Untitled Quiz

Employment Relations & Industrial Relations Unit Learning Outcomes

• Understand the key principles of Singapore's legal employment framework.
• Review Singapore's statutory employment laws.
• Analyze how legislation improves worker standards.
• Illustrate how legal frameworks resolve employer-employee disputes.
• Identify the role of the Ministry of Manpower in labor market policies.
• Evaluate how tripartism affects employment relations in Singapore.

Perspectives and Evolution of Employment and Industrial Relations

• Define and understand employment and industrial relations.
• Describe the three employment relations perspectives (unitarist, pluralist, radical/Marxist).
• Understand and apply Dunlop's model to explain employment and industrial relations in Singapore.
• Explain the origin of Singapore's industrial relations system, focusing on tripartism.

Employment vs. Industrial Relations

• Employment and Industrial Relations examine interactions between labor and management to establish employment conditions.
• Employees are viewed as assets generating value for the organization.
• Management is responsible for engaging and empowering employees to realize their potential.
• Employer-employee conflicts exist and can be mitigated through effective HR policies and consistent implementation.
• Employment Relations is broader, encompassing HR management in unionized and non-unionized companies.
• Industrial Relations is more narrowly focused on unionized companies, involving collective bargaining and work rules (substantive and procedural).

Employment Relations Perspectives

• Perspectives act as frames of reference for interpreting employment relations.
• These frames encompass assumptions, values, beliefs, and convictions.
• They influence how people behave and how managers interact with employees and approach employment relations (ER).
• Workers' frames affect responses to authority; Governments' frames impact laws.

The Three Frames

• There is no single way of viewing work; individuals judge based on their assumptions and beliefs, using one of the three frames: unitarist, pluralist, or radical/Marxist.

A Unitarist Perspective: HRM

• Unitarism assumes a shared purpose and goals between labour and capital, with no fundamental conflict of interest.
• Conflict is seen as an aberration resulting from issues like poor communication or management.
• Unions are viewed negatively as unwelcome intrusions competing for employee loyalty.
• Strong management is crucial.
• Unitarism in HRM emphasizes employee management by planning, recruiting, training and managing their performance, rewarding and dismissing/retiring them.

Critiques of Unitarism

• Unitarism is criticized for neglecting the causes of conflict.
• It fails to explain common conflict within organizations.
• Uneven power distribution between employers and employees isn't considered.

A Pluralist Perspective

• Conflict is inherent, stemming from competing interests between labor and management.
• Power is distributed across bargaining groups; no single group dominates.
• Unions are viewed as legitimate mechanisms for employee bargaining within the workplace.
• The state, as an impartial body, protects the public interest.

Critiques of Pluralism

• Power remains unevenly distributed, predominantly towards management.
• Conflict management tends to be viewed as rational, with rules and regulations handling conflicts effectively.

A Radical/Marxist Perspective

• Radical perspectives assume inherent conflicting interests between management and workers.
• Power is unevenly distributed; the state protects the interests of capitalists.
• Trade unions challenge management's control
• Employee participation and cooperation are not favorably viewed.

Critiques of Radical Perspectives

• Radical perspectives are preoccupied with conflict, ignoring cooperation and shared goals.
• Class struggle may not be a prominent feature of modern capitalism.
• Capital is diverse and not homogenous.
• Underestimates the independence of the state.

Industrial Relations

• Industrial relations have a practical focus.
• Generally, a pluralist perspective is prevalent in industrial relations.
• Industrial relations strongly consider rules and systems approaches.

Systems Approach to ER/IR

• Dunlop's (1958) systems approach defines Industrial Relations as the determination and web of workplace rules.
• Rules, created by various actors in given contexts and ideology, allow the system to function.

Dunlop's ER/IR System Model

• Four key features: Actors (specialized government agencies, managers, employees), Shared Ideology (shared beliefs binding the system), Contexts (environmental factors, technology, and markets), and Rules (regulatory framework of employment relationships).
• Simplified model shows how elements interact.

More on Actors

• Individuals have various values, motives, and experiences, affecting decisions in employment relations.
• Organizations have unique goals, governance, histories, and cultures influencing actions.

More on Contexts

• Dunlop identifies technology, market/budgetary constraints, and power relations as contexts significantly influencing employment relationships.

Technology, Markets, and Power

• Technological advancements, market forces, and power structures affect employment relations, influencing jobs, stability, and the workplace.

The Tripartite GUM Model

• Dunlop's model was adapted to Singapore's tripartite system (government, unions, management).
• Strong communication networks, a strong government as policy maker and the focus on shared outcomes including harmony are central to the Singapore model.

Reflection Question - Tripartism

• Reflect on whether tripartism is unique to Singapore and if Singapore's model is "ideal" from various perspectives (workers, management, government).

Origin of the ER/IR System

• Singapore's early industrialization necessitated cooperation from government, labor, and management.
• A system of developing the economy and attracting investments required mutual gain between these three players.

Reflection Question - Future of Tripartism

• Critically assess the article Soh Tze Min 2012 article about tripartism by examining the success, future, and role of tripartism in Singapore's economic success.

Challenges to Tripartism

• Widening socioeconomic disparities.
• Growing workforce diversity.
• Alternative platforms for worker representation.
• Potential risk of complacency in the tripartite system, especially amongst the partners.

The Future of Tripartism: Scenarios

• Scenario 1 (Endangered): Divergent demands and potential power struggles could damage tripartite trust and lead to alternative arrangements.
• Scenario 2 (Rejuvenated): The system's adaptive capacity and resilience could maintain trust, even with more complex and diverse workers' demands.
• Scenario 3 (Multipartite): Current trust and understanding could lead to a multipartite system where collective leadership represents varied stakeholder interests.

Singapore's ER/IR Transformations

• Four periods of transformation in Singapore ER/IR, relating to colonial administration, regulated pluralism, corporatism, and corporate paternalism, to manpower planning.

Colonial Administration to Regulated Pluralism (1960-1967)

• Colonial rule aimed at worker dependence and conflict suppression.
• Industrial conflict, likely due to communist infiltration, was prevalent.
• With self-government, the PAP established legal frameworks and the Industrial Arbitration Court to control unions.

Regulated Pluralism to Corporatism (1968-1978)

• Economic challenges (due to the withdrawal of British military bases required focused industrialization efforts.
• Government policies to attract investors emphasized a compliant workforce(low wages, lack of dispute, and flexibility).
• Tripartite bodies were formed, and unions transformed.

Corporatism to Corporate Paternalism (1979-1997)

• Government policies favored capital-intensive, high-tech industries.
• Wage increases were controlled to avoid rising employment, boosting worker productivity.
• The NTUC (National Trades Union Congress) restructuring followed industry-wide, then enterprise-level union models.

Post-1997: IR to Manpower Planning

• The 1997 Asian economic crisis necessitated a response in workforce planning and a knowledge-based economy.
• Initiatives focused on integrated manpower planning, lifelong learning, talent pool augmentation, more flexible wage systems, and strong tripartite collaborations.