EMPLOYEE AND
LABOR RELATIONS
John Ryan T. Dizon, MD
Jan Nathleen C. Dizon, MD
EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
• Study of the relationship between employees and also
between employers and employees.
• A two person relationship between employee and
employer.
• Provides information to employees on the goals of the
organization.
EMPLOYEE VS. LABOR RELATIONS
EMPLOYEE RELATIONS LABOR RELATIONS
• Deals with matters involving • Deals with matters involving
employees who are not members labor-management issues, such as
of a bargaining unit such as union contract negotiations,
employee complaints, grievances, arbitration, work
performance management, and stoppages and strikes.
employee recognition
FUNCTIONS
• assists with general management regarding developing,
maintaining and improving employee relationships via
communication, performance management, processing
grievances and/or disputes as well as interpreting and
conveying organization policies
• prevents and resolves problems involving employees which
stem out of or affect work situations
FUNCTIONS
• recognizes employees for service contributed to the
organization and provides assistance with professional growth
• is responsible for negotiation and administration of the
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA)
• offers balanced advocacy to management and individual
employees to protect their respective rights and facilitate a more
harmonious work environment.
FUNCTIONS
• Performance Management
• Layoff Planning
• Discipline & Dismissal
• Contract interpretation and administration (Union contracts and relevant personnel policies)
• Complaint/Grievance processing (represented and non-represented staff)
• Represents management in employee disputes/grievance proceedings
• Mediates/negotiates resolution of complaints with employee representatives
• Responds to union information requests
MANAGER/EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
SPECIALIST
• Member/s of the HR department ensures that company policies and
procedures are followed
• Advises both supervisors and employees on specific employee relations
problems
• Through the employee relations policies, channels are provided to resolve
problems before they become serious.
ROLE OF MANAGER/EMPLOYEE
RELATIONS SPECIALIST
• Provide fair and consistent treatment to all employees so that they will be
committed to the organization.
• Must listen to and understand what employees are saying and
experiencing.
• Keep the employees informed about what the management plans to do
with the business and tell them how those plans affect their jobs.
MANAGEMENT RIGHTS
• Short, concise and yet very powerful.
• Give management the authority to conduct business and direct the actions
of the employees to accomplish the business objectives
MANAGEMENT RIGHTS
• Manage and direct employees;
• Hire, promote, transfer, assign and retain employees;
• Suspend, discharge or take other proper disciplinary action against employees;
• Reassign employees;
• Relieve employees from duty because of lack of work or other reasons;
• Schedule work;
• Determine methods, means and personnel by which operations are to be conducted,
and
• Determine the need for a reduction or increase in the workforce.
EMPLOYEES RIGHTS
• 10 Basic Rights of Workers in the Philippines Under the Applicable Laws
• Company handbook
10 BASIC RIGHTS OF WORKERS IN THE
PHILIPPINES UNDER THE APPLICABLE
LAWS
• Equal opportunities for all
• Security of tenure
• Work days and work hours
• Weekly rest day
• Wage and wage-related benefits
10 BASIC RIGHTS OF WORKERS IN THE
PHILIPPINES UNDER THE APPLICABLE
LAWS
• Payment of wages
• Female employees
• Employment of children
• Safe working condition
• Right to self-organization and collective bargaining agreement
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
AGREEMENTS (CBA)
• Represents the terms and conditions of employment for those
employees represented by the bargaining unit.
• It defines both the rights of management and those of the
represented employees.
• It is a two-way party transaction whereby both parties intend to
resolve a conflict.
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
AGREEMENTS (CBA)
Distributive Bargaining Integrative Bargaining
• Win-lose bargaining • Win-win bargaining
• Both parties want to be the winner; both want • Goals of parties are not mutually exclusive
more than half of what is available
• One party’s gain is not necessarily at the
• Negotiators overstate demands, withhold other party’s expense
information and project a stern, tough image
• Negotiators first identify then solve problems
• Solution: use mixed communication;
contentious and cooperative problem-solving
• Solution: discussion and mutual exploration
communication
LABOR UNIONS
• Only institution that ensures and protects the worker’s dignity, that
prevents him from losing his personal identity, and from being
transformed into an infinitesimal unit in one huge and abstract factor of
production
• An organization of workers formed for the purpose of advancing its
members' interests in respect to wages, benefits, and working conditions
UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES FOR MANAGEMENT
UNDER THE TAFT-HARLEY ACT OF 1947
• Interference with, coercion of, or restraint of employees in their
right to organize.
• Domination of, interference with or illegal assistance of a labor
organization.
• Discrimination in employment because of union activities.
UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES FOR MANAGEMENT
UNDER THE TAFT-HARLEY ACT OF 1947
• Discrimination because the employee has filed charges or given
testimony under the act
• Refusal to bargain in food faith
• “Hot cargo” agreements: refusals to handle another employers’
products because of that employer’s relationship with the union.
UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES FOR UNIONS
UNDER THE TAFT-HARLEY ACT OF 1947
• Restraint or coercion of employees who do not want to
participate in union activities.
• An attempt to influence an employer to discriminate against an
employee.
• Refusal to bargain in good faith.
• Excessive, discriminatory membership fees.
UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES FOR UNIOINS
UNDER THE TAFT-HARLEY ACT OF 1947
• Make-work or featherbedding provisions in labor contracts that
require employers to pay for services that are not performed.
• Use of pickets to force an organization to bargain with a union,
when the organization already has a lawfully recognized union
• “Hot cargo” agreements: that is, refusals to handle, use, sell,
transport, or otherwise deal in another employer’s products.
FAMILY-FRIENDLY WORKPLACES
• Flextime
• Telecommuting
• Part-time schedule
• Job sharing
• Flexible sick leave and child care assistance
ADVANTAGES OF WORK-LIFE
BALANCE POLICIES
• Reduced absence and turnover
• Increased productivity
• Reduced overtime
• Reduced work-family conflict
• Higher job satisfaction
• Greater organizational commitment and lower intention of quitting their
jobs
DEVELOPING EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
• Developing employee communication
• Encouraging effective communications
DEVELOPING EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION
• Create a communication channel that gives employees access to important
information and an opportunity to express their ideas and feelings
• Supervisors should be familiar with employment policies and employees
should be aware of their rights to lessen opportunities of misunderstanding
TYPES OF INFORMATION
FACTS FEELINGS
• Pieces of information that can be • Employees’ emotional responses
objectively measured and to the decisions made or actions
described taken by managers or other
• Ex: cost of the computer, size of employees
salary deduction for health-
insurance
HOW COMMUNICATION WORKS
HOW TO COMMUNICATE USEFUL
FEEDBACK TO EMPLOYEES
• Focus on specific behaviors.
• Keep the feedback impersonal.
• Give the feedback at the appropriate time and place.
• Focus negative feedback on behaviors that can be controlled by the
employee.
ENCOURAGING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS
• Information dissemination
• Employee feedback
• Employee assistance
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
PROGRAM
• Information dissemination is the process of making information available
to decision makers, wherever they are.
• Employees who have access to abundant information are more likely to
feel empowered
• It helps managers adopt more participative leadership styles and work
configurations.
METHODS OF INFORMATION
DISSEMINATION
• Employee handbooks
• Written communications
• Audiovisual communications
• Electronic communications
• Meetings
• Retreats
• Informal communications.
EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK
• Most important source of information that the HR department can provide
• Sets the tone for the company’s overall employee relations
• Informs both employees and supervisors about company employee
policies and procedures and communicating employee’s rights and
responsibilites
EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK
• Tells supervisors how to evaluate, reward, and discipline their employees
• Protects the supervisors and the company from making uniformed and
arbitrary decisions that may hurt the workforce’s morale or lead to
litigation from angry employees.
• Covers issues such as employee benefits, performance evaluation, dress
codes, employment of family members, smoking, probationary
employment periods, drug-testing procedures, family leave policies,
sexual harassment, discipline procedures, and safety rules.
WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS: MEMOS,
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS, NEWSLETTERS,
AND BULLETIN BOARDS
• Memos- changes in policies and procedures
• Financial reports- makes employees knowledgeable about the company’s
performance
• Newsletter- short monthly or quarterly publication designed to keep employees
informed of important events, meetings, and transitions and to provide
inspirational stories about employee and team contributions to the business
• Bulletin board- post current team performance data and comparisons with
outside comparators or other teams with the company
AUDIOVISUAL COMMUNICATIONS
• Videocassette recorders (VCR)
• Teleconferencing- use of audio and video equipment to allow people to
participate in meetings even when they are a great distance away from the
conference location or one another
• Expensive
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS
• Allows communication despite physical distance and busy schedule
• Voice mail- a form of electronic communication that allows the sender to
leave a detailed voice message for a receiver.
• Limit message capacity to 60 seconds, answer ASAP, make sure everyone
understands the system, and respect the caller.
• Electronic mail or e-mail- a form of communication that allows
employees to communicate with each other via electronic messages sent
through personal computer terminals linked by a network
MEETINGS
• Opportunities for face-to-face communication between two or more
employees and are guided by a specific agenda
• Facilitate dialogue and promote the nurturing of personal relationships
• Useful in formation of teams
MEETINGS
• Decide whether it is even necessary to hold a meeting.
• Make meeting participation match the meeting’s purpose.
• Distribute a carefully planned agenda before the meeting.
• Choose an appropriate meeting space and time.
• In the case of a problem-solving or policy-setting meeting, close with an
action plan and follow up with a memo outlining what happened at the
meeting and what steps need to be taken.
RETREAT
• Extended meeting in which the company takes employees to a relaxing
location, where they mix business with recreational activities.
• Designed to develop creative ideas for long-term planning or for
implementing changes in business practices
• Also designed to develop interpersonal skills and relationships by
involving them in activities that force them to be interdependent.
INFORMAL COMMUNICATIONS
• Information exchanges without a planned agenda that occur informally
among employees
• Grapevine
• Source of creative ideas in breakout rooms and hallways
• Management by walking around
EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK
• Program designed to improve employee communications by giving
employees a voice in policy formulation and making sure that they receive
due process on any complaints they lodge against managers
• Most common employee feedback programs
• Employee attitude surveys
• Appeals procedures
• Employee assistance programs
EMPLOYEE ATTITUDE SURVEYS
• A formal anonymous survey designed to measure employee likes and
dislikes of various aspects of their jobs
• Ask how employees how they feel about the work they do, their
supervisor, their work environment, their opportunities for advancement,
and the quality of the training they received.
EMPLOYEE ATTITUDE SURVEYS
• They should tell employees what they plan to do with the information they
collect and inform them about the results of the survey.
• Managers should use survey data ethically to monitor the state of
employee relations, both throughout the company and within employee
subgroups and to make positive changes in the workplace.
• A third party, such as a collecting firm should do the survey to protect
employee confidentiality and maintain the integrity of the data.
APPEALS PROCEDURES
• A procedure that allows employees to voice their reactions to management
practices and to challenge management decisions.
• Types of appeals procedures
• Open-door program
• Speak-up program
• Grievance panels
• Union grievance procedure
OPEN-DOOR PROGRAM
• Most informal
• Common theme is that all employees have direct access to any manager or
executive in the organization
• Two major benefits:
• Makes employees feel more secure and committed
• Makes managers less likely to act arbitrarily
SPEAK-UP PROGRAM
• Informal and flexible
• Prescribes specific steps for the employee to take in bringing a work
problem to management’s attention
GRIEVANCE PANELS
• Is one of the two most formal mechanisms used by organizations to
handle employee complaints
• Used in nonunion firms.
• Composed of the complaining employee’s peers and managers other than
the employee’s direct manager
• Conducts an investigation into the grievance brought before it
• Typically the last step in the appeal process.
UNION GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
• Is the second of the most formal mechanisms to handle employee
complaints
• Used by all employees working under a union contract
• Entails multiple steps leading to a final and binding decision made by a
neutral decision maker called an arbitrator
• Important feature of labor contracts
EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
• A company-sponsored program that helps employees cope with personal
problems that are interfering with job performance.
• Alcohol or drug abuse, domestic violence, elder care, AIDS and other
diseases, eating disorders, and compulsive gambling.
SYMPTOMS OF A TROUBLED
EMPLOYEE
• Excessive absenteeism patterns: Mondays, • Poor judgment and bad decisions
Fridays, days before and after holidays • Unusual on-the-job accidents
• Unexcused absences • Increased spoilage and breaking of
• Frequent absences equipment through negligence
• Tardiness and early departures • Involvement with the law
• Altercation with co-workers • Deteriorating personal appearance
• Causing injuries to other employees • Obsessive behavior such as inappropriate
through negligence discussion of personal problems with
customers
EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
STEPS
• Identify troubled employees and refer them for counseling.
• Visit an EAP counselor, who interviews the employee and to help identify
the problem.
• Solve the problem
• Depends on the outcome of treatment: return to work or termination
EFFICIENCY MEASURES OF EMPLOYEE
RELATIONS PROGRAMS
• Improved product quality (measured by reduction in reject rate)
• Enhanced productivity (indicated by an increase in output per working
hour)
• Reduced cost (measured in terms of cost per unit produced)
REFERENCES
• https://www.morganmckinley.ie/article/whats-difference-between-
employee-relations-and-industrial-relations
• https://bizfluent.com/info-7846188-employee-relations-human-
resources.html
• https://www.pace.edu/human-resources/employee-labor-relations
• https://hr.oregonstate.edu/sites/hr.oregonstate.edu/files/elearning/labor-
relations/labor-handbook.pdf
REFERENCES
• https://hr.ucmerced.edu/employeelabor-relations
• https://writersforhire19.wixsite.com/successfulwriting/single-
post/2017/01/31/10-Basic-Rights-of-Workers-in-the-Philippines-Under-
the-Applicable-Laws
• Managing Human Resources. Cascio. 8th edition. 2010. p509
• https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/labor%20union
REFERENCES
• Applied Human Resource Management. York. 2010. p283-284
• Managing Human Resources. Mejia. 2007. pp397-421
• Human Resource Management. Evangeline De Jesus, PhD. 2010 p18
