ER in India

Hi everyone

This blog discusses ER in India. Typically Indias ER has been influenced by their British roots however a number of changes have taken place in the past decade. For instance, India has a number of unions numbering around 100 000, their workforce is made up of 50% of agricultural workers in the informal sector, promotes Union involvement in the bargaining process and determines wages by establishing a benchmark In the public sector which will determine the min wage in the private sector. India has responded to globalisation by encouraging privatisation and foreign investment and has recognised the importance of converging with western practices rather than diverging away from them. They have also recognised the need to protect their employees and encourage fair working rights and conditions for all.... But the question I pose to you is have they done enough? Or have they merely taken a small step in the right direction?

Thanks for reading :)

Lauren

ER in China

Employment relations in China

Hi everyone! This blog is about ER in china. After doing extensive research into the employment relations in China I have noted that there have been quite a few changes that have taken place and that China's ER is quite a unique system- firstly, only one union with communist party links is recognised in China the ACFTU, all other unions must accept the control and be affiliated with this union. Secondly, collective bargaining is quite rare particularly in the private sector. Thirdly, approximately half of the workforce in China is made up of agricultural workers. Finally, workers generally are employed under contract rather than for a lifetime.

So is China converging or diverging that is the question- well in my opinion I have mixed feelings. In one sense it can be argued that there is convergence towards labour flexibility in China due to international pressures, deregulation and increased privatisation however on the other hand they are diverging as the state is taking a lesser welfare role and decentralising collective bargaining. After reading this.... What do you think????

Thanks for reading

Lauren

Employment relations in Korea and Japan

This week I will be talking about employment relations in East Asia (japan and Korea) and comparing and contrasting them. To give a little history to their employments relations, Japan was considered to be well developed while Korea has been likened rather to developing countries.

Similarities-
- enterprise unionism (affiliated with federations outside the enterprise)

- internal labour markets in large corporations (strong because working conditions in internal labour markets are superior to external labour markets)

- increase in non- regular or non standard workers (includes part time, temporarily daily or dispatched workers. Proportion of these workers increased)

Differences-
- cooperative vs confrontational (Japanese unions rarely strike and if they do they are quite short in duration. Peaceful relations are reinforced by Union participation. Korean ER are much more confrontational, unions generally do not trust management. They rather rely on collective action to improve working conditions)

- coordinated vs uncoordinated (japan- enterprise unions negotiate with respective employers for wage increase in the spring, high levels of coordination between management workers and unions. Koreas collective bargaining is decentralised and uncoordinated. Wage increase bargaining is decided at the firm level and is not uniform across all sectors)

- higher levels of employment security in Japan but not in Korea

- Japan bases pay on seniority, skills abilities etc of workers where as Korea bases it on seniority solely

- non regular workers tend to be part timers where as in Korea they tend to be temporary workers


The point of this blog this week was to provide a solid understanding of the similarities and differences between japan and Korea so the reader has a basis on which to make their own opinion about their employment relations and if globalisation has contributed to the convergence or divergence of their employment relations. Hopefully you all now have a better understanding than you did before reading this post :)

What does the average Australian think about unions today??

Hi everyone and welcome to my first blogpost! Based on the passionate discussion over the current relevance of unions in this weeks tute, I decided to do some research and trawl through numerous articles!! I thought it would br interesting to see what the general consensus over the feelings towards unions today is to the average working man, woman and everyone else in between. Surprise surprise there are mixed feelings, but for the most part the answer is the same... Unions have changed dramatically over the last 30years, membership is down and many employees are thinking twice about opting for a union membership. To not bore you, I have only chosen 2 major articles to discuss in this blog post. According to a Sydney morning herald article titled 'state of the unions: industrial muscle in 2011' only 18% of 9.8 million Australian workers opted to be trade union members in 2011, further supporting the idea that Australian's are now more than ever, free to exercise their right of whether to join, not to join, or look in search of other alternatives to getting what they want in the workplace. Another article titled the 'unions will be back working for you again' from the daily telegraph also acknowledged that workers are choosing to use their own voice than a unions voice as they would rather fight their own battles than rely on a militant, outdated and controversially governed union body. But now for my opinion, I agree that the relevance of unions has changed as i believe unions have not changed with the times/ society as much as they have needed to to maintain membership numbers and support. However a unions relevance is particular to each individual. If every Australian has the right to choose where they shop, choose where they holiday and work... Why shouldn't they have the right to choose who represents their workplace interests or fight their own battles if they wish? After all, isn't it good to try new things instead of doing what we've always done?

Something to think about.......

Thanks for reading- Lauren :)