INTERNATIONAL EMPLOYEE RELATIONS REPORT
REPORT
Employment and unemployment offer the best indicator of slack in the economy and of underutilization of resources. Hospitality employment across the world can be characterized as 'vulnerable' employment, and is subject to regulation in areas. When we speak that it is vulnerable, it means that it is easily affected by many factors. This report will focus on the key issues associated with the handling of employment relations in the hospitality industry in the United Kingdom. Employment relations is the study of the social institutions involved in the normative regulation of the employment relationship and business's interaction with other stakeholders in society ( 2003).
The United Kingdom has a total population of 59 million people and a labor force participation rate of 74 per cent. While the participation rate for women continues to rise, the rate for men dropped markedly over the decade 1985–95 ( 2004).
The UK has fewer people employed in agriculture (2 per cent of civilian employees) than any other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) country. About 27 per cent of its other civilian employees work in industry; the remaining 70 per cent work in services. There has been a greater decline in its 'industry' category since 1970 than in any other OECD country. In spite of the relative growth of services, there was a steep rise in unemployment, from 1.2 per cent of the working population in 1965 to nearly 12 per cent by 1986 (, 2004).
Hospitality services are other hospitality activities that take place within other parts of the economy. When we speak of hospitality services, these are mainly concerned with the provision of food and beverage in areas such as in-flight catering, and meals in schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, care homes and prisons.
Different economic, social, legal and political factors create particular cultures and diverse employment systems. Trade union membership is low but in some countries collective agreements have been extended to cover all workers. Knowledge boundaries need extending to convey a view of employment relations that is not western-centric and drawn from 'Anglo' countries (, 2003).
Employment relations in the British hospitality workplaces are different on a national and private service sector comparison. Employment policies and practices continue to conform to the management-driven 'unbridled individualism' thesis, based on cost-control, but may also reflect a more affiliated and liberal managerial approach within a customer-service ethos. Employees are not necessarily alienated, and may trade off low pay for other compensations demonstrating 'enfranchised realism' (, 2003).
The employment relationship is both transactional and relational, and may also reflect 'resigned realism' and exploitation. Hospitality employees are different, providing more compelling evidence that trade unions face an even more daunting task in attempting to recruit members and organize workplaces. We need to develop our understanding of why managers and employees do not share commonly held assumptions of 'good' employment relations. We also need to determine how far the employment relationship, rather than the personal values of employees, affects the state of the psychological contract (, 2003).
There has been much change in employment and industrial relations in Britain over the past two decades. Successive Conservative governments over the period 1979–97 set the tone, with their radical step-by-step reform of industrial relations law, labor market deregulation and attempts to foster a competitive 'enterprise culture'. Labor governments since 1997 have continued to promote increased private-sector involvement in the public sector through a variety of initiatives, with potentially significant implications for employment relations (, 2004).
Customers, often interrelating with gender issues, are an important influence on the employment relationship. They are drawn into managerial control strategies in a number of ways including pay and reward systems based on tips and customer appraisal. Customer-service work can be highly rewarding, but unpredictable customers can both thwart managerial objectives, and make working stressful for employees. Labor may be manufactured to appeal to customers by internalizing (male) prejudices with strong gender implications for women. Flexible cost-control employment systems may perpetuate women's and young people's disadvantage (2003).
Continuity is evident from managerial evidence, but employee evidence enables us to reassess the state of employment relations, and largely reject the 'bleak house' and 'black holes' scenarios. The locus of a socio-economic customer-service employment relationship is a function of dimensions related to managers, workers and customers within particular types of work mediated by the state (, 2003).
Interest in employment, now the preserve of many individuals, but not all, in western economies, derives from the fact that 'Work dominates the lives of men and women … the management of employees both individually and collectively remains a central feature of organizational life' ( 2003).
There are many rights that are granted to employees by different UK organizations. The Trades Union Congress (TUC), Institute of Employment Rights (IER) and the Low Pay Network serve to defend workers' interests. The Employment Relations Act 1999 simplified and extended maternity rights, and introduced unpaid parental and urgent family need leave, providing a more coherent, potentially fair and effective legal regime: All employees are entitled to take reasonable unpaid time off work to attend to the needs of a dependant (i.e. spouse, parent, child or person relying on employee). This is limited to 'emergencies', including illness, death and disruption of care arrangements, and does not extend to personal needs, e.g. dentist (, 2003).
The Employment Act 2002 introduces an equal pay questionnaire in employment tribunal cases, and makes some important additional improvements to family-friendly policies. The actual periods of leave for the purpose of childcare are extended from April 2003. The period of leave, which is payable at the rate of Statutory Maternity Pay (£100 per week or 90 per cent of weekly earnings if this is less than £100), has also been increased. The 2002 and 2002 contain the following main provisions:
1. Women are entitled to take up to 26 weeks' paid ordinary maternity leave (OML) and 26 weeks' unpaid additional maternity leave (AML). There are increased notification periods for a woman's start and early return dates from maternity leave. Maternity leave is not transferable between partners, but this may be changed after the current review of anti-discrimination legislation;
2. Men are entitled to 13 weeks' unpaid parental leave and two weeks' paid paternity leave. A father cannot take both paternity leave and adoption leave. Women who are same-sex partners or one of an adopting couple not taking adoption leave are entitled to paternity leave; and
3. One adoptive parent is entitled to the same periods of paid and unpaid leave that apply to mothers. The person must have 26 weeks' continuous service by the time they are matched with the child for adoptive purposes. The other parent will be entitled to take two weeks' paid leave (equivalent to paternity leave), if so eligible. Both adoptive parents will, in addition, also be entitled to take 13 weeks' unpaid parental leave ( 2003).
The Employment Act 2002 also places a duty on employers to give serious consideration to requests from parents of young children to work flexibly, which has been effected by two sets of Flexible Working Regulations 2002.
These provisions, which apply to men and women, are likely to be used widely, particularly by returning mothers. Hospitality firms experiencing recruitment and retention difficulties are recommended to adopt a flexible approach towards all employees, as this also helps employees address work-life balance. New mothers may opt for different modes of flexibility, seeking different arrangements, such as term-time working, once the child is of school age ( 2003).
The legal framework governing the rights, actions, duties, responsibilities and behaviors of employers and trade unions in Britain was seriously weakened in the 1980s and 1990s. The proportion of employees who were members of trade unions declined from 53 per cent in 1979 to 28 per cent in 1999 (, 2000). Consequently similar 'hollow shell' collective agreements to those found in New Zealand have developed in Britain. The Employment Relations Act 1999 contained measures to facilitate trade union organization, including the statutory recognition procedures, although there has been no weakening of the constraints on industrial action (, 2003).
The state has played an important role in dispute resolution since the nineteenth century. The legal framework governs the behavior of employers and trade unions in collective bargaining, encourages employers to develop internal disputes resolution procedures, and provides employees and workers with grievance, disciplinary and dismissal rights in employment, including recourse outside the organization to an employment tribunal as a last resort. The Employment Rights (Dispute Resolution) Act 1998 introduced an award of two weeks' pay where an unfairly dismissed employee was prevented from using the internal appeals procedure. The Employment Relations Act 1999 and the Employment Act 2002 both place considerable emphasis upon improving dispute resolution in the workplace, and strengthening the institutional and legal framework for resolving disputes. The Employment Act 2002 contains provisions aimed at improving employment relations and avoiding unnecessary employment tribunals through better communication in the workplace and improved conciliation. The tribunal system will also be streamlined (, 2003).
Predictions that new forms of technology would lead to a transformation of the nature of work have abounded since the first wave of automation in the 1950s. This had seen the development in certain sectors of manufacturing industry of continuous-process technologies, in which the production process was regulated by complex feedback mechanisms and workers no longer had any direct physical contact with the product. At the time it was believed that automation would spread rapidly across the industrial scene, transforming the character of the work task, forms of work organization, and patterns of industrial organization ( 1998).
Some forms of service work, like call-centers, have been transformed by advances in digital technology. Technology cannot necessarily substitute for the personalized nature of service work that is integral to many hospitality and tourism activities. However, intensified international competition, with its attendant concentration on marketing and operational ( 2003).
The traditional model of employment relations in the large firm sector had been based on collective bargaining and the joint regulation of the conditions of employment. The distinctive feature of the British pattern of industrial relations, at least in the private sector, was the significance of local workplace bargaining ( 1998).
It is now conventional wisdom that, barring any insurmountable difficulties, the globalization trend which achieved much prominence towards the end of the last century is set to gather pace, to transform the workplace, to change employment relations and, indeed, our way of life ( 2002). Globalization is transforming the world at a rapid pace and it is changing the traditional workplace, employment practices, employment relations and the way organizations are managed.
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