Employer Associations

Employer Associations
Employer organise themselves for the following
purposes:

 To promote a particular trade or organisation

 Improve professional contacts
 Collectively regulate the terms and conditions

of employment
 Include employment issues
Trade Associations
 Organise for purely professional purposes
 Professional training
 Information sharing
 Taxation
 Tarriff protection
 Patent rights or subsidies
 (only for professional advancement or

commercial purpose and do not include any

IR issues in their mandate
Why Have Employer Associations?
Market
Extension
thesis

Exogenous Employer Countervailing

factor thesis associations power thesis

Three
models
explanations
Market Extension thesis

 Separates employer and employee functions

 Separation brings mutually protective and

competitive organisations
Countervailing power thesis

 Creation of one power group creates another

opposing power group – Trade Unions
Three models explanations

 Defensive mode- defend against unions

 Political model – to create bargaining

structures and dictate their terms in the

conditions of employment
 Economic model – to control the cost of labor
Exogenous factor thesis

 External factors lead to creation of EA.

 Development of strong TU’s

 Labor protective government legislations

 External developments in the environment