Non-union Employee Representation Research Articles

The Elements for Employee Voice of Non-Union Employee Representation in Malaysian Manufacturing Sector

Voice of employee rights are important to make sure that their suggestions, opinions, concerns and ideas are heard. This can improve the employees’ productivity and avoid any discrimination at the workplace. Employee voice representatives for non-union employees is also essential for fostering a positive work environment, improving communication and addressing employee concernsregarding issues at workplace despite there absence of formal labour union in the organizations. Non-union employee representation (NER) acts as intermediaries between the workforce of non-union and the organization’s leadership. Thus, the purpose of the study is to explore the elements need for the framework of employee voice of NER in Malaysian manufacturing sector. Thematic analysis is used for the data analysis to identify these elements for the framework to give direction for the better employee engagement including voice at workplace. The approach of smart partnership by having open communication, joint collaboration and good networking are the key elements of this study to ensure that the relations of NER and management can give benefits for the organization especially employees.The findings suggest some interventions should be taken especially from multi stakeholders, governments, industry and institutes to give awareness and understanding related to trade union and worker’s rights of voice at workplace.

Employee association in Japanese family and non-family SMEs

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the nature of employee associations (EAs) and whether the EAs function as a collective voice similar to enterprise unions in Japanese small- and medium-sized enterprises by clarifying the differences in the determinants and effects between EAs and unions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyze 2,440 Japanese small- and medium-sized firms for determinants of unions and EAs. Using the bivariate probit model, the authors examine whether EAs complement (a way station to unionization) or substitute for (dampening the desire for unionization) traditional unionization. Furthermore, the effects of EAs and unions on voluntary employee turnover rates are compared.FindingsThe authors' findings regarding EAs are as follows: (1) although owner-managers are averse to both unions and EAs, owner-managers are not as averse to EAs as to unions; (2) EAs reduce the turnover rate to the same extent as unions do and (3) EAs are voice institutions that are less affected by the influence of unions.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of this study are as follows: (1) the dataset is slightly outdated; (2) due to the absence of panel data, the authors could not capture unobserved time-invariant factors that are the primary sources of endogeneity and (3) to overcome this vulnerability, the authors were able to control for the characteristics of management but not for the characteristics of employees because of a lack of information.Originality/valueThis study clarifies that non-union employee representation (NER) has the unique feature of being neither complementary nor substitutive to unions in Japan's industrial relations. EAs are organized not for union avoidance by employers, but voluntarily by employees without the aim of unionization. The associations have the same function as unions in reducing the turnover rate by resolving employees' grievances as entities independent from management.

Employee choice of voice and non‐union worker representation

AbstractExisting research emphasises employer choice in determining the form and content of non‐union employee representation (NER) structures. This article puts forward an alternative but complementary thesis: we conceptualise NERs as an ‘offer’ that employees can choose to either accept or reject, with several shades of settlement in between. This article argues that employee choice matters insofar as it determines the likely impact and sustainability of the NER offering. Contributing an original typology of employee choices and the associated prospects for the NER, we illustrate our argument via six workplace case studies assessing NER trajectory.

노동조합 아닌 근로자대표제에 의한 근로조건 결정시스템

As the existing collective bargaining system centered on trade union has had practical limitations, collective working conditions determination system operated by Non-union Employee Representation(NER) has been discussed as an alternative to collective bargaining system. The NER program has been drawing much attention abroad, since traditional trade-union-centered system has faced with challenges caused by the ‘representation gap’ phenomenon and the emergence of ‘high performance work system’. Considering the coherent analysis on the Constitution and international labour standard as well as the contemporary trends of industrial relations, the NER program is deemed to be compatible with domestic legal system. However, there would be some problems where the NER program works concurrently with the existing collective working conditions determination systems in Korean labour law system. Because the NER program is encompassed by the collective working conditions determination system, it should be operated in a way that pursues the requests of democracy and independence based on the Constitution.

Non-Union Employee Representation Programs and Their Application in South Korea

한국을 포함한 다수 국가들의 노동조합 조직률은 지난 수십 년간 하락추이를 보이고 있다. 그렇다고 근로자의 삶의 질이 향상되어서, 노조필요성이 낮아지고 그 결과 노조가입률을 낮추었다고 보기는 어렵다. 이러한 현상에 대해 해외 학계에서는 기존의 노동조합에 대한 대안으로 비노조근로자대표제도(Nonunion Employee Representation Program, 이하 NERP)에 대한 연구가 활발하게 진행되고 있다. 그러나 국내에서는 노사협의회 외에는 별다른 연구가 진행되고 있지 않아서, 본 연구에서는 NERP에 대한 이론적 논의와 주요 유형을 살펴보고 우리나라에서의 적용과 그에 필요한 과제를 제시하였다. 이를 위해서 먼저 근로자대표제도에 대해 네 가지 관점에서 정리하고, 거래비용 관점에서 NERP를 분석하였다. NERP란 비노조 상황에서 근로자대표들이 사용자와 일터관련 이슈들을 논의하는 것으로, NERP 지지자들은 NERP가 근로자의 권리 확보와 협의와 참여를 통한 권한 강화로 노사 공동의 이익을 증진함으로써 회사의 생산성을 제고한다고 주장하는 반면에, 비판론자들은 NERP가 잘 운영된다고 해도 조직의 성과를 향상시키는 데는 한계가 있으며, 오히려 근로자들에 대한 통제강화와 노조회피 수단으로 활용된다고 주장한다. NERP는 19세기말 산업민주주의를 달성할 수 있는 수단으로 제시된 바 있으며, 최근 들어서는 여러 선진국에서 노동조합 조직률 하락에 따라 많은 관심을 보이고 있다. 하지만 NERP는 국가별로 법과 제도, 경영관행, 문화에 따라서 많은 차이를 보이며, 다루는 이슈나 기능 등에서도 많은 차이를 보인다. 본 연구에서는 NERP의 대표적인 유형으로 근로자평의회(works councils), 노사협의위원회 (우리나라의 노사협의회와 유사한 형태), 일터파트너십, 상호이익조직, 그리고 고충처리 위원회 등을 살펴보았다. 마지막으로 이상의 논의를 바탕으로 어떻게 우리나라에 NERP를 활성화할 수 있는가에 대해 시사점과 적용을 위한 과제를 정리하였다. 구체적으로 기존 노사협의회의 설치요건, 산업안전을 위한 위원회 운영의 확대, 징계위원회 공정한 운영 등과 같은 이슈에 대해 정리하였으며, 본 연구의 한계점과 향후 연구방향을 제시하였다.For over a century, non-union employee representation programs (NERPs), such as works councils, joint consultative committees, and mutual gains organ-izations, were not accepted as positive alternatives to labor unions in most countries. However, with globalized competition, the 4th industrial revolution driven by artificial intelligence, big data, and robotics, and workers’ increasingly negative attitudes toward labor unions, scholars have begun to take an interest in NERPs. Nevertheless, Marxists and criticalists treat NERPs as amounting to workers’ pseudo-participation in work processes and decision making. Recently, however, many scholars have changed their attitudes toward NERPs with the decreasing density of unions. To improve the level of quality of life for workers, NERPs can act as good alternatives in low-density union environments. Works councils account for the most representative form of NERP, but there are many other NERP examples, such as joint consultative committees, workplace partnerships, and mutual gains organizations. In addi-tion, grievance committees can also be treated as NERPs. The first thing to consider in utilizing NERPs in South Korea is to revise the current law on labor-management committees. Second, issues such as massive redundancy and restructuring, and not just issues relating to safety and health, can be handled through NERPs. In Germany, for instance, workers’ representatives can veto decisions on redundancy issues. Third, governments add incentives for good and exemplary NERPs by alleviating the cost burdens of setting up NERPs. Additionally, governments can hinder employers from avoiding union recognition by allowing the transformation of NERPs into labor unions.

The “good workplace”

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to take a serious look at the relationship between joint consultation systems at the workplace and employee satisfaction, while at the same time accounting for the (possible) interactions with similar union and management-led high commitment strategies.Design/methodology/approachUsing new, rich data on a representative sample of British workers, the authors identify workplace institutions that are positively associated with employee perceptions of work and relations with management, what in combination the authors call a measure of the “good workplace.” In particular, the authors focus on non-union employee representation at the workplace, in the form of joint consultative committees (JCCs), and the potential moderating effects of union representation and high-involvement human resource (HIHR) practices.FindingsThe authors’ findings suggest a re-evaluation of the role that JCCs play in the subjective well-being of workers even after controlling for unions and progressive HR policies. There is no evidence in the authors’ estimates of negative interaction effects (i.e. that unions or HIHR negatively influence the functioning of JCCs with respect to employee satisfaction) or substitution (i.e. that unions or HIHR are substitutes for JCCs when it comes to improving self-reported worker well-being). If anything, there is a significant and positive three-way moderating effect when JCCs are interacted with union representation and high-involvement management.Originality/valueThis is the first time – to the authors’ knowledge – that comprehensive measures of subjective employee well-being are being estimated with respect to the presence of a JCC at the workplace, while controlling for workplace institutions (e.g. union representation and human resource policies) that are themselves designed to involve and communicate with workers.

NONUNION EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATION: THEORY AND THE GERMAN EXPERIENCE WITH MANDATED WORKS COUNCILS

ABSTRACTTheories of how nonunion employee representation impacts firm performance, affects market equilibria, and generates externalities on labor and society are synthesized. Mandated works councils in Germany provide a particularly strong form of nonunion employee representation. A systematic review of research on the German experience with mandated works councils finds generally positive effects, though these effects depend on a series of moderating factors and some impacts remain ambiguous. Finally, key questions for empirical research on nonunion employee representation, which have previously been little analyzed in the literature, are reviewed.

The

Using new, rich data on a representative sample of British workers, we examine the relationship between joint consultation systems at the workplace and employee satisfaction, accounting for possible interactions with union and management-led high-commitment strategies. We focus on non-union employee representation at the workplace, in the form of joint consultative committees (JCCs), and the potential moderating effects of union representation and high-involvement human resource (HIHR) practices.Our findings suggest a re-evaluation of the role that JCCs play in the subjective well-being of workers even after controlling for unions and HIHR policies. There is no evidence in our estimates of negative interaction effects (i.e., that unions or HIHR negatively influence the functioning of JCCs with respect to employee satisfaction) or full mediation (i.e., that unions or HIHR are substitutes for JCCs when it comes to improving self-reported worker well-being).If anything, there is a significant and positive three-way moderating effect when JCCs are interacted with union representation and high-involvement management. This is the first time – to the authors' knowledge – that comprehensive measures of subjective employee well-being have been estimated with respect to the presence of a JCC at the workplace, whilst controlling for workplace institutions that are themselves designed to involve and communicate with workers.

Nonunion Employee Representation: Theory and the German Experience with Mandated Works Councils

Theories of how nonunion employee representation impacts firm performance, affects market equilibria, and generates externalities on labor and society are synthesized. Mandated works councils in Germany provide a particularly strong form of nonunion employee representation. A systematic review of research on the German experience with mandated works councils finds generally positive effects, though these effects depend on a series of moderating factors and some impacts remain ambiguous. Finally, key questions for empirical research on nonunion employee representation, which have previously been little analyzed in the literature, are reviewed.

Giving Knowledge Workers a Voice through Joint Consultative Councils

This case study aims to outline and explore the implementation of a Joint Consultative Council (JCC) and the related outcomes, challenges and issues faced by an information technology (IT) company in Sri Lanka. Implementation of JCC in the company as a form of employee voice was a result of a planned intervention of the new Human Resources (HR) team of the company, with the intentions of increasing employee involvement, commitment, employee relations and most importantly, communication. At the initial sessions of the council ‘tea, towels and toilets’ issues were mainly discussed and an apparent gulf between the management and the employee representatives was apparent. While the council has given some form of voice to employees, it was clearly a ‘voice without muscle’, devoid of any significant joint decision making. After recouping the process to enhance joint decision-making and communication, the proceeding JCC regained the trust and enthusiasm of employees and management. There is a possibility of continuation and subsequent institutionalization of the JCC in the company. However, the process needs more time to establish itself effectively in the company with increased trust between parties. This case study provides practical insights into the creation of a JCC as a form of Non-union Employee Representation (NER) for knowledge workers, addressing a lacuna in knowledge on the practical implementation of JCC, as well as the practice of JCCs among different categories of workers such as knowledge workers. Insights drawn from the case can be used as learning points in creating successful JCCs in organizations.

The Effects of Union and Nonunion Forms of Employee Representation on High-Performance Work Systems: New Evidence from French Microdata

This article investigates the effects of union and nonunion employee representation (ER) on the use of high-performance work systems (HPWSs) in the French context. We use microdata from a nationally representative survey (REPONSE 2010–11) and estimate models dealing with the potential endogeneity of ER. After controlling for endogeneity and for a range of workplace characteristics, regression analyses suggest that neither union nor nonunion representatives are inherently against the use of HPWSs. Moreover, these forms of ER cannot be regarded as substitutes for one another. Results vary, depending on what type of bundle of practices is considered. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Experience with Company Unions and their Treatment under the Wagner Act: A Four Frames of Reference Analysis

This paper reexamines American experience with company unions (also known as nonunion employee representation plans) before they were banned by the Wagner Act (1935). For the half‐century following the passage of the act, labor historians and industrial relations scholars painted a bleak portrait of company unions as anti‐union sham organizations. Since the 1980s, additional research has documented a more positive side; similarly, concern has grown that the Wagner Act's ban is stifling legitimate employee participation programs. This paper brings new theoretical and empirical evidence to both historical and legal parts of this debate, including examination of company unions through individualist, unitarist, pluralist, and radical frames; demonstration that the pluralists’ view of company unions was more diverse and positive than conventionally portrayed; presentation of new historical evidence and testimony on the company union experience; and a substantially revisionist assessment of the merits of the Wagner Act's ban. In particular, the conclusion is that, given any reasonable weighting of the four frames, the company union ban is overly restrictive and should be modified so companies can implement the positive side of nonunion employee committees but not the negative. The paper ends by noting that the unbalanced and narrowly critical treatment of company unions in the mainline industrial relations tradition is a case study of the field's perhaps fatal post–World War II core intellectual‐normative contradiction—professed inclusiveness of all frames of employment relations but, in practice, attention to and preference for a narrow union‐centric version of one frame.

Divergent fates: company unions and employee involvement committees under the railway labor and national labor relations acts

Well known is that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA, 1935) in the United States places a largely per se ban on nonunion employee representation (ER) groups which deal with employers over a term or condition of employment. Much less well known is that America’s other labor law, the Railway Labor Act (RLA, 1926), takes a different approach and permits employers to operate such councils and committees as long as they do not perform a collective bargaining function or interfere with workers’ free choice of a bargaining agent. Thus, under the RLA Delta Air Lines is able to operate what is today the closest living approximation to a 1920s-style ER plan while hundreds of other companies (e.g. Polaroid) under the jurisdiction of the NLRA have been forced over the years to disband similar groups on grounds they are a proscribed company union. No study to date has explored the history behind the RLA and NLRA’s divergent treatment of nonunion ER groups so this article takes a first look. The main part of the story covers the 1920–1935 period and examines the events, people, and experiences associated with company unions and ER in, respectively, the rail and manufacturing industries and why the legislative outcome in the former was a permissive stance on nonunion committees but prohibitive in the latter. The last part of the paper fast-forwards the RLA-NLRA story from the 1930s to contemporary law and practice in order to demonstrate how “history matters” when it comes to what employers can and cannot do with nonunion representation groups, such as works councils, participation and involvement committees, and dispute resolution forums.

The Effects of Union and Non-Union Forms of Employee Representation on High-Performance Work Systems

This paper investigates the effects of union and non-union employee representation (ER) on the use of high-performance work systems (HPWS) in the French context. We use micro-data from a nationally...

Maintaining union voice in the Australian university sector: Union strategy and non-union forms of employee participation

In 2005, Australian universities were required by a federal government, well known for its hostility to unions, to develop representative forms of employee consultation. This requirement posed a considerable threat to union voice in the sector. The article examines the union response to this situation. Our findings suggest that in the short term, the unions adopted a strategy of compliance with this requirement through support for the development of hybrid forms of voice, such as staff consultative committees. The unions then sought to dominate these committees by ensuring that union members were elected as staff representatives, thereby safeguarding the dominance of union voice. The non-union employee representation that was created, however, was constrained as an expression of employee voice. The findings are consistent with Anglo-Saxon literature focusing on the union substitution role of non-union forms of employee representation. There are also resonances in the union strategy with European trends for complementary relations between unions and union-dominated forms of non-union employee representation. However, while our study confirms the importance of the role of the state in determining the structure of non-union employee representation, it departs from the literature in demonstrating an instance where union substitution was sought by the state rather than by management.

Unionism and non-union employee representation: The interwar experience in Canada, Germany, the US and the UK

The decline in trade union membership in a number of countries has led to concerns over a ‘representation gap’, where workers are deprived of a voice not only in regard to their workplace grievances, but also in regard to their contributions to productivity and the quality of working life. While a number of alternatives have been raised, including joint consultation and works councils, there are concerns that these alternatives may further weaken union organization by establishing rival forms of organization. This article examines the interwar experience with three types of workplace non-union employee representation in Canada, Germany, the US and the UK. Where management recognizes unions and unions actively ensure that they dominate these representation mechanisms, they can enhance union organization.

A reassessment of non-union employee representation in the UK: Developments since the ‘ICE’ age

In light of new legislation pertaining to information and consultation in the UK, the need to reassess the realms of employee involvement and participation, especially non-union forms, is critically apparent. This article explores the character of non-union employee representation arrangements established in the context of the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004, drawing on case study evidence from two UK-based manufacturing organisations. The findings highlight some important dynamics concerning the use of non-union employee representation; not least that the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations have impacted in very different ways from those anticipated by the legislation.

Regulating for mutual gains? Non-union employee representation and the Information and Consultation Directive

Interest in ‘mutual gains’ has principally been confined to studies of the unionised sector. Yet there is no reason why this conceptual dynamic cannot be extended to the non-unionised realm, specifically in relation to non-union employee representation (NER). Although extant research views NER as unfertile terrain for mutual gains, the paper examines whether NER developed in response to the European Directive on Information and Consultation (I&C) of Employees may offer a potentially more fruitful route. The paper examines this possibility by considering three cases of NER established under the I&C Directive in Ireland, assessing the extent to which mutual gains were achieved.

Paradoxes of participation: non-union workplace partnership in John Lewis

The extent to which workplace partnership delivers mutual gains is subject to considerable debate amongst practitioners and scholars. One of the oldest and largest examples of workplace partnership is the John Lewis Partnership that began using forms of non-union employee representation in 1929. Despite ongoing interest from researchers in employee representation, and specifically non-union forms of employee voice, there have been few in-depth studies of the Partnership's organisational structure and practices since the 1980s. This paper explores in detail the operation of representation structures in the John Lewis Partnership, which is a significant case of non-union workplace partnership with the potential for mutual gains. A key finding of the paper was that the decision-making structures that characterise the Partnership, and that are protected by a constitution, are under constant threat from the discursive struggle to define partnership in a way that privileges managerial interests. The paper argues, therefore, that mutual gains need to be secured both structurally and discursively to address the tensions and paradoxes at the heart of debates about the meaning and aims of employee representation.

Does Non‐Union Employee Representation Act as a Complement or Substitute to Union Voice? Evidence from Canada and the United States

This paper examines two central questions related to non‐union employee representation (NER) in Canada and the United States. First, using Taras and Kaufman's (2006) four faces NER approach, we ask whether non‐union and union forms of voice act as substitutes or complements for employees at the workplace? Second, we ask whether non‐union forms of employee representation serve to deflect any latent desire for traditional union voice. We find that NER is negatively related to the presence of unionization at the workplace; it appears to reduce the desire to be unionized. This substitution effect proves to be stronger in Canada than in the United States.