Central Queensland University HRMT19021 Principles of Employment Relations Text Chapter Slides.pptVIP

* * * Most people have a ‘commonsense’ idea of IR (perhaps flash up a picture of a picket line here) in terms of confrontation, but it is rarely that. Most of the time, routine cooperation between employer and employee prevails. Many have struggled to get a useful definition. Initial focus is usually on job regulation—how the rules about the terms and conditions of work are set. The definition has developed, over the past few decades, owing to: 1. the decline in trade unionism, and the growth in non-unionised work, which creates new issues for employers and employees in resolving their industrial problems 2. the rapid development of human resource management as a set of practices as well as an academic field of study 3. the return of quantitative labour economics, which locates IR within the context of a labour market Accordingly, the definition of IR has broadened: the general consensus is that IR/ER is concerned not only with job regulation, but with the entire context in which the employment relationship is determined. * * Different definitions of ER, either formal or ‘commonsense’, in the heads of people, provide different ‘road maps’ on how to understand and respond to employment-relations phenomena. There are several examples within the textbook. * * * * * * * * Formal rules A result of a deliberate social process (e.g. a formalised collective agreement) (Happy Valley Council Enterprise Agreement is an example of formal rules, see Work Story , p.11). Informal rules Sometimes consciously negotiated. Unwritten agreements between parties. Accepted social practices at work (no-one really knows how they originated), (cash-in hand, free staff meals, see Work Story, p.12). * Substantive rules focus on the real terms under which employees are rewarded for selling their labour and the conditions under which they work, e.g.: wage rates working hours holiday entitlements other forms of leave * * * * Copyright ? 2011 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd PPT slides