Comparative Employment Relations Essay System04104 2/22/2019 Comparative Employment Relations 1 Union and Non-union form of workers representation Employees voice

Running Head: Comparative Employment Relations
Comparative Employment Relations
Essay
System04104
2/22/2019

Comparative Employment Relations
1
Union and Non-union form of Worker’s Representation
Employees “voice” termed as the major and core characteristics of high performing,
innovative workplace and as an ancestor to employee engagement. The history of workers
shows us how important unions have been (Jiang and Korczynski, 2016). Union and non-
union form of workers representations played a key role in past and also play a significant
role in world scenarios. Unions not only play a vital role in the raising the interest for
employees or raising their concern to the top management rather it also help the organisation
to minimize the turnover ratio, help the organisation to reduce the hiring and training cost
related to hiring new employees. Because all of these reasons the organisation prefers to have
unionised set-up for employee voice preconisation (Hirsch, 2017). It will not say wrong that
union and non-union form of employees group offers benefits for both employees and
employers.
The major benefits and drawbacks of union and non-union form of employees’ representation
in the organisations are as follow:
Advantages Disadvantages
Union and non-union Employees’
representation is responsible for
motivating and empowering the
workforce.
One of the major drawbacks of employees'
representation is that it is time-consuming
and generally, it causes slow decision-
making.
The workers of the organisation through
representative are more committed to the
business strategies and its objective.
The conflicts between employee and
employers interest can because as an
obstacle to essential change needed in the
organisation.
It results in better decision-making. Sometime high-level officers or executives
in the organisation feel that their authority is
being undermined.
Industrial disputes can be resolved early
and effectively. The chances of arise
such risks are also very low.
Sometimes it causes violent conflicts
between employers and employees because
of differentiation in their interests.

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Union form of collective worker’s representation
Union of employee representation is responsible for direct participation in the organisational
decision-making. When employees are part of a formal structure then they involve in every
decision-makings of the top management. Employee representation may be defined as the
right of workers or employees to pursue with the top management for the purpose of
negotiation related to issues of wages, benefits, working hours, work environment, and
working conditions etc. In the organisations, issues and concern of workers are generally
represented by the trade union or other representatives. The worker’s representation group
generally focuses on raising issues related to disciplinary and grievance matters, related to
workforce environment, for the collective bargaining and its related terms and conditions, and
on joint working groups (Markovits, 2016). Collective worker’s representation is responsible
to fight for the rights of workers and raise the concern of workers in front of top management.
Union of collective employee’s representation encompasses a range of issues related terms
and conditions of employment, and working practices (Addison, Portugal, and Vilares, 2017).
For example, the Australian workplaces face the challenges in increasing productivity and
innovation, and to face this challenge the voice of collective workers play a vital role.
However, the major challenge is to maintain a balance between the power of employer and
employees because in organisations both share differential power. The role of trade unions is
also important because its absence from employment relationship is also influential for the
organisational performance and their work efficiency. There are many benefits of employee
representation in terms of trade unions, employee’s participation, and in the decision-making
of top management. Employee representation is responsible for increasing the empowerment
and motivation of the workers in the organisation. Through the worker’s representation,
people are directly involved and committed to the objectives and strategy of the business. The
union of workers plays an important role in the progress and operational efficiency of the
organisation.
The Australian government passes an act in 2009 that provides facilities of collective
bargaining to workers with organisations. The main aim behind this is to increase the union
effectiveness and assessing the ‘Fair Work Act’, that how it was designed and find out the
causes that reduce the effectiveness of workers union (Gumbrell-McCormick and Hyman,
2013). The union form of employee representation in Australia always tries to fight for the
worker's interest such as for their health and safety concerns, for their wages, and for
providing them medical facilities. The joint consultation between the worker's union and

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management helps the top management to understand the employees’ problems and choose
appropriate solution to the problems.
Non-Union form of Collective worker’s representations
In the non-Union employee representation, employees participated through represented
agencies in the organisational decision-making. This type of representation plays an
important role in corporate governance and this type of workers representativeness is more
popular in European countries. For example, we can consider the Works councils and/or
board level representation that are the best examples of non-union employee representation in
Europe (Della Sala, 2017). These agencies or institutions are legally empowered and by force
of law. However, the employee participation rights are different in different countries that
include right to information or joint decision-making etc.
In Poland, worker’s ‘self-government’ is a concept followed by the workers and it has a long
tradition. This is currently governed by the 1981 act on worker’s self-government (Pulignano
and Signoretti, 2016). This act provides facilities to the workers for creating a worker’s
council with a representative function and separate trade unions. Workers union (both union
and non-union form) play an important role in representing the worker’s interest in front of
top management in polish companies (Gumbrell-McCormick and Hyman, 2019).
Difference between Union and Non-union form of Worker’s
Representatives
Union form of Worker’s Representatives Non-union form of Worker’s Representatives
In union form, workers have rights to do
strikes against the management and work to
rule to pressure on organisation or employer
to accept the collective bargaining of all
members of the bargaining unit (Gomez, and
Gunderson, 2016).
Individual workers normally negotiate alone or
use any agency that negotiates their demand with
top management as a mediator.
Workers may have to be members of workers
union and they must pay the union dues in
exchange of union’s fair representation of all
The non-union members are not required to pay
any dues.

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members of the bargaining unit.
A contract spells out how much each
employee or worker earns in the
organisation.
No one knows how much any worker in the
organisation about the earnings.
Unions negotiation based on voting if they
think that anything is unfair. Members if feel
that something is fair, or some issues that are
raised by the union is unfair, then they can
vote it down.
A non-union individual employee has no choice
and that person has to raise their voice or case to
the supervisor or manager of their department.
Advantages and disadvantages for Individual workers
Advantages: Union of employees raise the issues of individual workers to the top
management of the organisation and that results in a focus on even small problems of
individuals. The worker's union engage in collective bargaining with top management and top
executives to protect worker's rights and ensure a high-quality standard of the work
environment (Bryson, Forth, and George, 2012). The unions of workers ensure that every
individual worker of an organisation gets high wages for their works. The union can also help
in provide training and new skills development program for the new employees and ensure
them a high standard work environment in which they work securely and safely. Workers
union helps the individual people to get a high level of benefits from employers in terms of
wages, bonus, and medical facilities etc. that helps them to provide a secure and safe work
environment as well. The labour union also determine the families of every individual worker
receive better benefits from the organisation as well (Addison, Teixeira, Pahnke, and
Bellmann, 2017).
Disadvantages: The individual workers normally bounded by the decision made by the
unions, even they disagree with the decision of their union decisions. The major disadvantage
of workers union representative is that many jobs in the unionized environment come through
seniority of employees rather than their experience and knowledge. It means union discount
the experience and knowledge or experience of the worker. It means a person who is working
from a long time is more capable for promotion or job transfer rather than a person having

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more knowledge and experience (Hodder, Williams, Kelly, and McCarthy, 2017). Apart from
this, the labour unions require on-going dues and may require origination fees. Labour union
various times blamed to discourage individuality because it focuses on group thinking rather
than focusing on individual creativity or innovative ideas.
Advantages and disadvantages for Trade Unions
Advantages: Trade union is an organisation of workers that are acting collectively and works
for protecting the mutual interest of workers through collective bargaining. The union
representative works for protecting the social and economic interest of workers. A trade
union is a permanent organisation of workers, which generally tries to improve the economic
conditions of labour and promote labour welfare. The union representatives of workers
protect the interest of workers by some other means as well such as dialogue with top
management and present the issues of workers to the top executive and responsible
authorities in the workplace (Bryson, 2014). Workers union representation always try to raise
the worker’s issues such as problem-related to low wages and better working conditions.
Trade unions provide a negotiation channel between the employers and employees through
collective bargaining for proper wages and proper workload as well. Thus, it can be said that
workers union representative raise the issues related to trade unions and are formed with the
key objectives of protecting the interest of workers related to wages rates and conditions of
employment.
Disadvantages: One of the major disadvantages of union is delay in the managerial decision-
making because every decision needs lengthy decision-making time and cost as well in form
of both time and money. Here, it has been seen that there is a lack of joint consultation
between management and employees’ union (Kelly, 2015). The other disadvantage is that in
those organisations where more than one union operates on the site, the disputes between the
different unions may cause inter-union disputes. The unreasonable demand of the worker’s
union is also causing problems for the trade unions, employers, and employees as well.
Advantages and disadvantages for Employers
Advantages: Employers also benefited from the workers union. For instance, workers union
helps the organisation to increase its output by providing them with a high quality of work
environment and also enable the organisation to provide affordable high wages to the
employees from its profit. The union of workers also provides general advice and support to
the employers in their decision-making even the vice-a-versa is also considered when

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professionals provide advice to the unions for their wellbeing in the organisation. The other
advantages the employers that they directly convey their message to the employees through
the Workers union. The union also helps the employers to resolve the labour issues by
mediating as an agent between the employees and employers (Frege and Kelly, 2013). The
worker’s union leaders are expert in solving problems through formal arbitration and
grievances procedures. The worker’s union always try to secure a “win-win” situation
between employees and employers in which both side happy with the outcome and attaining
something from ideal.
Disadvantages:
While Union provides many benefits for individual employee, trade unions, and employers,
they also create a variety of drawbacks for employers such as harsh national labour laws
governing the rights of employers in relation to unions. One of the major disadvantages of the
workers union is that it increases the labour cost because workers collectively bargaining
with employers about the wages, benefits, and high quality of work environment
(Mansbridge, 2018). Thus, it leads to higher labour costs. The other disadvantage of unions to
the employers is that members of the union can legally strike if their demand is not fulfilled
by the organisation. Apart from this, if the organisation promotes the workers union, the
organisation may lose the opportunity to control their human resource. If an organisation
needs to terminate the employees on the basis of their performance, the union can protect the
workers because they promote the seniority rather than performance.

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References
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Bryson, A. (2014) Union Wage Effects, IZA World of Labor, 35, pp. 1-10.
Bryson, A., Forth, J. and George, A. (2012) Workplace Employee Representation in Europe.
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