Industrial Relations Practices Research Articles

Exploring host and home country effects on industrial relations in Chinese multinational enterprises – Evidence from Ireland

This paper explores the industrial relations (IR) experiences of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNE) in Ireland, with particular focus on the impact of host and home country institutions on IR policies and practices. The study adopted a qualitative methodology of semi-structured interviews with managerial respondents from eight Chinese MNEs located in Ireland and personnel in other relevant public and private organisations. Our results indicate that host country IR institutions (e.g. trade unions, employment legislation and government support) largely explain the IR practices of Chinese MNEs in Ireland. This study also identifies home country effects mostly relating to a hierarchical managerial approach and the development of a culture of harmony and collaboration. Finally, our results also call attention to some emerging ‘convergence’ and ‘divergence’ between Chinese MNEs and other MNEs in Ireland in terms of their IR experiences and responses.

The missing link: The significance of institutional interdependencies and dynamics of action for transnational labour regulation in multinational companies

AbstractIn recent decades, both academic research and industrial relations practice have been increasingly concerned with whether, and to what extent, transnational forms of labour regulation might constitute a countervailing power to globally operating companies. And although numerous studies have analysed the various instruments and institutions of transnational labour regulation – such as Global Framework Agreements, trade union networks and European or World Works Councils – as yet there has been little in the way of exploration of their dynamics or interconnections. Against this backdrop and based on a comparison of three case studies of multinational companies, we focus on what we consider to be the ‘missing link’ between the dynamics of social action and the interdependencies of institutions in order to explain how transnational institution building can contribute to the development of transnational labour regulation. Specifically, we investigate how different pathways to transnational labour regulation have been the outcomes of actions taken by actors in a multinational corporation and how, in turn, these developments shaped the dynamics of subsequent action. The study underlines that those pathways can only be properly understood when seen in terms of social actors, their power resources and their willingness and capacities to deploy them.

Perspective. The mirage of Europeanising industrial relations. What possibilities for East-West trade union cooperation?

This article outlines possibilities for deepening relationships between trade unions from the so-called old EU Member States and those from Central and Eastern Europe. We set out the possibilities for what we describe as enhanced multi-union transnational cooperation. By this we mean multilateral rather than bilateral cooperation that is deep enough to include the joint definition of goals and strategies, and willingness to build a transnational dimension to industrial relations, including, ultimately, conducting collective bargaining on some topics. A critical analysis of the so-called Europeanisation of industrial relations is the background to our discussion. We find the participation of trade unions in this process to be limited to responses to external impulses which results in the degree of enhanced multi-union transnational cooperation in areas of core trade union activity being low. We present the thesis that in-depth cooperation may be possible in relation to new challenges for the world of work, where the transnational dimension is of key importance and where trade unions are less bound by their own national traditions and industrial relations practices.

LEGAL PROTECTION OF EMPLOYEES WITH A SPECIFIC TIME WORKING AGREEMENT WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE RULE OF LAW STATE IN INDONESIA

<p><em>Employment relationships are often carried out using a Certain Time Work Agreement (PKWT) or often called contract employees. This often happens in the practice of industrial relations in Indonesia which is sometimes made by employers by changing contracts every year with workers/labourers, even though the work carried out is work that is carried out permanently and continuously and should be done using an Indefinite Time Work Agreement (PKWTT) or often called permanent employees. In practice, entrepreneurs often violate the provisions of PKWT which have been stipulated in the provisions of the law. Although workers/labourers have complained to the Manpower Office about the actions of employers who violate PKWT, in fact, employers are reluctant to carry out decisions or recommendations from Supervisors or Mediators to improve the status of workers/labourers from PKWT to PKWTT. Then the change of PKWT status to PKWTT in the practice of the Industrial Relations Court can be carried out by Workers / Workers if the employer violates Article 59 paragraph (1) of the Job Creation Law. This has legal consequences on the fulfillment of workers' rights in accordance with the rules applicable to PKWTT. In order to guarantee legal protection for workers, the government must make implement regulations that regulate the types and names of jobs that must be done with the PKWT category and what work must be done with the PKWTT category. As well as imposing sanctions for entrepreneurs who violate the provisions of PKWT</em>.</p>

Development in the Garment and Textile Industry in Bangladesh: A Changing Global Environment

The reason for writing this paper is to identify the development in the garment & textile (G&T) industry in Bangladesh after the Rana Plaza distaster on 26^th April, 2013. This paper charts the development of Human Resource Management (HRM) / Industrial Relations (IR) practices within the G&T industry in Bangladesh after the Rana Plaza disaster. The changes in HRM / IR are arguably rooted in the so-called Rana Plaza disaster, which left 2500 people injured and 1,134 dead. The study has adopted a triangulation technique (structured and open-ended interviews) to validate the data collected. The entire process of data coding was done manually. With regards to health & safety issues, the findings suggest that Western international managers show a higher level of awareness than non-Western international managers. In line with HRM practices, the Multinational Companies (MNCs) provide an exemplar of the introduction of corporate HRM policies in the G&T industry in Bangladesh. The study also found that Western international managers follow different HR policies but they have limited presence compared to the non-Western international managers. The study used a questionnaire in the ‘Bangla’ language for factory workers. This was because the workforces are generally not educated. The trade union officials and government officials also had a limited capacity in the use of language other than ‘Bangla’ and preferred to communicate in their native language. The suggestions that is driven from this research include a) the international managers could provide support for trade union officials to improve the workers capability through a workers education programme, b) the MNCs could encourage their workers to form a trade union, c) the non-Western international managers may benefit from a special training program for health & safety issues within a multicultural setting. The findings of this research would benefit a number of stakeholders that consist of employers, employers’ associations, government, country policy makers, international organisations and NGO’s.

Employee Relations in India: Current Context and Emerging Paradigm

Employee relations in India has been changing with the changing context. The industry has come a long way since independence. The paradigm has changed at an even faster pace over the last decade due to fundamental shifts in technology and socio-economic factors. The onslaught of COVID also brought in tectonic shifts in this field. Rise in the proportion of middle-class, democratisation of information technology, automation and industrial revolution 2.0, focus on ESG, steps towards improving the ease of doing business are other important changes driving the paradigm shifts in employee relations. The industry is now moving from restrictive industrial relations (IR) practices to more collaborative and progressive practices that look at workers and unions as partners rather than adversaries. The article discusses a case in point, Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, where progressive IR practices have shown demonstrable results in the changing context.

Problem and Prospects of Structural Changes and Its Social Impact on Industrial Relations

The goal of this research was to look at the societal issues of industrial relations at the federal polytechnic of oil and gas in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and to examine the various industrial relations practices used by most firms. The research design was a descriptive survey with the goal of investigating and observing good industrial relations practices in oil and gas businesses operating in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is critical for businesses to avoid societal conflicts and dissatisfactions and to maintain industrial peace and harmony as a result of improved performance at work, which promotes productivity and growth. Human beings are the active agents who amass money, exploit natural resources, construct social, economic, and political systems, and drive a country's progress ahead.

Understanding Employee Responses to Lay-Offs; The Ingredients for Successful Outcomes. An example from the Charity Sector in West Africa.

This study examines a recent planned organizational change by an international charity organization that resulted in the closure of three country offices and restructure of parts of its regional office which led to the lay-offs of employees within West Africa. Using an integrated model of the Kubler Ross Reaction change model, the flow of information in human resource model and industrial relations systems theory, the study examines the key steps, processes and outcomes that led to a smooth restructuring process in a region where employee lay-offs can result in endless litigation. The study concludes that a successful execution of a planned organizational change that results in office closures and staff lay-offs requires (i) a grieving model to predict, manage and adapt to employees response to change, (ii) flow of information and (iii) conformity to national industrial relations laws and practices.

Exploring the Awareness and Perception on Public Relations Practice in Vietnamese Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises by Triangluated Analysis

As one of the emerging economies, Vietnam rapidly adapts to the digital transformation trend in the era of 4.0 Industrial Evolution and Public Relations (abbreviated as PR) practice is acknowledged to contribute greatly to the businesses’ performance and development. This study is to explore the awareness and perception of PR and its practice in Vietnamese Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (abbreviated as SMEs) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Authors employ both quantitative and qualitative approaches with secondary and primary data to explore subjects and gain insightful information. The secondary data is collected from various sources of references relating to PR theory, PR practices, governmental reports, etc. via tools of document reviews and analysis, interviews, expert consultations, direct observation, and the primary data is from the survey with business owners, managers, and officers in 385 SMEs. The results indicate the PR outlook in the Ho Chi Minh city context and contribute to the existing literature to both theoretical and managerial approaches for better awareness of PR practice in the research industry setting. More that, the study is used as an example of a pedagogical issue.

The Nigerian Declaration Project and Actors’ Commitment to Industrial Peace in Nigeria

This article examines the linkage between the Nigerian Declaration Project and the levels of commitment to industrial peace among the employers’ associations, labour unions and government agencies in Nigeria, through a systematic review of the relevant literature and four key informant interviews among the representatives of prominent stakeholders in the Nigerian industrial relations system. The study adopted the open-systems theory of industrial relations to provide a basis for an understanding of the circumstances that led to the implementation of the Nigerian Declaration Project and the extent of actors’ participation in its implementation as well as the outcomes of the Project at workplaces in Nigeria. Findings from the study revealed that the Nigerian Declaration Project has enhanced the levels of commitment to the pursuit of industrial peace in Nigeria, although efforts made by the Nigerian government to achieve a peaceful coexistence between labour and management at workplaces remain inadequate in Nigeria. The findings also revealed the harrowing experience of unfair labour practices and the escalation of industrial actions, including strikes and other industrial actions in Nigeria, despite the existence of the relatively new laws such as the Trade Disputes Act 2004, the Trade Union Amendment Act 2005, the National Industrial Court Act 2006, the Employees’ Compensation Act 2010, and the Pension Reform Act 2014. The article therefore recommends that the collective interests in the pursuit of justice at workplaces be intensified until a lasting peace is achieved for sustainable development of industrial relations practices in Nigeria.

Was the Great Depression the Fault of Government and Unions? An Institutional/Keynesian Analysis

A growing number of economists blame the length and severity of the Great Depression on factors that rigidified wage rates, raised production costs, and interfered with flexible allocation of labor. The centerpiece of this critique is President Roosevelt‘s New Deal labor program, portrayed as creating a series of large negative supply shocks through encouragement of unions, minimum wages, unemployment insurance, and other anti-competitive industrial relations practices. This paper presents the other side of the story using a combination of institutional and Keynesian theory, drawn principally from the work of J.R. Commons and J.M. Keynes. Both - spending and - industrial relations' rationales for stable wages are developed; also developed is the positive economic case for the New Deal labor program. Attention is called to the long-neglected macroeconomic dimension of industrial relations.

Convergence divergence thesis through sectoral lens: A study of India and China

Does the evolution of distinct practices influence the sectoral dominance of nations? In this review paper, we take an in-depth look at the convergence and divergence debate about HR practices in Asia. We extend the conversation to address specific competitive advantage of nations, such as China, in manufacturing and India, in information technology (IT) sectors. Drawing on the relevant literature and utilizing the lens of firm specificity, HR value creation, and competitive uncertainty, we try to explore the collective implementation of a bundle of HRM (human resource management) and IR (industrial relations) practices that have converged or diverged from western practices leading to such dominance.

Covid-19 - Call Centre Workers and Health-Safety, Union Challenges and Organisation

Covid-19 - Call Centre Workers and Health-Safety, Union Challenges and Organisation

‘Glorified typists’ in no-man’s land: the ABC script assistants’ strike of 1973

ABSTRACT This article analyses a strike by women television script assistants at the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1973, in the context of the sexual division of labour in broadcasting, and industrial relations legislation and practices. It draws on archival documents and oral history interviews to uncover the agency, emotions and mobilisation of a group of female white-collar workers who have not been previously portrayed as politically active, and argues that the women’s anger and their organisational strategies challenged gendered structures and processes within the ABC and its staff union. By examining the link between gender and occupational status, it demonstrates that script assistants experienced considerable barriers to upward mobility and were denied access to equal pay because they were working in a feminised occupation. While the script assistants’ militancy succeeded in briefly arresting sexist attitudes and practices within ABC television, structural discrimination throughout the organisation proved resistant to change.

Solidarity cooperatives

Purpose This paper aims to re-evaluate social enterprise (SE) history to pinpoint a pluralist turn in communitarian philosophy during the 1970s, which has the potential to transform labour and consumer rights in enterprise development. Design/methodology/approach Through a close examination of model rules created by founders of the FairShares Association (FSA), the authors find that the communitarian origins of SE are disturbingly obscured and hidden. Findings In studying FSA documents and building a timeline of the development of the FairShares Model (FSM), the authors found links between SE developments in the UK, continental Europe, Asia, North/South America and the development of solidarity cooperatives. Research limitations/implications The authors argue that the discovery of a communitarian pluralist turn advances “new cooperativism” by enfranchising both labour and users in industrial relations (IR). Using this insight, they challenge accounts of SE history and argue for more research on SE’s potential contribution to radical IR. Originality/value The paper highlights the potential of the FSM as a vehicle for catalysing new SE and IR practices that share wealth and power more equitably between social entrepreneurs, workforce members, service/product users and community/social investors.

Protection of Capitalism as a Regime of Rationality: A Historical Institutionalist Rereading of Modern Turkey’s Industrial Relations

Turkey’s current collective labour legislation places heavy restrictions on trade union, strike, and collective bargaining rights. Regarding which, conventional wisdom cites the country’s ongoing neoliberal transformation since the early 1980s. This article explains the post-1980 institutional transformation by placing the institutional history of Turkey’s industrial relations under the optic of historical institutionalism by laying special emphasis on the dominant interests steering industrial relations and the legal and practical causal mechanisms put at work in materialisation of these interests. It is concluded that curtailment of work-related collective rights and freedoms for the protection of capitalist development has displayed a remarkable historical continuity as a regime of rationality in Turkey. Such restriction created long-term institutional path-dependencies in the policies governing Turkey’s industrial relations, thereby exerting a significant impact on industrial relations policy and practices in the post-1980 period.

Industrial Relations and the Tragic Flaw

Anyone familiar with Shakespeare and his tragedies would have heard about the ‘tragic flaw’ of his heroes. All his tragic heroes—Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet and Othello—catapulted towards their tragic end because of a tragic flaw: vaulting ambition in Macbeth, misplaced trust in King Lear, indecisiveness in Hamlet and green-eyed jealousy in Othello…. This article is an attempt to respond to the question of whether industrial relations practice is also characterized by a tragic flaw which significantly undermines its potency. The data for the article comes from published newspaper reports related to industrial relations incidents some of which involved avoidable workplace violence and tragic fatalities. The article analyses these industrial relations incidents in relation to previous studies and draws insights related to the root causes constituting a tragic flaw conceptualized as the ‘morphology of volatility’.

Using expatriates for adapting subsidiaries' employment modes to different market economies: a comparative analysis of US subsidiaries in Germany, the UK and Switzerland

Because the extent to which multinational companies (MNCs) benefit from foreign subsidiaries depends on how effectively MNCs manage their foreign subsidiaries' workforce, the international management literature has long focused on how MNCs transfer Human Resource Management (HRM) practices. However, the literature has only vaguely dealt with institutional differences between host and home countries, often simplifying these differences under the umbrella of institutional or cultural distance. This article investigates how MNCs use expatriates to adjust subsidiaries' employment modes to different market economies. We define employment modes as bundles of HRM and industrial relations (IR) practices implemented at the firm level and examine the employment modes of 76 subsidiaries of U.S. MNCs in a coordinated market economy (Germany), a hybrid market economy (Switzerland), and a liberal market economy (United Kingdom). Our results reveal substantial differences in the expatriation strategies of MNCs that depend not only on the international focus of the MNC but also on the differences in IR between the parent and subsidiary's environment. Our findings qualify the role of expatriates in adjusting subsidiaries' employment modes to different market economies and highlight the boundary conditions of integrating HRM with IR practices in the management of foreign subsidiaries.

Lean Production, Izzat and Industrial Conflict in the Indian Auto Sector: A Case Study

The purpose of this article is to highlight the role that Izzat played in the unfolding industrial disputation that emerged at the Toyota plant in Bangalore between 1999 and 2007. Isolated instances contributed to a build-up of employee and community resentment at what was perceived as an attack on Izzat. Behind the events is the attempt to transpose Japanese “lean production and management systems” into an Indian subsidiary where local industrial and cultural conditions were not suitable for the imposition of such practices from headquarters to a subsidiary. The result of the analysis contributes to the understanding of workplace industrial relations (IR) in India and the centrality of Izzat. Within India, the significance of trade unions; the respect of employees; the importance of family and community; the importance of seniority; and the role of respect and honour are factors that multinationals often fail to understand in the design and implementation of their production and HRM systems. The study contributes to the debate over the transferability of standardized HRM policies and practices. MNEs should play a proactive role in supporting the employees of subsidiaries to adjust to and accommodate new paradigms in workplace industrial relations. The aggressive production and HRM practices at the Toyota plant were not compatible with the norms and cultural institutions of the Indian workforce. One of the key implications of this research is that foreign production, organizational and industrial relations systems and practices cannot be transplanted into host-country environments without the due recognition of key cultural conditions, notably Izzat in India.

Industrial Relations and the Tragic Flaw

Anyone familiar with Shakespeare and his tragedies would have heard about the ‘tragic flaw’ of his heroes. All his tragic heroes—Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet and Othello—catapulted towards their tragic end because of a tragic flaw: Vaulting ambition in Macbeth, misplaced trust in King Lear, indecisiveness in Hamlet, green eyed jealousy in Othello and so on. This article is an attempt to respond to the question of whether industrial relations practice is also characterized by a tragic flaw which significantly undermines its potency. The data for the article come from the published newspaper reports related to industrial relations incidents some of which involved avoidable workplace violence and tragic fatalities. The article analyses these industrial relations incidents and draws insights related to the root causes of what has been termed as the ‘morphology of volatility’.