...worker’s living conditions and a clear lack of communication channels between all relevant parties have surfaced only via the drastic action of a strike. Indeed, all parties involved have to clearly reflect on the events of the past week and do their utmost to prevent future occurrences of such incidents. Complacency setting in Citing how strikes would affect workforce productivity and deter potential investors, the Singapore Government has long taken a dim view towards strikes and strikes have been few and far between throughout the annals of Singapore’s history. This has and still must be the key driving policy: A zero tolerance towards illegal strikes. In an attempt to maintain the welfare of general workers in Singapore, the National Union Trade Congress, businesses and National Employer’s Federation had been established. Tripartism was vaunted as the the way to progress and to cultivate the symbiotic relationship between businesses, employers and employees. Indeed, the system of tripartism saw much success till the early 2000’s where there were troubling signs of complacency setting in and cracks slowly but surely emerging from the system. This was further compounded by the fact that there was a massive influx of foreign workers as the Government sought to open its doors to foreigners to maximize economic growth. It would be naïve to conceive...
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...THE TRADE UNIONS’ ACT, 1926 OBJECT: To provide for the registration of trade unions and to define law relating to registered trade unions. APPLICABILITY: It extends to the whole of India. TRADE UNIONS: Means any combination whether temporary or permanent formed primarily for the purpose of regulating the relations between workmen and employers for imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business, and includes any federation of two or more trade unions. MODE OF REGISTRATION: Any seven or more members of a trade union may apply for registration of a trade union in Form - A to the Registrar appointed for the area. The application shall be accompanied by Schedule I, Schedule II and a byelaw and a resolution authorizing seven ordinary members of the union to make an application for registration of the union, and a treasury chalan of Rs.100/- remitted as registration fee. (Section 4 and 5read with Regulation: 3 & 5) REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE: On receipt of the application for registration, the Registrar, after making reasonable enquiry issue a Registration Certificate in Form - B (Section 8 &read with Regulation 6) CANCELLATION OF REGISTRATION: A certificate of Registration may be withdrawn or cancelled by the Registrar: 1. On an application of a Trade Union in Form-D, or 2. If the Registrar is satisfied that the certificate is obtained by fraud of mistake or that the trade union had ceased to exist or willfully and after notice from the Registrar...
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...THE CHANGING ROLES OF TRADE UNIONS IN INDIA: A CASE STUDY OF NATIONAL THERMAL POWER CORPORATION (NTPC), UNCHAHAR Piyali Ghosh1*, Shefali Nandan1 and Ashish Gupta2 1 School of Management Studies, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (Deemed University), Allahabad, India 2 Probationary Officer, State Bank of India, Kanpur, India *e-mail: piyali2602@gmail.com ABSTRACT Trade unions are a major component of the system of modern industrial relations in any nation, each having, in their constitution, their own set of objectives or goals to achieve. Change in the political, social and educational environment has seen them rechristened as a forum that protects and furthers workers' interests and improves the quality of life of workers, enlarging their traditional roles of establishing terms and conditions of employment. This paper focuses on plant level trade unions, particularly those of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Unchahar plant, one of the largest and best Public Sector Undertakings of India. This exploratory study of the different trade unions operational at the Unchahar plant will also highlight their ideologies, objectives and structures. We aim to capture the changing paradigms in the roles of plant-level unions: from maintaining good industrial relations, once considered their primary role, they now work actively to improve the quality of life of workers, a role earlier considered to be secondary. Keywords: trade union, National Thermal Power...
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...Critically discuss the statement that “the emergence of the trade union movement in the Commonwealth Caribbean was inevitable in the face of prevailing social, economic and political conditions in the 1930s”. In the 1930’s slavery was abolished because of prevailing social, economic and political conditions. The great depression came in the 1929 and later the World War II was a period of external crisis for everyone especially the Caribbean. This period was marked by widespread outbreaks of revolts and disturbances such as in Trinidad, St Kitts, Jamaica, Guyana, St Vincent and in Barbados. The economic, social and political conditions were a major impact on the British West Indies economies. Were the construction of the US bases and other wartime faculties brought employment and income which also generated training for wider construction skills among the slaves, these skills were increased by the slaves, for a wide range of import-substituting activities such as domestic market and also exporting activities such as lime and limestone, matches, industrial gases and secondary industries, serving the local market such as food, drink, tobacco, clothing and household items and also local artisan and handicraft. Due to the war the trade was disrupted all the export industries were affected therefore, the colonial economy collapsed and undertook extreme vulnerability to metropolitan markets; grievances of the peasants against plantation interest; the growth of the working class...
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...TRADE UNION MALAYSIAN AIRLINES MUST RESPECT TRADE UNION AND WORKER RIGHTS OVERVIEW OF THE ISSUE Malaysia Airlines (MAS), a government linked company continues to violate worker and trade union rights. Recently, MAS commenced disciplinary action against Mohd Akram bin Osman, the Secretary General of the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (NUFAM), and 30 other NUFAM members. The show cause letter date on or about 14/2/2014 asked why disciplinary action should not be taken against them by reason of their participation in an ‘illegal’ gathering on 27/11/2013 at the Ministry of Human Resources in Putrajaya. The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (NUFAM) is a registered trade union, and it had sought recognition from Malaysia Airlines, the employer of the some of its members. Recognition is a legal requirement in Malaysia before an employer can be compelled to sit down, negotiate and agree to a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). When MAS rejected the application, the Director General of Industrial Relations (DGIR) conducted a secret ballot which involved all qualified employees, NUFAM succeeded in getting 62.73% of the votes, and thereafter on August 2013, the DGIR issued the formal letter acknowledging NUFAM as a recognized union. It must be noted that in Malaysian law, MAS, as employer, would had to agree on the list of qualified employees entitled to vote before the secret ballot, and as such challenging the result and the subsequent recognition...
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...turning point in the developments of trade union and labour rights in the USA in the period 1865 – 1992? Workers during the period 1865 to 1992 did not have many rights employers had all the power when it came to labour rights and trade unions were still trying to gain recognition from employers and the government. The New deal was the most important turning point in the developments of trade union and labour rights although other turning points need to be mentioned such 1890s, WW2 or the 1960 I believe the new deal was the most important turning point. During the depression the new deal policies of Franklin.D.Rossevelt did have a huge impact on labour and trade union rights in the USA for example the national industry recovery act which was passed on the 16th June 1933 which aimed to ask companies to cooperate and employ agreed codes of practice about issues about production levels, wage rates, working hours and trade union rights. Although this act gave rights to workers some big companies such as the Ford companies refused to sign this and the NRA was declared unconstitutional in 1935. More importantly the Wagner Act of 1935 was the most important new deal policy given to the workers as this was the first time Trade unions were allowed to exist and also the Wagner act gave workers the right to collectively bargain through their own chosen representatives. This brought a change as since 1865 as then workers had little rights and trade unions were not allowed to exist. It was...
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...legislation of important European directives. There is also a regulatory agency, the Health and Safety Executive, HSE, which is supposed to enforce the legislation and which is itself responsible to the overseeing body, the Health and Safety Commission, HSC. The question is how far the UK system of health and safety protection for employees at work is now threatened by the government’s deregulation programme. Trade Union s and Health and Safety Since the mid 1970’s the trade union movement has played a pivotal role in health and safety at the workplace through the system of trade union appointed safety committees and safety representatives. Section 2(4) of the Health and Safety at Work Act, under which safety committees were established provided for the appointment of safety representatives by ‘recognised trade unions’ (that is, by independent trade unions that the employer recognised for the purposes of collective bargaining on terms and conditions of employment). Section 2(5) of the Act required the election of safety representatives by the workforce instead of trade union appointment. This requirement was removed by the passage of the Employment Protection Act 1975. Thereafter,...
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...Do you believe that trade unions have a strong future in Australian industrial relations? If so, why? Trade unions have been described as organisations of workers set up to improve the status, pay and conditions of employment of their members and associations of workers who by means of collective bargaining endeavor to improve their working conditions, economic and social position (Salamon, 1992). Trade unions face many implications, declining union density, rapid expansion into casual labor market and decline of the manufacturing industry as a job provider.Trade unions have played a major role in the development of Australia and will continue to do so, however its critical that they adopt a form of union renewal to apply to the changing environment of Australia, as these changes can influence and affect the conditions for renewal and also can affect the way unions organize and regroup. Hymen (2002) suggest that in last three decades have seen a radical transformation of global capitalism with the liberalisation of currency markets; the acceleration of transactions through advances in information and telecommunications technologies; and the breakdown of the American-dominated post-war system of international monetary stabilisation. Deprived of much of their previous room for shaping macroeconomic policy, governments too have typically embraced policies of 'deregulation' to increase flexibility in labor markets. While the extent of such challenges varies substantially cross-...
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...DEFINITION Trade unions are independent organisations that represent workers to their employers. If you join a trade union, you are joining a group that will negotiate workplace issues such as salary, hours of work, and other conditions, on your behalf. HISTORY OF TRADE UNIONS Trade unions began in the 1880s and were legally reserved for whites only in South Africa. Organizations such as the South African Confederation of Labour (SACoL) supported employment policies that favoured white workers. In 1917 the Industrial Workers of Africa (IWA) was the first trade union established to uplift black workers. In 1919 IWA merged with the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union of Africa (ICU), formed in 1919, in 1920. By the 1930s the South African...
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...most robust explanation for the decline in Trades Unions? This essay will look at statistics on membership and density, along with important legislation to conclude whether there has been a decline in trade unions. A trade union is an organisation that looks after the interests of its members, usually employees of a particular industry. Jackson (1982, p.1) cites Webb and Webb (1942, p.1) that a trade union is “A continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the condition of their working lives”. This is a very succinct definition of trade unions, but it gets across their main purpose. Several perspectives will be examined for the function of trade unions in each, to try and determine if one perspective offers a clear and suitable explanation for a potential decline in trade unions. It has been suggested that there has been a decline in trade unions. Hamish Fraser (1999, p.231) indicates that trade union membership was on the rise well into the late 1970’s “In 1974 for the first time ever…union density…crossed the...50% mark overall and would continue to rise until 1979”. This shows that as late as 1979 trade unions were in a very strong position; they had their largest ever membership density. Using figures from Jackson (1982, p.4) we can see that in 1978 there were 462 unions within the UK with 13,112,000 members, and that 80% of total union members within the UK belonged to the biggest 26 unions, all of which had over 100,000 members. These...
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...Trade Unions in the RMGs sector of Bangladesh: A Case Study Prepared By MD. Osman Dhali Roll – 51 Session 2009-10 B.B.A. 16th Batch Department of International Business Faculty of Business Studies University of Dhaka Supervised by Abu Hena Reza Hasan Professor Department of International Business Faculty of Business Studies University of Dhaka Date of Submission: 05/08/2014 Letter of Transmittal 05 August, 2014 To Department of International Business Faculty of Business Studies University of Dhaka Subject: Submission of ‘Trade Unions in the RMGs sector of Bangladesh: A Case Study’ Dear Sir/Madam, Here is the paper on ‘Trade Unions in the RMGs sector of Bangladesh: A Case Study’. This has been prepared as a part of B.B.A. program under University of Dhaka. I would be happy if you read the report carefully and I will be trying to answer all the questions that you have about the study. I have tried my level best to complete this study meaningfully and correctly as much as possible. If you need any clarification about any issue of this paper, I will be pleased to assist you. Sincerely, ----------------------------- MD. Osman Dhali Roll – 51 Session 2009-10 (B.B.A. 16th Batch) Department of International Business Faculty of Business Studies University of Dhaka Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 Chapter 1 3 1.0 Introduction 3 1.1 Introduction 4 1.2 Background of the study 4 1.3 Research Aim and Objectives 5 ...
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...What is a Trade Union? A trade union is defined as a group or groups of employees that join together for the purposes of maintaining their working conditions of their employment and also stand as a mediator between the employer and employees. The main purposes of Trade Unions are the following. Trade Unions: • Negotiate terms with employers on pay and working conditions. • Accompany their members to any disciplinary or grievance meetings. • Provide their members with legal and financial advice • Discuss their member’s concerns with their employers. Brief History on Trade Unions in South Africa Trade Unions in South Africa have roots dating back to the 1880s. Most Trade Unions at that time were dominated by white workers and more of the rights...
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...ASSESSMENT FRONT SHEET Programme: BTEC Higher National Diploma (HND) in Business Unit Number: Unit 24 Unit Title: Employee Relations Unit code: (F/601/1271) QCF Level: 5 Tutor Name: Email: Key dates Distribution date: 25/04/2016 Submission date: Return date: 4 weeks after submission Introduction The term ‘employee relations’ has replaced that of ‘industrial relations’ Industrial relations are generally recognized as relations between an employer and a collective workforce, typically through a recognized union. Employee relations means the relationship between an employee and employer, and this is largely controlled by legislation and is being revised and updated continuously. It is important for learners to appreciate how good employee/employer relations contribute to the success and effectiveness of a business. In this unit they will investigate how cooperation between employers and employees leads to the development of good working relations against a changing background. The success of a business often relies on its relationships with its employees. Learners will investigate and explore different types of industrial conflict and the procedures for resolving this. It is important that learners are aware of change and keep up to date with developments in dispute procedures in relation to employment law. Legislation and EU directives play a major role in employee relations and learners will examine how these are...
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...THE TRADE UNIONS IN UK INTRODUCTION Historically, trade unions in the United Kingdom have been viewed as: (1) collective employee organisations established to protect employees from arbitrary actions by employers in matters of pay and working conditions, and (2) as promoters of the legitimate interests of people at work. In practice, they have also played an important role in the political life of the nation, and, to a lesser extent, in its social affairs. The ability of trade unions to exercise power and influence over users of their service depends on the relative demand for that service. Thus, when demands for skilled labour in the economy are high trade unions are in a relatively powerful position to negotiate a high price for the use of labour. They are also able in such circumstances to employ a wide range of sanctions against employers (and even governments). When demand for labour is slack and unemployment begins to rise, trade union power to influence events becomes more limited. In Britain the boom period for trade unions was during the 1970s when membership reached a peak of 13.2 million (1979). At that time the demand for labour was high, many skills where in short supply and there were few legal controls over collective action by unions. By 1990 the situation had changed dramatically with a deep recession, record levels of unemployment, changes In working practices brought about by new technology and last but not least, a substantial framework of labour legislation...
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...Introduction: Trade Union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals such as protecting the integrity of its trade, achieving higher pay, increasing the number of employees an employer hires, and better working conditions. -An organized association of workers in a trade, group of trades, or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interests. -A group of employees in a particular sector, whose aim is to negotiate with employees over pay, job security, working hours, etc. using the collective power of the members. -The most common purpose of these associations or unions is "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment". Objectives: Trade unions are the only way to manage, compliant, and control the labor force. Lots of objectives are there to organize trade unions. 1. To defend or improve the wages and working conditions of workers and to bring about a change in the economic order. 2. To strengthen their (labor) bargaining power collectively to establish and achieve all their rights. 3. To dully protect all other interest of the workers .And from the management’s point of view the objectives as written: a. To reduce the number of negotiation. b. To specify work rules, disagreements and grievances to give the better solution to workers claim. c. To establish the efficient communication between the employers and management to enforce the predictable standards. d. To enhance the overall organizational...
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