Functions of Industrial Relations

Functions of Industrial Relations

1.Communication is to be established between workers and the management in order to bridge the traditional gulf between the two.

2.To establish a rapport between managers and the managed.

3.To ensure creative contribution of trade unions to avoid industrial conflicts, to safeguard the interest of workers on the one hand and the management on the other hand, to avoid unhealthy, unethical atmosphere in an industry.

4.To lay down considerations which may promote understanding, creativity and co-operation to raise industrial productivity, to ensure better workers’ participation?

The industrial scene is affected by lack of central values, class struggle, competition and unhealthy compromisers. Even in the latter part of the century, the management considers trade unions as a nuisance or a hurdle. The trade unions on the other hand considered the management and managers as exploiters. Workers are misled by their trade union leaders on the one hand and they allow themselves to be exploited by management.

The trade unions are organs of political organizations and they follow the ideologies of those organizations even at the cost of their own interest in the industry. As a result, the collective bargaining ends in either aggressive bargaining or futile waste of time. These and many other considerations led the ILO to formulate certain principles for promoting healthy industrial relations. They are:

(a)Good labor-management relations depend on employer’s and trade union’s capacity to deal with their mutual problems freely, independently and responsibly.

(b)The trade unions and the employers and their organizations should be interested in resolving their problems through collective bargaining and if necessary with the assistance of proper government agency.

(c)Workers and employers’ organizations should be desirous of associating with government agencies taking into consideration the general, social, public and economic measures affecting employers and workers relations.