implications for the role of Government. The Government cannot just abandon the interests of citizens to be taken care of by the market forces in areas of service delivery covered by the private sector