Principles Of Employee Relations For Fair Work Commission

Principles of Employee Relations

Discuss about the Principles of Employee Relationships for Fair Work Commission.

Employee relations are now one of the most discussed topics in any organization. Researchers have shown that the companies having a healthy relation with their employees are most successful. Satisfied employees are also productive employees. New strategies are implemented on regular basis to improve the employee relations. This report deals with understanding the principles of employee relations. It also illustrates the working of Fair Work Commission of Australia, the challenges confronted by them and their response to these challenges.

The relationship between an employee and its employer is referred to as Employee Relations. Previously it was referred to as Industrial Relations. It mainly dealt with solving the issues raised between and employee and an employer. At present, the term has been replaced from Employee Relations or Workplace Relations (Robbins, Ford & Tetrick, 2012). In addition to solving conflicts, recruitment of employee, training, and development, providing equal opportunities to all employees, upgrading the organizational structure all fall under this category. The main principle of employee relationship is to consider an employee as an asset rather than expenditure to the company (Rodriguez & Mearns, 2012). Employees should always be provided with a transparent environment where they can freely present their views and opinions without any fear. By developing proper policies the conflict between the various levels of the workplace should be minimized. To maintain a good relationship with employees there should be strategies to reward and recognize their hard work (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012).

Recognition boosts the confidence of employees. They feel more attached to the company operations and are less prone to leave. This increases sustainability in the organization. There are certain main principles of employee relations. Treating an employee with dignity and respect, constructively criticizing an employee are some of the major points. Blaming only demotivates the employees (Bach, 2012). Employees of all levels should be considered as vital for the organization’s operations. It should be kept in mind that all employees, be it from the grass root level or the topmost executives are responsible for increasing the productivity of the business. An employee should be properly trained. The individual should also be clearly informed about his/her role in the organization. It is considered as the failure of management if an employee fails to perform (Rybalko & Seltzer, 2010). Proper feedback of how the employee is contributing to the growth of the company should be provided from time to time. This acts as a great motivation for the employees.

The Work of a Fair Work Commission

Employees should be given proper information about the current condition and the future goals of the organization. There should be a process of transparent communication between employees and their supervisors (Kaufman, 2010). Rewarding boasts an employee’s self-esteem (Kelly, 2012). Mutual understanding and helping each other improves the inter-personnel bond and develops a good work culture. Creating a fun and pleasant work environment improves the concentration of employees (Knight & Haslam, 2010).

Employee relations not only deal with the well-being of employees but it also the way in which a business maximizes its profit through proper utilization of these principles. Determining proper wages for employees is an important part in linking business with employee relations. A very high salary to a nonperforming employee only increases the expenses. On the other hand, a very low salary de-motivates the employee (Kruse, Freeman & Blasi, 2010). Customer satisfaction is directly related to staff satisfaction. Staff satisfaction determines how they treat their customers. A healthy wok culture increases the satisfaction of work among employees, thus increasing customer satisfaction (Miceli, Rehg & Van Scotter, 2012). Maintaining ethics in business is very important for employee relations (Ferner, Edwards & Tempel, 2012). Employees can easily recognize how much honest an organization is towards their well being. As a result, when a company faces a critical situation, employees willingly come forward for helping the business by temporarily cutting down their wages and can even work with no pay. Allowing flexible working hours to employees helps them to fulfil family responsibilities. This reduces tension in individuals and helps to work more productively for the company (Rybalko & Seltzer, 2010).

The Fair Work Commission of Australia is an independent tribunal looking after the national workplace relations. It looks after the safety and security of individuals in the workplace. It ensures that employees are entitled to fair wages. It also has the right to decide what a minimum salary for an employee should be depending on its work responsibilities. It deals with complaints of unfair dismissal of employees from the workplace (Welch, 2012). The commission has every right to investigate and decide on the issue. It also regulates the actions taken by industries towards the employees. It resolves a number of conflicts between an employee and its employer through mediating and sometimes arranging for public hearings. Equal remuneration is also an area of concern for the commission (Fair Work Commission, 2017). A commission can take actions according to the nature of the application received. It can refer an issue to a mediator of the company if the issue is not so big. This helps the issue to be solved informally without making a topic of discussion among people. It develops strategies on how an application is to be dealt with. Solving an issue sometimes requires the concerned people to appear before the commission. It conducts conferences, investigates and collects evidence, holds hearings before giving judgment on the issue to be solved (Fair Work Commission, 2017). The commission takes a verbal or written commitment from both parties to abide by its decision on the issue. One of the basic principles of the commission is to hold fair hearings, allowing both the parties to present their point of view equally by not favoring any of the sides. Their main aim is to solve the issue as quickly as possible by holding fair and transparent hearings and avoiding unnecessary formalities. Their judgment is always focused on promoting a harmonious and co-operative workplace (Fair Work Commission, 2017).

While solving an issue, the commission takes into account each and every person and every situation involved in the act. It also considers the good side or the merits of the act performed. The commission gives a great importance in promoting a healthy work culture by preventing discrimination on the basis of race, colour, sex, social origin, marital status, pregnancy, age, religion. These are both mental and physical disabilities and so on (Fair Work Commission, 2017).

The members of this commission follow a certain mode of conduct. The main ethic they follow is impartiality to any of the parties. If any of the parties or a third party observer complaints about a member’s being partial to any of the parties, the membership of that concerned individual can be cancelled forever.

The commission encourages conciliation over public hearing (Daley, 2012). Whenever an issue is registered with them, their first step is to come up with ways by which the issue can be solved informally. Generally, they appoint a senior executive of the company to resolve issues between themselves and thus prevent employee termination. This conciliation procedure takes place through telephonic conferences. These conferences are approximately of 90 minutes. The commission takes facts into consideration only when a statement from any of the parties is well established with immense evidence (Fair Work Commission, 2017). They follow different procedures for gathering information. These include requiring a person to attend commission, requiring a person to provide relevant documents and evidence to justify their statement, requiring making spoken or written submissions and requiring the person to take an oath (Fair Work Commission, 2017).

The commission can dismiss applications on various grounds. When the application is not made in accordance with the act or it has no serious issue to be looked into, the application can be cancelled. Even when the commission finds that there is no possibility of resolution of the issue they can cancel the complaint registered. Applications also get cancelled for various reasons after the hearing starts. If any of the parties fail to attend a hearing for unimportant reasons, does not follow with the commission’s decision or discontinues after the solution is reached, the commission has every right to dismiss the application (Fair Work Commission, 2017).

At the end of the proceedings, the commission decides on the concerned issue and is then published on the commission’s website. Depending on the nature of the case the commission can also pass orders. Decisions and orders can also be passed in the middle of the hearings depending on the seriousness of the situation (Fair Work Commission, 2017).

The Fair Work act 2009 states that all modern awards should contain a clause detailing the procedure for dispute resolution between the employee and the employer, arising under the National Employment Standards or the agreement. According to the FW act employees should be very well informed about dispute resolution laws practiced by their organization (Stahl et al. 2012). Employees should be well aware of the actions taken at each level of the organization to resolve their issues. At the first stage, an employee generally comes up with their grievances to their immediate supervisor or manager. Failing to resolve, their issues are transferred to the more senior management of the company. If the issue still remains unresolved then the parties jointly or individually contact Fair Work Commission. Enterprise agreements which do not contain dispute resolution clause are considered as invalid by Fair Work Commission (Fair Work Commission, 2017).

Before the birth of Fair Work Commission Australian, industrial relations did not consider employment relationship as a vital area of business development. State compulsory arbitration had a centralising affect on unions and the employers. As a result bargaining at workplace was only an impossible dream for employees. Emergence of FWC has changed this scenario. Both employees and employers can now bargain on the correct wages an individual can receive depending on his abilities and responsibilities in the organization.  Earlier people were afraid to complain because the mechanism of resolving issues was under developed. Both the parties had to depend on external influences for resolving disputes. FWC now gives immense stress on the development of a transparent work culture. As a result, employees are now more aware of their rights and privileges and are more flexible in stating their complaints. This ensures that maximum issues are resolved within the organization. In earlier times employees were only treated as workers who are bound to do as ordered from the higher levels of management. They did not have any right to present their opinions. Employees never had the feeling that they were wanted in the organization (Fair Work Commission, 2017). Hence, people were less motivated and less productive. FWC has made a huge change in this work culture. It states that developing a transparent communication system between both employee and its employer results in increased productivity. When issues and ideas of employees are heard with positive criticism, they feel valued which brings out their creative best.

The vital challenge faced by Fair Work commission, in recent times, is resolving workplace dispute cases. Disputes at workplaces may arise due to various reasons Williams & Adam-Smith, 2010). Disputes arise when employees are denied their basic rights and obligations. Companies, which do not maintain proper policies on the well-being of employees, face disputes. Wrong treatment of employees from the senior management or co-workers, partiality in employee treatment is some of the important reasons behind the disputes. Altering the work environment without consultation and not having or ignoring proper dispute resolution techniques can encourage more trouble. Dealing with these workplace issues at an early stage resolves the matter completely and improves the employee – employer relationship. When the employees are ensured that their grievances will be looked after with utmost importance, they will be more co-operative and productive in their operations (Fair Work Commission, 2017).

In June 2013 a case was registered by a Delivery Support Leader, that she has been bullied by two of her subordinates because they were not happy with the restructure. The leader complained about spreading malicious rumours against her and harassing her on a regular basis. There were also complaints of negative comments made by the subordinates for bullying. Complaints were also filed against the employer, stating that they did not support her as a manager while investigating the complaints. She also stated that proper action was not taken even after finding the truth. FWC found these allegations inappropriate and rejected her claim. No evidence of the subordinates making negative comments against her and undermining her by making false accusations was found. Though it was found that she was criticized in the workplace but the source of criticism was not found. Complaints against the employer were also rubbished since it was found that the company conducted investigations against the subordinates based on her complaints. The employer had fully supported the leader through employee assistance programs.

The commission has started a program called ‘Future Directions’, where they set out future initiatives for improving employee relations. The main target of the program is to continuously upgrade strategies on employee relations. Employees are always ignorant of the procedures they can follow when their grievances are kept unheard within the organization. Fair Work Commission is continuously working to improve this scenario.  It sets out directions stating that all employees of organizations should be well informed about the hierarchy of grievance handling within and outside the business. This will help the employees to get fair access to justice. It also looks after increasing accountability. Inventing new engagement strategies encouraging innovation, timeliness, and productivity of employees through harmonious and co-operative workplace relations is also one of its main agendas. These initiatives are taken through consultation with commission members, staff, and key stakeholders. The initiatives taken are flexible enough to meet the needs of the changing Australian community (Fair Work Commission, 2017).

Changes will also be seen in the working area of Fair Work Commission. A full bench of the Fair Work Commission has arrived at a significant decision stating that FWC does not have jurisdiction to declare rights that are already present in the Fair Work Act. As a result, the power of FWC will be reduced in disputes about the right of entry under section 505. People seeking declaration now have to proceed with the Federal court (Fair Work Commission, 2017).

Conclusion

All organizations can benefit by maintaining good relations with their employees. Building a safe, healthy and discrimination-free work environment is the main criterion for a good employee-employer bond. Giving employees a transparent system of communication can make the bond stronger. When employees are listened without criticism, their confidence in the company gets stronger. Hence they get more committed to their work which brings the best out of them and increases the productivity of the business. It can be concluded saying that employees are the biggest assets for the success of any organization. Hence maintaining a trusted relation with employees is the key to success.

References

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