Employment Relations in Asia: Singapore Disputes and Unions

This essay delves into the complexities of employment relations in Asia, with a specific focus on Singapore. It begins by contrasting the pluralist and unitarist perspectives, illustrating their differences with examples relevant to the Singaporean context. The essay then examines the role of employer associations, detailing how they represent their members' interests. Furthermore, it explores the various methods of settling employment relations disputes in Singapore, evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, including conciliation and mediation. Finally, the essay discusses the arguments for and against the statement that the main responsibility of unions is to increase organizational productivity, providing a comprehensive overview of the topic.

Running head: EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS IN ASIA
Employment Relations in Asia
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2EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS IN ASIA
1. What are the characteristics which distinguish the pluralist and unitarist
perspectives on employment relations? Provide examples from your knowledge
of employment relations in Singapore.
Answer- From the unitarist perspective, which is based on the assumption that an
organisation is “one happy family”, where the management as well as the other staffs of
the company share a common purpose and they focus on mutual collaboration and
cooperation. Also, the employees also possess common objectives, interests and values.
With the same, it is also to note that the unitarism has paternalistic approach where it
demands on the loyalty of the employees who are being predominantly managerial in the
application and emphasis of the very approach. There are two vital implications. Firstly, it
is that- ‘conflict as an expression of the differences and dissatisfaction with the
management will be considered as an irrational activity’. In this regard, the term
“conflict” is considered to be ‘bad’ for the company and must be suppressed through
some coercive means. Secondly, it is the trade unions that are considered to be
unimportant as the loyalty among the organisations and the employees are considered to
be mutually exclusive where there cannot be two different sides of the industry. Accord
conflict is considered as pathological and disruptive outcome of the agitators, the
interpersonal friction as well as communication breakdown. Hence, the trade unions
needs to be denied for a presence within the company. From the theoretical perspective,
the unitarist perspective could be used for identifying the industrial relations within some
particular types of companies. There are several example of companies whose
management adopt a modified unitary viewpoint and one of the examples include Marks
and Spencer. They treat their employees really well. On the other hand, as per the
pluralist view, companies are perceived as being made up of divergent and powerful sub
groups and each of the sub-groups has its own legitimate loyalties and at the same time,

3EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS IN ASIA
has their own set of leaders and objectives. More specifically, the two different sub-
groups in this perspective are the trade unions and the management. It is to note that the
main assumption of this perspective is that the individual company includes groups that
have their own leadership, aims and interests. These interests and aims often conflict with
the other groups and then give rise to certain tensions that need to be managed. As per
this approach, the conflicts of disagreements and interest between the workers and
managers as distributing the profits as inescapable. Also, the trade unions are seen as the
legitimate representatives of the organisational employees and at the same time, conflict
is dealt by collective bargaining.
2. “Managers are part of the employment relations environment. Their associations
represent their interests.” Describe the role of employer associations and give
examples of how they represent their members’ interests.
Answer- It is to note that the employer associations are the third sector organisations
that advocate and give support to some groups of member employees. They can be
organised round some central components like size, geography or organisation type. They
pool their collective resources so that the costs could be effectively shared by many
members. The main aim of establishing employer associations is creating a professional
and experienced organisation that can represent the collective interests of its employees at
during the process of collective bargaining. With the same, they also help their members
in navigating the legal landscape comprising of working with them for remaining updated
on the changing federal and the state laws. Some might offer some routine human
resources services and they might also offer some training for the members and at the
same time, provide enough recruitment support as well. They also advocate on the topics
of their members’ interest and in this way, they present a collaborative voice to the
officials and many others. With the help of research and different surveys along with the

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wide efforts of the associations, the employer associations could attain some important
information to its members. All these associations are designed for helping the members
in developing relationships with one another.
3. Discuss the ways in which an employment relations dispute may be settled in
Singapore. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different
approaches?
Answer- For the employees who are covered by the Employment Act, the disputes
related to employment are referred to as the Labour Court for adjudication if they are not
successful to get resolved through conciliation. It is to note that conciliation is the process
of negotiations among the involved parties and then coming up with some mutually
agreed decisions that is true and fair for all the parties. The advantage that this process
holds is the fact that conciliation has expert experience and knowledge of the different
types of disputes. However, the disadvantage of it is the fact that parties often feel that the
conciliator is not neutral and might not result in resolution. The other process include
mediation. It is a non-adversarial process that involves a common mediator who facilitate
the whole process by means of helping the involved parties to identify the issues and
negotiate them. The disadvantage of it is that negotiating settlement of the dispute outside
of the knowledge of the public does very less for preventing a party from repeating the
allegedly illegal conduct. Advantage include that there is notable savings of cost
associated with this process as the parties “share the responsibility of paying mediator, it
avoids the fees of court and other legal fees and expenses.”
3. “The main responsibility of unions is to help their members increase the
productivity of the organisation in which they work.” Discuss the arguments for
and against this statement.

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Answer- Trade unions refers to the organisations who represent the people at work.
Their main aim is to improve and to protect the pay of the people along with their
condition of employment. They also often seem to be campaigning for the policies and
laws that would help the working people. It is to note that they exist for the fact that as an
individual worker has very little power of influencing the decisions, which are made
regarding his or her job. As per the collective voice or the institutional face it is to state
that unions often have positive impacts on productivity as they help in reducing the quit
rates and altering the negative methods of products. Also they help in the adoption of
more efficient policies and in this may they improve the employee morale. All these
ultimately influence the organisational productivity, which is often positive.