HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT-MBA2027
Module Number:IV
Dr. Jagdeep Singh
Module - IV: Industrial Relations and Discipline
Industrial Relations: Objectives of Industrial Relations (IR), Types of
Industrial Disputes, Causes of Industrial Disputes, Industrial Disputes
Settlement Machinery, Collective Bargaining and its process.
Discipline-Negative and Positive Discipline, Code of Discipline,
Disciplinary Action, Types of Punishments
(08 Sessions) Blooms Level: Comprehension
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Industrial Relations
• The relationship between the employer and the employee is usually referred to as industrial relations.
• Compensation-related issues, workload problems, retrenchment, layoffs and similar issues can
determine the degree of cordiality in the industrial relationship collectively and individually.
• The main actors (players) in industrial relations are a) Employers and their Associations b) Employees
c) their Unions and d) government.
Definitions
“Industrial relations are the art of living together for purposes of production”. ---- J. Henry Richardson
H.A. Clegg. He observes: “The field of industrial relations includes the study of workers and their trade
unions, management, employers’ associations and the state institutions concerned with the regulation
of employment”.
According to Dale Yoder “Problems of human relationship arising from the sale of services for a wage
and working on the premises of employers and under their control form the subject matter of Industrial
relations.”
• “Social Dialogue” is key for communication and information sharing; for conflict
prevention and resolution; and for helping overcome work-related challenges.
• It is an instrument for democratic governance and participation for economic
stability and growth; and a tool for maintaining peaceful workplace relations.
OBJECTIVES & KEY ASPECTS OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Apart from the primary objective of bringing about sound and healthy relations between
employers and employees, industrial relations aim:
• To facilitate production and productivity
• To safeguard the rights and interests of both labour and management by enlisting their
cooperation;
• To achieve a sound, harmonious and mutually beneficial labour-management relations;
• To avoid unhealthy atmostphere in the industry, especially work stoppages, go-slows, gheraos,
strikes, lockouts;
According to Nair & Nair, the following are the key attributes of IR:
The development of healthy employer – employee relations
The maintenance of industrial peace and high productivity
The development and growth of industrial democracy
SCOPE OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
1. Employer to Individual Employee Relationships:
2. Labour Management Relations
3. Industrial Peace and Productivity
4. Industrial Democracy
5. Liaison Functions
Industrial Disputes
According to Section 2 (k) of Industrial Disputes Act 1947 “industrial dispute” means any dispute or
difference between employers and employers, or between employers and workmen, or between
workmen and workmen, which is connected with the employment or non-employment or the terms of
employment or with the conditions of labour, of any person.
Types of Industrial Disputes
1. Interest Disputes:
• Economic disputes
• Arise out of terms & Conditions of Employment either out of the claims made by employees or
offers given by the employers.
• Such offers made with a view to arrive at a collective agreement. Eg: Layoffs, claims for wages
& bonus, job security, fringe benefits.
2. Grievances or Right Disputes
• Arises out of application or interpretation of existing agreements or contracts between
employees and management.
• Relate either to individual or group of workers in the same group. Eg: working time, over-time,
seniority, promotion, demotion, dismissal, transfer etc
3. Unfair labour Practices Disputes:
A) From Employer Side:
To interfere with, restrain from, or coerce, workmen in the exercise of their rights to organize,
form, join, or assist a Trade Union or to engage in concerted activities for collective bargaining
or other mutual aid or protection, that is to say:
Threatening workmen with discharge or dismissal, if they join a trade union;
Threatening a lock-out or closure, if a trade union is organized;
Granting wage increases to workmen at crucial periods of the union organizations,
undermines the efforts of the trade union at the organization.
B) From Employee Side:
To advise or actively support or instigate any strike deemed to be illegal under this Act.
To coerce workmen in the exercise of their right to self-organization or to join a trade union or
refrain from, joining any trade union, that is to say:
For a trade union or its members to picket in such a manner that non-striking workmen
are physically debarred from entering the workplaces;
To indulge in acts of force or violence or to hold out threats of intimidation in connection
with a strike against non-striking workmen or managerial staff.
4. Recognition Disputes:
These disputes also occur when the management personally dislikes a particular trade union. Then
the management refuses to recognise and negotiate with such a trade union which leads to the
victimisation of employees connected with such trade unions.
Causes of Industrial Disputes
• Demand for pay, benefits and compensation.
• Demand for Hygienic, safer and healthy working
conditions.
• Demand for better welfare (wellbeing) and social
security measures.
• Demand for justice for an individual or group.
• Demand for recognition of group/ trade union.
• One upmanship of among a group /union.
• Unfair labour practices.
• Expernal interference of political leaders.
Collective Bargaining
Collective bargaining, defined by Flanders (1970) as a social process that ‘continually turns
disagreements into agreements in an orderly fashion’.
Collective bargaining aims to establish by negotiation and discussion agreed rules and
decisions on matters of mutual concern to employers and unions.
Discipline
Managing employee behaviour and performance is one of the important tasks of managers.
Discipline refers to the employees’ observance of standards of behaviour set by the organization.
Disciplinary action refers to the punishing the employees who fail to meet those standards of behaviour.
“Discipline is the state of employee self-control and orderly conduct that indicates the extent of
genuine teamwork within an organization.” —R. Wayne Mondy
“Discipline is a force that prompts an individual or a group to observe the rules, regulations, and
procedures, which are deemed to be necessary to the attainment of an objective.”
— William R. Spriegel and Edward Schultz
Characteristics of Discipline
1. Maintenance of discipline is a prerequisite to the attainment of maximum productivity, not only
of the firm but also for the entire nation.
2. We should aim at development rather than punishing.
3. True discipline is educational because it changes the very attitude of the workers towards their
work and workplace.
4. It must, therefore, be understood that discipline must be developed from within.
Nature of Discipline
According to Megginson, discipline involves the following three things.
1. Self-discipline.
2. Orderly behaviour.
3. Punishment
• Self-discipline implies that a person brings the discipline in himself with a determination
to achieve the goals that he has set for himself in life.
• Orderly behaviour refers to discipline as a condition that must exist for an orderly
behaviour in the organization.
• Punishment is used to prevent indiscipline. When a worker goes astray in his conduct, he
has to be punished for the same and the recurrences of it must be prevented.
Code of discipline
• Code of discipline has been defined as the act of maintaining harmonious relations and
promoting industrial peace.
• It has been laid down which applies to both public and private sector organizations.
• The code of discipline in industrial relation specifies various obligations for the
management and the workers with the objective of promoting cooperation between
their representatives.
Positive or Negative Discipline
Positive Discipline
Positive discipline involves creation of an atmosphere in the organisation whereby employees
willingly conform to the established rules and regulations.
Positive discipline can be achieved through rewards and effective leadership.
According to Spiegel, “Positive discipline does not replace reason but applies reason to the
achievement of a common objective. Positive Discipline does not restrict the individual freedom but
enables him to have a greater degree of self-expression in striving to achieve the group objective,
which he identifies as his own.”
Negative Discipline:
Under negative discipline, penalties are used to force the workers to obey rules and regulations.
In other words, workers try to adhere to rules and regulations out of fear of warnings, penalties and
other forms of punishment.
This approach to discipline is called negative or punitive approach.
This is an unfavorable state that subjects the employees to frustration, and consequently results in
low morale.
Typical Disciplinary Problems
Disciplinary Action
1. Issuing a letter of charge to the employee calling upon him for explanation.
2. Consideration of the Explanation
3. Show cause notice
4. Holding a full fledged enquiry
5. Considering the enquiry proceedings and findings and making final order of punishment.
6. Follow up
Types of Punishments under discipline
1. Oral warning
2. Written warnings
3. Loss of privileges and fines
4. Punitive Suspension
5. Withholding of increments
6. Demotion
7. Termination
