Employee relations
Introduction
When employees join organisations, they have their own needs and expectations from
the employer and colleagues in the workplace. Similarly, when an employer recruits
staff, the former has certain needs and expectations, which have to be met by the latter.
Mutual agreement on defining needs and expectations of each stakeholder may be
reached through joint agreement between the employee and the employer or through
collective agreement with the use of trade unions.
Foot & Hook (2008) have stipulated important rights of the employer and employee
in the employment relationship. In this regard, the employer has the right to control
work performance, integrate employees in the organisation’s structure and management
system, and create an environment of mutual trust, confidence and supply of enough
and reasonable work. In exchange, the employee is expected to obey lawful and reason-
able orders, maintain fidelity and work with due diligence and care. The laws of the
land usually govern these relationships and expectations and where breaches are made,
leading to conflicts of interests and grievances, legal remedies have to be sought from a
court of law. This chapter is devoted to examining key issues involved in employee re-
lations, where the employee or employees’ representative and the employer or employ-
ers’ representative and the state are the key players. Therefore, at the end of the chapter,
the learners should be able to:
- Examine the rationale for the management of employee/employer and state
relationships. - Explain the basic principles in grievance and discipline management.
- Make use of employment laws to manage grievance and discipline in organizations.
- Make use of worker participation strategies in human resource management.
Theoretical framework of employee relations
Employee relations have a tradition in industrial relations that emerged and grew along-
side the growth in industrial production in Europe. The formation of masses of people