Influence of trade unions on Employee relation in Privet and Government organizations in Sri Lanka


Employee relations is defined as “The approaches and methods adopted by employers to deal with employees either collectively through their trade unions or individually” (Armstrong,2017).Basically, it is pay-Work bargain or agreement between employer and employee where employer undertakes to pay for employee for the work done. (Armstrong, 2006)
There are three parties to employee relations which are employers, employees (Parties who act on their behalf eg: employee unions, associations etc.) and state agencies (Farnham, 2000)
Key employment relations policy
1.       Trade union recognition
2.       Collective bargaining
3.       Participation and involvement
Trade unions provide workers a collective voice to communicate the employees wishes to management to bring actual and desired conditions close together (Armstrong, 2006). 

Influence of Trade unions in Sri Lanka  

Labor force participation rate in Sri Lanka is 51.8% from total population (Department of Census and Statistics, 2018). From that 1,063,775 are government employees and 3,484,047 are privet sector employees (Department of Census and Statistics, 2018).
Sri Lankan constitution recognize as a fundamental right of employees to join a trade union. (ILO, 2019). According to Sri Lankan law trade union recognition is compulsory where unions have 51% approval and discrimination against union activist and members prohibited. (Amarasinghe, 2011)
With the improvement of employee relation practices employee participation is declining in recent past (ILO, 2019)


Note: From Employee relation in Sri Lanka, 2011 (Amarasinghe, 2011)
In Sri Lanka, 2,074 registered trade unions, of which 54.5% are in the public sector, 27.5% in public corporations and 18% in the private sector. (ILO, 2019) Members engaged in unions are 9.5% of the total workforce of Sri Lanka. (ILO, 2019)
As a country Sri Lanka should move forward to adapt new employment relationship practices such as
1.       Psychological contract – comprises certain assumptions and expectations which managers and employees have to offer and are willing to deliver. (Armstrong, 2017)
2.       Employee engagement – employee commitment towards the organizations and it’s values and willingness to help peers.
3.       Employee Voice  - employees communicate there views on employment and organizational views to improve organization and to create better working environment (CIPD, 2019)

References

Amarasinghe, E. F. G., 2011. Employee relations in Sri Lanka , Colombo: Cornucopia.
Armstrong, M., 2006. Human Resource Management Practice. 10th ed. London : Kogan Page .
Armstrong, M., 2017. Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 14th ed. London: Kogan Page.
CIPD, 2019. Talking about voice: employees’ experience, London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Department of Census and Statistics, 2018. Quarterly Report of the Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey, Colombo: Department Of Census & Statistics.
Farnham, D., 2000. Employee Relations in Context. 2nd ed. London : CIPD House .
ILO, 2019. International Labour Organization. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ilo.org/colombo/areasofwork/workers-and-employers-organizations/lang--en/index.htm [Accessed 02 05 2019].
WageIndicator foundation, 2019. Salary.lk. [Online] Available at: https://salary.lk/labour-law/trade-union [Accessed 02 05 2019].



Comments

  1. Naz Journals May 11, 2019 at 5:09 AM

    A well-written article, you have brought the trade union that is the bargaining entity between employer and employee, but in a country like Sri Lanka it has become a burden to the organisations because of politically motivated trade unions they demand impractical demands due to political reasons,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chaminda SamarakoonJune 9, 2019 at 5:40 AM

      Yes. That s why I feel it time now Sri Lanka to move towards other employee ration practices like psychological contract and employee voice. Such action will reduce the dependency on employee unions. In privet sector it is happening but in a slow pace.

      Delete
  2. RashidMay 11, 2019 at 6:06 AM

    Well said. As per my readings, participation in trade unions dramatically decreasing since corporate world have introduce several mechanisms to build employee relationship .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chaminda SamarakoonJune 9, 2019 at 5:43 AM

      Yes. With the developments in HR sector participation is reducing. But adoption of new HR practices is slow in our country.

      Delete

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