Reference no: EM133255125

1. (1) What is Employee Relations? (2) Why is Employee Relations important?

2. (1) Explain primary participants and their main objectives in Employee Relations. (2) How their interests affect conflict in the workplace. What if the interests are very different? What if the interests are similar? Give an example.

3. Compare and Contrast the Unitarist/Unitarism and Pluralist/Pluralism in the Employee Relations.

4. For the example below, explain: (1) who the parties involved are, (2) the interest of each party, and (3) how the Tesco Management could have minimized the damage to ER resulting from poorly managed contract change - give advice to manage contract change well.

Following negotiations that had been ongoing since the preceding summer, in February 2010, the management of a Tesco distribution plant based in Chepstow South Wales, was disappointed when the workforce rejected a relocation plan whereby they would move to a new distribution plant, built 9 miles away from Chepstow, on the other side of the Severn Bridge, at Pilning. The 750 employees were unhappy with the proposed move: to get to work, they would have to pay the toll charge to cross the bridge, and the new terms and conditions were not as favorable, as the average salary would drop from 21,000 GBP to 18,000GBP and the pension would be decreased, while their union Unite would no longer be recognized as their representative body. Following negotiations, the company had agreed that nobody transferring from Chepstow to Pilning would actually face a pay cut, but instead their salaries would be frozen until the rate paid to newly recruited employees caught up with their pay. Those staff not accepting the new terms and conditions would be made redundant.

Ron Web, the national secretary for Unite, said: "What Tesco is hiding behind this move is that it wants to keep the workers, but only if they agree to vastly inferior contracts. Athe same time they want to deny workers the chance to be represented by their lawful union. At time like this, when workers are frightened for their jobs, this is an underhand way to get them to agree to pay cuts."

In contrast, the operation director at Pilning Nigel Jones said: "Our new distribution center at Pilning will not only represent a long-term investment within the area, but also is good news for local job-seekers, particularly in the current climate."

5. Explain each of following individual expressions of conflict in the workplace?

- Sabotage

- Whistleblowing

- Incivility

- Deliberate slacking

6. For the example below, explain: (1) Who the parties involved are, (2) the interest of each party, (3) the cause of the dispute, (4) symptoms/expressions of the conflict, and (5) whether there are perceptions of organizational injustice, and if there are, which categories these might fall into.

More than 430 members of Unite employed at Refresco Gerber voted to hold eleven 36-hour strikes, beginning in January 2015 and continuing through a 10-week period to April, in protesting against the organization's intention to save money and harmonize its employee term and conditions. The company proposed altering employees' contracts by cutting pay, reducing overtime and shortening holiday entitlements. A spokesperson at Refresco Gerber pointed out that 95 per cent of the staff had accepted the new employment terms. A Unite represent said, 'The race to the bottom needs to stop. The organization needs to drop its refusal to negotiate and enter into meaningful talks to avoid the inevitable disruption that prolonged strike action will have on the supply of well-loved household brand.'

7. (1) What do you think are common causes of conflict in the UAE workplace? Explain at least 2 causes and give examples.

(2) What contribution could (a) Management and (b) Government make to both the avoidance and resolution of conflict from those causes? Give examples.