Labour Relation:‑
Labour relations are a broad field encompassing all the myriad interchanges between
To protect the rights mentioned above, the Wagner Act also, created a new federal agency, the National Labour employers and employees. While labor relations are most often used to discuss this exchange as it pertains to unionized employees, it may also refer to non-union employees as well. Labour relations are dictated in a large part by the government of a nation and the various regulations it provides to industry regarding the treatment of employees. In the United States, labour relations gained a huge boost with the passage of the National Labour Relations Act in 1935. This act covered a wide range of labour rights, including the right to strike, the right to bargain as a union, and a general right to protest and take action to achieve their desires. The National Labour Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act, gave most employees these rights. It was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1937.Relations Board. The sphere of, the National Labour Relations Board, and the Wagner Act itself is limited only to employees operating in the private sector. Government employees, among with the employees of some mass transit (rail and air), are covered under a separate labour relations act, All, ail a Labour Act.
In 1947, the National Labour Relations Act was changed substantially through the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act. Its passage, came only after Congress overrode a presidential veto by President Truman, who d s Gibed it as a bill of slave labour. The Taft-Hartley Act substantially undermined the the National Labour Relations Act and the power it had granted unions.
While the National labour Relations Act is the largest and most well-known piece of legislation pertaining to labour relations, a large amount of legislation can be accurately described as labour relations. Minimum wage laws, fair-practice rules, and legislation dictating danger pay are all examples of labour relations.
As a theoretical field, labour relations can be thought of as examining the interface between employees and the world at large. This may include labour relations with employers, but it also includes how the employee sector is affected by everything from globalization to a falling economy. Labour relations in this sense attempts to minimize negative impact on the work force by identifying potential disasters and coming up with methods of damage control.
For example, if advancing technology in a sector threatens to result in massive layoffs for the employees as their Work is automated, labour relations could come up with ways of reducing the damage done to these employees. This might take the form of re-education programs, preparing the employees for transfer to another field, or looking at ways their existing experience could complement, rather than compete with, the new technologies.
Most of the labour relations in the companies are based on the Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at work. Adopted in L998, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work is an expression of commitment by governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations to uphold basic human values – values that are vital to our social and economic lives. These principles and rights are: freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining) the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour; the effective abolition of child labour; The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
A further recognition of the importance of these principle “and rights has been their incorporation into the Global Compact, an initiative of the United Nations Secretary General. Like the ILO Declaration the Global Compact is a platform designed to promote learning and good practices of businesses, based on universal principle:. The Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work are derived from the ILO Constitution.
1. Freedom of Association and Effective Recognition of the Right to Collective Bargaining:
All workers and all employers have the rights to freely form and join groups for the support and advancement of their occupation interests. This basic human right goes together with freedom of expression and is the basic of democratic representation and governance. People need to be able to exercise their right to influence work-related matters that directly concern them. In other words their voice needs to be heard and taken into account. Freedom of association means that workers and employers can set up, join and run their own organizations without interference from the State. Along with this right is the responsibility of people to respect the law of the land. However, the law of the land, in turn, must respect the principle of freedom of association. These principles cannot be ignored or prohibited for any sector of activity or group of workers The right to freely run their own, activities means that workers’ and employers’ organizations can independently determine how they best wish to promote and defend their occupational interests. This covers both long-term strategies as well as action in specific circumstances, including recourse to strike and lock out. They can independently affiliate with international organizations and cooperate with them in pursuit of their mutual interests.
Voluntary collective bargaining is a process through which employers or their organizations and trade unions or, in their absence, representatives freely designated by the workers discuss and negotiate their relations, in particular terms and conditions of work. Such bargaining in good faith aims at reaching mutually acceptable collective agreements.
The collective bargaining process also covers the phase before actual negotiations information sharing, consultation, joint assessments -as well as the implementation of collective agreements. Where agreement is not reached, dispute settlement procedures ranging from conciliation through mediation to arbitration may be used. To realize the principle of freedom of association and the right, to collective bargaining in practice requires, among other things a legal basis which guarantees that these rights are enforced; an enabling institutional framework, which can be tripartite, between the employers’ and workers’ organizations, or combinations of both the absence of discrimination against individuals who wish to exercise their rights to have their voice heard, and; Acceptance by employers’ and workers’ organizations as partners for solving joint problems and dealing with, mutual challenges.
2. Elimination of All Forms of Forced or compulsory Labour?
Forced labour occurs where work or service is extracted the State or individuals. who have the will and power to threaten workers with severe deprivations such as withholding food or land or wages, physical violence or sexual abuse, restricting peoples, movements or locking
them up . For example, a domestic worker is, in a forced labour situation where the head of a household tales away identity papers, forbids the worker to go outside and threatens him or her with, for instance, with physical harm or non payment of salary in case of disobedience. The domestic may also work for an unbearably low wage, which amounts to exploitation. If he or she were free to leave, this would not amount to forced labour but to exploitation.
Another example of forced,. our arises where villagers, whether they want to or not, have to provide substantial help in the construction of roads, the digging of irrigation channels etc. Bonding workers throu6hdebts is, in fact, a widespread form of forced labour in a number of developing countries. Sometimes it originate with a poor and illiterate farmer pledging labour services to an intermediary or a landowner to work off ,a debt over a period of time.
3. Effective Abolition of Child Labour:
Children enjoy the same human rights accorded to all people. But, lacking the knowledge experience or physical development of adults and the power to defend their own interests in an adult world, children also have distinct rights to protection by virtue of their age one of these is protection from economic exploitation and from work that is dangerous to the health-and growth of children or hampers the child’s development.
Effective abolition of child labour means ensuring that every girl and boy has the Opportunity to develop physically and mentally to her or his full potential. Its aim is to stop all
by children that jeopardizes their education and development. This does not mean stopping all work performed by children. International labour standards allow the distinction to be made between what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable forms of work for children at different ages and stages of development.
4. Elimination of Discrimination in Respect of Employment and occupation
Discrimination at work can occur in different settings, from high-rise office buildings to rural villages, and in a variety of forms. It can affect men or women on the basis of their sex, or because of their race or skin colour, nationality, social origin, religion, or political opinions. Often countries decide to ban distinctions or exclusions and forbid discrimination on other grounds as well, such as disability, HIV, status or age.
Discrimination at work denies opportunities to individuals and deprives society of their Contribution. Eliminating discrimination starts with dismantling barners and ensuring equality in access to training, education as well as the ability to own and 16resources such as land and credit. It continues with fixing conditions for setting up and running enterprises of all types and sizes, and the policies and practices related to hiring, assignment of tasks, working conditions, pay, benefits, promotions, lay-offs and termination of employment. Merit and the ability to do a job, not irrelevant characteristics, form the prerequisites job.
Equality at work means that all individuals should be accorded equal opportunities to develop fully the knowledge, skills and competencies that are relevant to the economic activities they wish to pursue. The diversity in culture, language, family circumstances, and the levels of literacy have to be kept n mind while framing measures to ensure equality. For peasants and owners of small or family enterprises, especially the women and ethnic groups, equal access to land (inb0ding by inheritance), training, technology and capital are key factors. CSR within the, organization warrants fixation of working hours, remuneration or wages keeping in view the legal framework specified in this regard.
Thus, these are the rules which the companies need to keep in mind while formulating their regulation regarding labour relations. Moreover, in its CSR report, the company needs to furnish information relating to composition of work force, employment type, net employment creation, percentage of employees represented by independent trade union organizations or other bona fide employee representatives, etc.
5. Work Atmosphere: Healthy and Productive
The related discipline, Occupational Health Psychology (OHP) is a relatively new field that combines elements of occupational health and safety, industrial / organizational psychology and health psychology. The field is concerned with identifying work-related psychosocial factors that adversely affect the health of people who work. OHP is also concerned with developing the health of people who work. For more detail on OHP, see the section on occupational health psychology.
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