Managing Employee Relations: Outlawing Strikes Will Not Reduce Conflict

This article discusses the impact of industrial conflict on organizations and how outlawing strikes will not reduce conflict. It covers the causes of industrial conflict, forms of conflict, and the adverse impact of absenteeism and turnover. The article emphasizes the need for effective communication and strategies to minimize the impact of industrial conflict.

Running Head: Relations 0
Managing Employee relations
3/13/2019

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Outlawing strikes will not reduce conflict
Industrial conflict is defined as any disagreement between employer & workers or employer
& employer, which is accompanying the term of employment or with conditions of the
workforce of any person. It is the dissatisfaction in the employment relationship, which
results in hostile acts by either employers or employees. Strikes are determined as withdrawal
from work by a coalition of employees to express a grievance. Enterprise comprised of
workforces and administration, which is essential for the success and growth of the
organization. The increase in industrial conflicts leads to rivalry among competitors of the
organization, which enhances a great impact on the productivity of the employee as cessation
of work can hamper their work or decrease the extent of normal work, which leads to low
efficiency. There are many forms of Industrial conflict in which actions taken by one
individual in the part of absenteeism and labour turnover. Strikes cannot be linked with
industrial conflict and an absence of strike does not necessarily mean a lack of conflict but it
might mean that it is expressed in some other costly form (O’Leary, 2016). In the following,
an effort has been made to discuss the industrial conflicts occur in several forms as strikes,
turnover, and absenteeism.
The main causes of industrial conflict are the factors, which are categorized as a matter of
discipline, management attitude towards work, and union rivalry. Fair Work Australia has
ordered a resolution of an industrial dispute, which results in the grounding of the airline
fleet. As an example of Industrial conflict can be best described from organization Qantas
Industrial dispute in 2011, which is among the Australian airline Qantas and trade unions in
which employees demanded that the airline should guarantee to provide improvements in
wages and working conditions. After that, the bargaining of workers becomes more intense
and induced them to take industrial actions i.e. delay in schedule, which hampers the
productivity of the Qantas and then emerges the industrial conflict among the management
and the employees. The outcome of the industrial dispute is that it is influencing 81000
passengers, which is causing disastrous consequences to the Australian economy (Frangi,
Noh and Hebdon, 2018). With the result of the tragic impact of that industrial dispute, the
administration has taken the action to hand-over to Fair Work Australia so that they can deal
with the situation. They had taken the action to terminate the trade union involved in the
industrial dispute, which has cost substantial damage to the economy (Hampton, 2016).

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Industrial conflict by employees caused delays and disruptions in their flight schedule, which
heavily cost at around $68 million (Currie et al., 2017). It was the first time when employees
have caused disruption in the operations and believed that they can change their decision. It is
stated that after an application by the Federal Minister for Workplace Relations, Fair work in
Australia dismissed their industrial action (McCrystal, 2018).
After that, the management of Qantas decided to lock out these employees, as the employees
want the management to be grounded. It is stated that around 9000 employees are ready to
strike as the Qantas fails to provide them job security. The employees needed a 4% increase
with additional superannuation payments to align with other companies (McCrystal, 2019).
They are threatening to take industrial action and the Qantas are constantly increasing fuel
prices as an underperforming international business. The employees are continuously
disrupting the travel plans of Australians, which stated to take some industrial action by the
management. The management is currently establishing contingency plans to minimize
disruptions so that customer needs can be fulfilled (Sarina and Wright, 2015).
The strike of Qantas gets over as the main impact on the management that the management
have resumed their services over the next 24 hours as they have pressure from top
management. They have to resume the flights as many passengers are facing problems and
result in 81000 passengers being affected. It is stated that more than 650 flights are been
canceled and around seven aircraft fleet grounded. The adverse impact of industrial conflict is
Qantas has lost $70 million in damages with costs at $15 million every day (Briskin, 2016).
It is stated that some employees do not come to work and deliberately forces other
employees, and Industrial conflict emerges among the management and employees. They are
not coming to work and the reason can be either legitimate or illegitimate, which can be
turned into full-blow absenteeism that the management need to take note. Deliberate
Absenteeism is an informal form of industrial conflict, which occurs when employees
deliberately refuse to report to work, which hampers their productivity, relations with higher
management, and unnecessary increases conflict. It merely increases the revenue and loss of
productivity that the organization suffers because of personal incapacity. It costs billions of
dollars every year, which results in low productivity, wastage of time, and dissatisfied
customers. This absenteeism occurs as when the employees feel that they are burdened with
extra responsibilities, which tends to the feeling of frustration and decrease of morale. The
habitual absence of employees can have an adverse impact on other employees. As missed

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work can have a financial effect and it is beneficial for the Qantas to execute methods to
solve the problems of employees as soon as possible (Ajayi and Muraina, 2016).
The adverse impact of Absenteeism on Qantas is that an employee poor attendance can
influence other specific areas of the business. It is to be noticed that in the Qantas when
employees’ demands are not fulfilled the workers become less productive and start getting
absent, which in turn decreases efficiency and productivity of employees, which results to
low revenue and profitability. It also has an impact on employees as their salary is ceased for
the time being (Kaufman, 2016).
It is also another form of Industrial conflict when workers deliberately refuse to make
utilization of their initiative and apparently slows down work progress. As per example was
taken by the organization Qantas, the step taken under the provisions of Fair Work Act in
reaction to industrial conflict done by these employees prevents substantial damage to the
aviation and tourism industries. After that, the decision has been made by Fair Work
Australia to dismiss the industrial conflict among the employees and management of Qantas
has settled a timeline for arbitration and conciliation. It has also limited the economic
consideration of Qantas to ground the entire airline fleet, as they need to protect the Australia
economy in the future perspective (Olakitan, 2011).
As a comparison to Southwest airline of United States of America has to invest $15 million to
settle strike of employees, which avoids the cost of further industrial conflicts. Employees are
more concerned about safety issues, which are their primary concern (Blain, 2017). The
Southwest leadership main responsibility is to connect the airline operational emergency to
collective bargaining negotiations, which is normally an effort to divert attention from the
aviation safety considerations (Kelly, 2015).
It is associated with Absenteeism as work withdrawal is absenteeism and job withdrawal is
turnover. It is seen that a higher percentage of the female employee has been made redundant
that male employees at 6% more (Kinder, 2017). A historically high number of industrial
conflicts have affected the brand image and safety image of the employees of Qantas, which
indicated the employment relations, which are not effective. The management needs to
balance the efficiency of work and profitability so that turnover can be increased (Onabanjo
and Christopher, 2017).

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It is stated that outlawing strikes will not reduce conflict, as it would only shift to other forms
of conflict as turnover and absenteeism. The strike done by employees is done to draw
attention to the management to solve the grievances and create more pressure towards
management. It is quite evident that outlawing strikes will not reduce conflict, as employees
are deliberately absent from work. The level of absenteeism indicates the level of satisfied
workers and dissatisfies workers in the organizations. Strikes will not reduce conflict, as
employees are not happy with the work environment, which results in absenteeism.
Businesses with effective relations with management commonly encounter lower level of
absenteeism among their employees (Petty, Hoffman and Ferguson, 2015).
It is seen that sometimes trade unions are prohibited from conducting strikes and influence
the other employees of the organization. They do not end the industrial action and purposely
got absent from the work and make other employees do that. As a high level of absenteeism,
there is high labor turnover, which indicates poor employee morale and increases industrial
conflict in the organization. A certain level of absence is to be expected as employees are
acting responsibly for not coming to work when a healthy environment is been provided.
Over half of the organizations in the survey noted that it would be impossible to decrease
their absence rates. The outlawing of strikes does not change the notion that conflict does not
occur as employees seek to find other forms of conflict i.e. turnover and absenteeism.
Employees deliberately force management by decreasing their turnover rate so they can fulfill
their demands and expectations as per their requirement. However, that does not mean that
conflict will end here as they can come up with new demands and expectations and develops
conflicts among other employees (Hodder et al., 2017).
It has been only a shift from strike to Absenteeism and turnover, so they need to analyze,
address the causes of conflicts, and mitigate them. Concern about absenteeism can be
generated by a high level of absence and identify ways to reduce the costs of industrial
conflict. It will also increase the financial cost and administrative costs of the organization,
which leads to low profitability and success. Absenteeism is not just regarding cost as when it
is addressed in an inconsistent manner, results in low morale. It occurs when employees feel
that they are treated in an unfair manner and perceive that other employees are getting away
with it. It would lead to a decrease in significant costs to the company as well as long-term
damage to the reputation to the employee and company (Van Gramberg et al., 2017).

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The outlawing of strikes definitely will not reduce conflict can be achieved by the reason that
the conflict will remain the same with the employees and if their problems are not been
solved for the time being then they can come up in the next time. Then, they have to mitigate
the concern of employees either they are not on strike, they can decrease their turnover rate,
deliberately harm the reputation of the organization. This could take the form of decreasing
down the effort of work and go against the organization. They have to work upon meet the
expectations of the employees, as they are a significant part of any organizations. The
management has to take effort in identifying their desires and expectations and achieve in an
effective manner. Management does these efforts so that industrial conflicts are reduced as it
costs much time to deal with the productivity, morale, engagement, and workforce.
Therefore, they need to take proper strategies to minimize the impact of industrial conflict
and make sure that it does not occur in the future (Gilin Oore, Leiter and LeBlanc, 2015).
In conclusion, it has been stated that Industrial conflict occurs when employees describe their
disagreement with the management of the organization. The causes of Industrial conflict can
be a management attitude towards employees, irresponsible behaviour, and other factors. It is
evident that Industrial conflict manifests in several forms as absenteeism, turnover, and
strike. It would lead to carry out industrial action, which is strict and inappropriate for the
employees. There are several conflicts that occur in the industry can be resolved through
communication. It is not resolved, and then employees take action and conduct strike and
absenteeism. It would tend to low turnover rate and productivity, which indirectly harms the
positive image and reputation of the organization. The fair work in Australia has taken action
and employees to be terminated permanently. It has the possibility of more disruption and
conflicts in the future so they need to understand the concerns of the employees as well as
satisfy the customers’ needs.

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