Employee relations

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DECENTRALIZATION OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

Introduction

Since the early 1980s , a number of countries have reported a downward shifting of employee relations , as suggested by some reports . In this regard , the shifting of downward has been witnessed in various levels of companies , which range s from firm to the multi-company level Decentralization focuses on the dispersal of decision-making processes to lower levels . The concept of decentralization in the context of employee relations revolves around bargaining powers of employees and

unions . Especially , bargaining power with respect to wages of employees is of prime importance in this concept . In this regard , evidences of recent decentralization in the structure of employee relations have been reviewed and analyzed in this

A wide range of understanding of the decentralization of employee relations has been represented by the analysis of some available literature regarding the employee relations . Both the formal employee relations , as well as , the informal employee relations have been examined in this . In addition , since written or oral agreements are made for the settling of many important matters related to the industrial relations , locus changes regarding the informal negotiations have also been included in the

Recent Changes

An archetypical case of centralized employee relations has been considered . In this regard , the blue-collar union confederation and the employers ' confederation have played a vital and dominant role in the abovementioned perspective of the Sweden (Jenkins , pp . 112-117 , 2000 In the year 1956 , recommended increment of the wages , and recommendations regarding the non-wage issues were provided by the SAF-LO agreement (Ulman , pp . 153-155 , 1967 ) In this regard , national affiliates of the SAF and LO were provided with these recommendations and some other details (Weber , pp . 127-130 , 1961

These recommendations were agreed by the employers and unions , which continued until the 1980s . One of the reasons of positive response was that more stipulations were used in the previous agreements (Wentworth pp . 114-116 , 1972 ) and fewer recommendations were given , which lack in the agreements of the 1980s . Before the 1980s , centralized employee relations were being supported by large employers , such as , engineering sector , etc (Turnbull , pp . 92-96 , 2004

However , in the 1980s , a shift toward the decentralization of the employee relations was favored (Turnbull , pp . 101-105 , 1998 Competitive pressures were heightening globally , and lower labor costs were needed with a wide range of skill differentials , which were being complained by the employers during these years . It was argued by many employers that these pressures would be responded well by the support of decentralization of the employee relations . In some other cases , it was expected that bargaining advantage and flexibility would also be provided by the decentralization

However , the decentralization of the employee relations was less eagerly favored by the small employers , as it was feared that union powers would be strengthened by the decentralization , and in the result , industrial relations would be confronting greater instability (Sikula , pp . 57-59 2001 ) Centralized employee relations are sought by most of the...