Employment Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Employment Relations - Essay Example (Taylor & Bain, 2005) In Australia, the legislation change further decentralised employee relations systems to provide employers considerable power in their ability to dismiss employees and to promote individual contracts without the protection of awards and collective agreements. There is an increase at the international level for employers using contractual employees and require longer working hours in their quest of labour flexibility. There is an assumption that labor markets are not purely competitive, and when you compare this assumption to the mainstream economic theory, employers have more negotiating power than employees do. It is also assumed that there are natural conflicts between employers and employees, for example, high profits without increase in wages could cause conflicts hence conflicts are viewed as a vital part of the employment relationship. Since labor markets are seen as imperfect and employment relationships include conflicts of interest, workers cannot depen d on markets or their superiors to protect their rights, and in extreme cases to prevent worker exploitation. Therefore, institutions need support in the endeavor to protect rights of workers. Narrow Focus In many organizations, an issue that arises out of industrial relations is a narrow focus by the employees of the organization. Employees or staff members may view tasks at hand as duties they have to perform to complete their job rather than viewing how the role the employee plays benefits the organization as a whole. Many employees simply see their managers as someone who tells them what to do rather than as a facilitator that can help them achieve their own professional goals as well as bring the company to a point where it achieves the goals of the business. Inflexibility of Employer An inflexible employer stifles the employees’ creativity and when employees feel as if their creativity is being stifled or that their opinions do not matter, it can cause rivalry between t he employees and management of the organization. When creativity is squashed, it causes the company to lack in innovation, which ultimately leads to incompetence of the company in the marketplace. Employers that allow employees to participate in running the company by allowing suggestions and feedback from the employees and even empowering employees to take on more responsibility for the route the business takes, typically enjoys a more successful employment relations environment. Thus, the poor pay package of employees at Rio Tinto and its inflexibility as an employer has adverse effects on its employment relations (Hannan, 2011). Division Another issue that directly relates to employment relations environment is an â€Å"us against them† attitude in terms of Rio Tinto and its employees. Employees have the notion that there is a great segregation between them and the management or their superiors in the workplace. This division between the two groups of a business has caused a lot of issues such as contract negotiation problems, strikes and the required intervention of trade and labor unions. When management and employees can relate and communicate with each other, they easily solve their problems, such as not being able to negotiate work contract