State Of Industrial Relations Research Articles

Comparison of Legal Cultures for Settlement of Industrial Relations Disputes Through Arbitration Between Singapore (Common Law System) and Indonesia (Civil Law System)

In the common law legal system, the main sources of law are habits that live in society as a legal culture, as well as agreements that have been agreed upon by the parties. Meanwhile, in the civil law legal system, the regulations set by the government are the main source of law. There are two kinds of sources of labor law, namely: autonomous and heteronomous legal methods. Singapore is a country that has adopted an export-oriented industry, so the Singapore economy is colored by the role of the government. The state of industrial relations in Singapore is seen as the most stable and most functioning industrial relations system. In addition to tripartite relations, as well as a strong collaboration between the government, workers, and employers is the hallmark of industrial relations in Singapore. Singapore (Common Law) has the employment law The Employment Act 1968 which is a refinement of various ordinances made by the colonial rulers (Britain), including The Labor Ordonance 1957, The Shop Assistants Employment Ordinance 1957, and The Clerck's Employment Ordinance 1957. Laws and regulations in the field of labor apply in Indonesia, namely: Law no. 13 of 2003 and Law no. 02 of 2004 concerning the Settlement of Industrial Relations Disputes. Normative legal research with a comparative approach to legal culture. The legal issue is that if the two legal traditions are related to both types of labor law sources, then in countries that adhere to the Common Law legal tradition, the main source of labor law is generally the autonomous method. Meanwhile, countries with civil law traditions are generally heteronomous. Labor law is not a neutral and independent type of law, so government involvement is needed as an effort to protect workers who are weak in position.

Conflict and conciliation: industrial relations in an industrialising Hong Kong, ca. 1946-1960

ABSTRACT This article focuses on a long-standing riddle: what explains the quiescence of Hong Kong workers? Building on a literature written by social historians, industrial relations experts and social scientists, and using qualitative and quantitative data created by governments, the article discusses the effects of the de-radicalization of the working class; acute macroeconomic instability; ‘paternalistic’ and discriminatory labour management strategies; and interventions by the colonial state in industrial relations – most notably voluntary conciliation. The article argues that Hong Kong’s dominant decentralised system of industrial relations was supported by a conciliation-based approach nurtured by the Labour Department of the colonial administration. It also notes similarities between Hong Kong’s conciliation-based approach and that which emerged in 1940s Britain. New evidence on the effectiveness of conciliation qualifies the hitherto dominant thesis that British colonial administrations in Asia repressed labor activism.

The State in Industrial Relations: Neoliberal Intervention or Intervening in Neoliberalism?

The literature on industrial relations highlights the gradual subordination of nation-specific IR system under conditions of globalisation. The literature, however, pays scant attention to the role of the state in IR framework, an important omission in the context of transitional economies with a legacy of state intervention. This paper examines the changing role of the state and through this seeks to theoretically conceptualise state behaviour in IR. Based on the five planks of wage determination, work and employment condition, collective bargaining, dispute resolution and welfare provision, we critically examine the role of the state and locate it in the spectrum from statist to neoliberal. The case study is based on the study of post-liberalisation West Bengal, a left governed sub-national state of India. The role of the state has multiple dimensions and cannot be subject to a singular categorisation.

The changing role of the state in industrial relations since Vietnam's reform

Historical, socio‐cultural, ideological and political factors have long shaped Vietnam's formal industrial relations system. This has led to the development of a state‐centred structure in which the official trade union has a high level of formal status but little real influence in an economy whose primary employer was the state. Since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, the country has experienced a gradual shift towards a market economy through its policy of economic reform (doi moi). Although there is evidence of escalating divisions between workers and managers, the communist government continues to maintain a direct and dominant influence on the industrial relations system. Such influence highlights questions about the legitimacy of institutional and governmental control over formal labour representatives. In this article, we hope to offer a theory‐based explanation of this phenomenon.

IMPLEMENTATION OF SHARIA INDUSTRIAL RELATIONSHIP CONCEPTS AS ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS OF NON LITIGATION LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN THE LEGAL PLURALISM IN INDONESIA

The state of industrial relations should be conducive, especially in legal pluralism in Indonesia. The rule of law should provide a legal certainty and should not contain vague norms. Law 13/2003 on employment has not maximally provided legal protection for workers. Some articles governing industrial relations contain a vague norm. There are multiple interpretations of the values of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution as the basis for the application of the concept of industrial relations. TAP MPR No. II / MPR / 1978 concerning Guidance on the Practice and the Application of Pancasila (P4), has been revoked by MPR Decree No. XVIII / MPR / 1998 jo. TAP MPR No. I / MPR / 2003. This study aims to provide an alternative solution for the development of the concept of industrial relations in the perspective of Islam, as an alternative solution of non litigation legal aid in Legal Pluralism in Indonesia.This is a normative juridical research uses statute and conceptual approach. The result of this study shows that there are principles of Islamic law that can be implemented in regulating the industrial relations that close to the sense of justice which covers the principles of justice, helpfulness and mutual benefit, clarity of the contract (agreement) and the transparency of wages, mutual responsibility, and contentment to each other. The implementation of the concept of sharia industrial relations can be used as a source of multi-interpretation of the regulation of Law 13/2003 on the values of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution and as an alternative solution of non-litigation legal aid in Legal Pluralism in Indonesia. KEYWORDS: legal pluralism, Syaria industrial relations, vague norms.

Union Solidarity in Eastern and Central Europe from the Example of Poland

This study examines the extent of union solidarity in post-communist European countries using the example of Poland. It shows the process of the transition of trade unions from being mass organisations with a mandate from the state to voluntary organisations defending employees’ rights and interests within the social dialogue with the state and employers. It argues that the current legal regulations of decentralised institutions in Polish and other Eastern and Central European countries impede union solidarity. The reasons behind the crisis of trade unions are numerous and complex. They have been seen especially in the changes of the structures of enterprises, from large state-owned entities to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It can also be seen in the use of collective bargaining policies and the role of the state in industrial relations. It examines the role of non-union representations on the labour market and their chances of replacing trade unions or cooperating with them. The paper concludes that instead of searching for unlikely solutions to change the model of bargaining or replacing trade unions with other forms of employee representations, solutions in favour of strengthening the social position of trade unions through improving the existing trade unions' legal framework should be sought. Key words: trade union, union solidarity, multi-enterprises, globalisation, post-communist countries .

Self-regulation and the state in industrial relations in Southern Europe: Back to the future?

This article analyses the role of the state in industrial relations and the development of collective bargaining autonomy in three Southern European countries. The starting point is the impact of contradictory forces on the direction of change. While there are strong pressures towards less state regulation of working conditions and collective bargaining, the macroeconomic framework of monetary union imposed new coordination requirements upon these economies. Social pacts in the 1990s and 2000s provided a mechanism of state-coordinated governance while at the same time helping to enhance negotiated self-regulation. Nonetheless, significant cross-national differences remained in the extent and form of autonomous collective bargaining and in its outcomes. The structural challenges facing social partners in these countries, together with an emphasis on institutional strategies of revitalization, left them in a weak position at both company and national levels to face the challenges brought on by the crisis. Thus recent developments show a clear pattern of increased unilateral state interference, which raises important questions regarding the future of bargaining autonomy and the role of trade unions.

The Role of the State in Industrial Relations

This article examines the role of the state in industrial relations, which has been highly neglected in the literature. It examines the nature of the state and proposes a typology of four distinct roles of the state that affect industrial relations: (1) a third party regulator of labor relations; (2) a regulator of markets; (3) an establisher of the welfare system; and (4) its own employer and policy maker. In doing so, the article sheds light on the importance of the concepts of power and politics in industrial relations that have been unnoticed by industrial relations orthodoxy; that is, it attempts to clarify how each of the four roles of the state affects the power relations between labor and management.

The Role of the State in Balancing the Minimum Wage in Turkey and the USA

AbstractIn this article, the direct role of the state in industrial relations is scrutinized by focusing on the political basis of decisions regarding the minimum wage. We argue that in order to ensure stability and growth, any state must balance the interests of capital and labour when taking this kind of distributional decision. This idea is operationalized using O'Connor's concepts of accumulation and legitimation as the basis for an analytical model. Application to Turkey and comparison with the USA reveals that in Turkey, governments take account of legitimacy concerns in their minimum wage decisions due to the large number of workers directly dependent on minimum wages and weak collective bargaining institutions. In the USA, despite rather similar industrial relations conditions, this tendency is not present, probably due to the much smaller number of minimum wage earners and their weakness in the political process. However, in the USA, too, we observe that there is a difference between political parties and historical periods in the way in which the minimum wage is determined.

Labor Market 'Reform' in Australia: The New Industrial Relations Law and the Elections

For the first time in decades, the role of the state in industrial relations became a central issue in an election in an English-speaking first-world nation-state. The Australian election of November 24, 2007, resulted in an emphatic win for the Labor Party opposition led by Kevin Rudd. It was the second largest winning margin since the Second World War.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

The Role of the State in Industrial Relations: A Comment

In this paper, the author takes issues with comments by Sack and Lee that changes to British Columbia's labour legislation represent retrenchment in Canadian public policy in labour relations. In discussing the issue, he draws on the experience with a similar approach in Ontario.

Unions and Management in Engineering: A Case Study, 1964–79

In the search for explanations of what most scholars agree was a relatively low growth rate in post-war Britain, the role of trade unionism and the state of industrial relations have frequently bee...

The state in industrial relations: A cross–national analysis of developments and socioeconomic effects

Abstract This is a comparative study of the three main roles of the state in industrial relations: the state as employer in the public sector, state intervention in private–sector–wage bargaining, and the procedural role of defining a legal framework for industrial relations. Based on data from 20 OECD countries, the article's analytical focus is twofold. For each of these roles, the paper examines whether there is a convergence towards neoliberal regulation in response to the shift from demand–side to supply–side policies, and whether neoliberalism is superior to alternative regulation forms in terms of performance. No evidence of such dominance of neoliberalism can be found. The upshot is that developments of state regulation are as much path–dependent as its socioeconomic effects are contingent on a country's context.

Admission, exclusion, correction: the changing role of the state in industrial relations

We suggest in this paper that all the models of industrial relations, and not just the more “statist” ones, have been characterised throughout their history by complex and sometimes troublesome relationships with the state. These models have always been conditioned, and in a certain sense shaped, by the latter's more or less direct intervention at the moment of their formation and as they have expanded or declined.The difficulties that have often arisen in the relationships between state and industrial relations are to a large extent due to the fact that political regulation and regulation through industrial relations only partially overlap in their goals and contents. More frequently they compete with each other and have methods and logics that tend to diverge. Whereas decisions are taken by majority principle in the political sphere, in industrial relations they can only be taken unamimously – and especially so in collective bargaining, where approval by both parties, however minimal, is indispensable f...

Union Autonomy, a Terminal Case in the UK? A Comparison with the Approach in Other European Countries and the USA

Since 1979, the Conservative government in the UK has introduced wide-ranging and detailed regulations for the conduct of union internal affairs; a number of other Western industrialized countries have not done so (or have not done so to the same extent) but have continued their tradition of relying on unions themselves to establish democratic procedures. Alternative views of the role of the state in industrial relations underlie these differences. A second, linked article, appearing in Employee Relations (Vol. 15 No. 4), examines state approaches to union autonomy in the context of attitudes towards other controls on union activities and attempts to explain the successive shifts in British policy in the UK since the 1960s.

Industrial Relations in West Germany, 1980‐1987

ABSTRACT: The paper describes the structure and state of industrial relations in the Federal Republic of Germany and discusses perspectives and problems of their future development. Its composition follows the syllabus of an internationally comparative research project.

MARKETS OR POLITICS? THE DETERMINANTS OF LABOUR RELATIONS IN A NATIONALIZED INDUSTRY

This article examines ‘market’ and ‘political’ explanations for the nature of nationalized industry labour relations, using British Rail as a case study. The market perspective suggests that market insulation generated ‘cosy’ industrial relations since it allowed managers to acquiesce in restrictive practices. More robust labour management recently is the result of greater exposure to market forces. This explanation is rejected because BR was exposed to competitive pressures before the Thatcher era, and because there is no simple relationship between market forces and managerial actions. Instead political uncertainty is the primary determinant of the state of industrial relations. In the 1970s British Rail management and unions formed a ‘tacit alliance’ to limit the potential damage of government interventions. This alliance has broken down in the 1980s not primarily because of market pressures but because government interventions have become more explicitly concerned with industrial relations.

Power and Justice: The State in Industrial Relations. By E. A. Ramaswamy. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984. x, 218 pp. Bibliography, Index. Rs. 110; $19.95. (Distributed by Oxford University Press, New York City.)

Power and Justice: The State in Industrial Relations. By E. A. Ramaswamy. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984. x, 218 pp. Bibliography, Index. Rs. 110; $19.95. (Distributed by Oxford University Press, New York City.)

The Hancock Report: The Last Hurrah of the Past

The Hancock Report is disappointing despite the quality of its research. It fails because of its lack of vision and imagination, its excessive preoccupation with the status quo, and its unwillingness to critically examine the degree of union power in Australia. The reasons given for the Committee's decisions are all negative ones concerning possible alternatives. No positive case is made for the arbitration system. The Committee's views are fundamentally conservative and risk-averse, despite the unsatisfactory state of industrial relations in Australia. The one concession to a less third-party-regulated environment—a revision of Part X 'opting out'—is not expected by the Committee to attract much use. The dynamic effects on productivity of 'opting out' seem likely to make this option attractive, contrary to the Committee's assessment of such effects as 'pure speculation.' In short, the Report represents the last hurrah of the past rather than a blueprint for the future.

The Effect of Industrial Relations on Absence Attributed to Injury

Two possible results of disturbed industrial relations are industrial disputation and a worsening of the level of absence attributed to injury. To ascertain whether a relationship exists between these two results, correlation coefficients were calculated between industrial disputation data and injury statistics for Queensland. Correlations for each year of the study were indicative of a positive association between industrial disputation and absence attributed to injury. The results suggest that the relationship between industrial disputation and absence attributed to injury depends on a number of factors. The state of industrial relations, social and cultural characteristics, industry structure, and the type of work performed appear to affect the level of absence. These and other factors should be considered when lost-time injury statistics are used as an index of the efficacy of an accident-damage-control program or a particular countermeasure.