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.

Comparative Employment Relations
2
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