PM4064 Employment Relations Week 8: Collective Representation and Trade Unions

Current Status of Trade Unions in Ireland

Authorised Trade Unions: Currently, only trade unions that are "authorised" and hold valid negotiating licenses are legally permitted to engage in collective bargaining regarding pay and conditions of employment.
Excepted Bodies: Certain organizations that are not trade unions are also permitted to hold negotiations. Relevant examples include: * The Irish Hospital Consultants Association. * The Irish Dental Association.
Industrial Relations Amendment Act (IRAA) 2015: This act sets out specific requirements for "excepted bodies." To hold negotiating status, these bodies must demonstrate that they are independent of management control.

Metrics for Trade Union Growth and Decline

Employment Density: Defined as the percentage of currently employed individuals who are members of a trade union.
Workforce Density: Defined as the percentage of the total workforce (which includes both those currently employed and those actively seeking employment) who are members of a trade union.
Historical Membership Trends in Ireland: * $1930$ – $1980$ : Trade union membership experienced a period of increase. * $1980$ – $1990$ : Trade union membership experienced a decrease. * $1990s$ / $2000s$ : Trade union membership experienced an increase. * Specific Data ( $1994$ – $2011$ ): During this period, the absolute number of union members increased by approximately $20\%$ . However, the density (membership as a proportion of all employees) fell from $45.8\%$ to $29.6\%$ .
Influencing Factors: The growth or decline of unions is attributed to three primary categories: * Cyclical factors. * Structural factors. * Institutional factors.

Types of Trade Unions

Craft Unions: Membership is strictly restricted to workers who possess a particular skill in a specific trade. An example provided is Electricians.
General Unions: These unions accept all categories of workers, regardless of whether they are semi-skilled or unskilled. * SIPTU (Services Industrial Professional Technical Union): This is the largest trade union in Ireland.
White Collar Unions: These unions represent professional, supervisory, technical, clerical, and managerial workers. * Examples: FSU (Financial Services Union) and INTO (Irish National Teachers' Organisation).

Trade Union Recognition

Definition: The process by which management formally accepts one or more trade unions as the legal representatives of all or a specific group of its employees. This is done for the purpose of jointly determining terms and conditions of employment on a collective basis.
Legal Standing: Recognition is largely considered a management prerogative. While Irish citizens have the right to form associations or unions, there is no attendant legal right to be recognized by an employer (D’art and Turner, $2008$ ).
Status: The lack of statutory provision for mandatory union recognition remains a contentious issue in industrial relations.
Relevant Legislation: The Industrial Relations Amendment Act $2015$ addresses aspects of this relationship.

The Policy and Legality of Closed Shops

Definition (McCarthy, $1964$ ): A situation "in which employees come to realise that a particular job is only to be obtained and retained if they become and remain members of one or a specified number of trade unions."
Types of Closed Shops: * Pre-entry: Requires an individual to join a specific union before they can be offered employment. This was historically prevalent in the public sector. * Post-entry: Requires an employee to join the designated union within a specified period after they have commenced work.
Constitutional Status: The post-entry closed shop is deemed unconstitutional under Article $40.6.1$ of the Irish Constitution, which protects the right of association (and, by extension, the right not to associate).
Purpose and Impact of Closed Shops: * Union Security: It confirms and stabilizes the union's position within an organization. * Reduction of Aggression: By increasing organizational security, unions may feel less need to act aggressively toward management to attract new members. * Removal of the 'Free Rider' Effect: It eliminates the scenario where employees receive the benefits of union-negotiated improvements without paying membership dues. * Infringement of Liberty: It is criticized for infringing on the individual liberty of voluntary association. * Management Constraints: It may restrict the ability of management to recruit the specific candidates they desire.

Employee Voice, Participation, and Partnership

Definition of Employee Voice (Wilkinson et al., $2014$ ): "How employees are able to have a say over work activities and decisions within the organizations in which they work, regardless of the institutional channel through which it operates."
Channels of Voice: * Individual vs. Collective. * Direct vs. Indirect (mediated through a representative).
Involvement Scope: * Employee Involvement: Managerial schemes designed to provide employees with information to enhance their commitment to the organization. * Employee Participation: A process that involves employees, typically through representatives, in the actual decision-making processes of the workplace. * Partnership: An arrangement based on problem-solving and consensus where management and workplace representatives collaborate to achieve organizational goals.
Initiative Range: These range from simple information giving and consultation to joint decision-making and full worker control.

Workplace Conflict

Definition: A process that begins when one party perceives that another party has frustrated (or is about to frustrate) a concern of theirs.
Dimensions of Conflict: * Collective or individual. * Explicit/organized or implicit/unorganized. * Between different actors: Worker vs. Management, Worker vs. Worker, or Management vs. Management.
Levels of Conflict: * Interpersonal (between individuals). * Intragroup (within a small group). * Intergroup (between different groups).
Common Causes (Bingham, $2015$ ): * Basic Issues: Wages and hours of work. * Working Arrangements: Discipline issues or opposition to specific policies/practices. * Solidarity Issues: Frictional issues, recognition disputes, or the defense of workers treated unfairly.
Conflict Containment: Managed through Substantive agreements and Procedural agreements.

Expressions of Conflict

Individual Expressions: Ways individuals show discontent including absenteeism, sabotage, turnover (leaving the organization), lowered work standards, reduced productivity, gossip (including social media), and incivility.
Collective Expressions: Conscious strategies to change a source of discontent: * Go Slow: Working at a deliberately reduced pace. * Work to Rule: Following regulations to the absolute letter to slow down production. * Overtime Ban: Refusal to work any hours beyond the standard contract. * Mass Sick Leave: Employees simultaneously "calling in sick." * Work-in / Sit-in: Occupying the workplace. * Strike Action: Temporary work stoppage.

Strikes and Lockouts

Strike Definition (Griffin $1939$ ): "A temporary stoppage of work by a group of employees in order to express a grievance or enforce a demand."
Consequences: Success can strengthen a union (e.g., Irish Rail), while defeat can lead to membership decline (e.g., bank strikes in the $1990s$ ). Employers may suffer a "Pyrrhic Victory."
Frequency: While often seen as the primary form of collective action, strikes are relatively rare in Irish industrial relations.
Types: Official (sanctioned by the union) and Unofficial.
Lockouts: Employer-initiated work stoppages (extremely rare).
Explanations for Strikes: * Institutional factors (IR systems). * Political factors. * Economic factors (business cycles). * Industry factors (differing strike proneness across sectors).
Measurements: * Strike frequency. * Strike breadth. * Strike duration. * Working Days Lost (WDL).

The Industrial Relations Act 1990

Significance: The most important piece of Irish legislation regarding collective action. It replaced the Trade Disputes Act $1906$ and the Trade Disputes (Amendment) Act $1982$ .
Purpose: To provide an improved framework for conducting industrial relations and resolving trade disputes to maintain a stable and orderly climate.
Section $8$ (Definitions): Defines terms such as employer, trade dispute, trade union, worker, industrial action, and strike.
Section $9$ (Immunities): Withdraws immunity if industrial action breaches agreed procedures (written or customary). Requires employers to observe procedures as well.
Section $11$ (Picketing): Picketing is only lawful at the place where an employee works, where the employer carries on business, or at the approaches to the workplace. * Secondary Action: Only protected if the second employer is actively seeking to frustrate the primary industrial action. * Not Protected: Sympathy action (supporting workers in an unrelated dispute) and politically motivated action.
Sections $12$ and $13$ (Conspiracy and the 'Golden Formula'): Re-enacts immunities from conspiracy. Unions are immune from tort suits only when acting in "contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute" (The Golden Formula).
Section $14$ (Balloting): Unions must hold a secret ballot for all industrial action. These provisions must be in the union rule book. Immunities are withdrawn if a majority votes against the action in a secret ballot.

Non-Union Management Control Practices (Roy, 1980)

Fear Stuff: Employee intimidation and managerial reprisals for union-related activities.
Sweet Stuff: Union substitution via alternative internal voice mechanisms.
Evil Stuff: Categorizing unions as harmful and destructive entities.
Fatal Stuff: A complete and total refusal by management to deal with unions.