You have learnt the functions of HRM, skills required for HR Professionals and competitive challenges influencing HRM. Let us now learn the dynamics of employer-employee relations.
Employer-employee relations is one of the most delicate and complex problems of industrial society today. When an employer hires a new employee, s/he should not be considered as only new member of the Organisation. s/he should initiate new relationship in the Organisation. Managing these relationships are most important task for the success of the organisation. Industrial progress may hamper without labour management cooperation and industrial harmony. Therefore, creation of good relations between employers and employees becomes essential for smooth functioning of the Organisation.
According to Dale Yoder, the term employer-employee relations refer to “the whole field of relationship among people, human relationship that exist because of the necessary collaboration of men and women in the employment process of modern industry”. The clear spelt out roles and responsibilities of employer and employee may lead to good relationship.
Employer-employee relationship exists from employment relationship. Employment relationship exists when a person performs work or services under certain conditions in return for remuneration. It is through the employment relationship, the reciprocal rights and obligations are created between the employee and the employer.
The existence of an employment relationship is the condition that determines the application of the labour and social security law provisions addressed to employees. It is the key point of reference for determining the nature and extent of employers’ rights and obligations towards their workers. According to ILO, the issue has become more important because of the increasingly widespread phenomenon of dependent workers who lack protection because of one or a combination of the following factors:
· The scope of the labour law is too narrow or it is too narrowly interpreted.
· The labour law is poorly or ambiguously formulated so that its scope is unclear.
· The employment relationship is disguised.
· The relationship is objectively ambiguous, giving rise to doubt as to whether or not an employment relationship really exists.
· The employment relationship clearly exists but it is not clear who the employer is, what rights the worker has and who is responsible for them; and.
· Lack of compliance and enforcement.
The employer-employee relations may involve :
(i) the relations between the various unions
(ii) the relationship between the State and the unions
(iii) the relationship between the employers and the Government.
According to the International Labour Organisation, ''employer-employee relations comprise relationships between the State on the one hand and the employers’ and employees’ of organisations on the other hand and the relationship among the occupational organisations themselves. The ILO uses the term to “denote such matters as freedom of association and the protection of the right to organise, the right of collective bargaining, collective agreements, conciliation and arbitration and the machinery for cooperation between the authorities and the occupational organisations at various levels of economy”.
