Employee Relationship Analysis: Chemist Warehouse Report

This report analyzes the Chemist Warehouse case study, focusing on employee relations and labor exploitation. It examines the situation through Allan Fox's three frames of reference: Unitarist, Pluralist, and Radical approaches, highlighting the perspectives of employees and management. The report identifies issues such as underpayment, workplace bullying, and job casualization, leading to an indefinite strike. The analysis reveals the impact of economic imbalances, lack of proper labor laws, and inadequate social security. The solution proposes improvements in social security, fair wage policies, enforcement of labor laws, and a reduction in the wage gap. It also addresses sexual harassment and workplace bullying by suggesting a dedicated department and counseling services. The report emphasizes the importance of balancing economic factors and employee well-being to prevent conflicts and improve work productivity.

Running head: MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP
Managing Employee Relationship
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1MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP
Analysis
The most common type of exploitation in the workplace is that the employees are not
fairly paid. They are most often underpaid and they are made to work more than what they can
offer to the organization. Their labor engagement is exploited and they are paid very low
compared to the experience and the qualifications that the employees have and what job tasks
they are capable of performing. A similar kind of exploitation the workers of the Chemist
warehouse faced in Preston and in Melbourne. They claim that they were bullied in the
workplace and they rose to an indefinite strike demanding a hike in their daily wages. This
would indeed have not affected the medicine supplies but would have a significant impact on the
retail stock supplies.
The Frames of Reference by Allan Fox involves three references- the Unitarist, the Plurarist
Approach and the Radical approach (Thunnissen, Boselie & Fruytier, 2013).
a. Unitarist Approach
According to the Unitarist approach, all the members share the same kind of
interests and become united and homogenous. This approach to the development of the
organisations suggest that all the workers of the organisation are in agreement with the
project or the decision. If there is any diversification from the common vision or goal, it
can lead to the poor management that would not help in articulating what the actual target
is. The companies who use this frame of approach make sure that there is a strong sense
of cooperation and sharing of a mutual goal between the employees and the employer
which makes the employees focus on their primary aim (Wise, 2013). A Strike in this
kind of approach is considered to be destructive since it has the tendency to consume the

2MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP
overall profitability of the organisation and eventually everyone is harmed. The strike
that the staff members of the Chemist Warehouse had put up includes a unitarist approach
since they were all working and raising their voice towards a single demand that is to
have an increase in their wages.
b. Plurarist Approach
The second frame of reference, the Pluralist approach involves a compromising
and a collective bargaining approach. This is because it recognizes that different opinions
and interests within the groups could arise any kind of conflicts. In this kind of reference,
the power resides with the manager solely resulting in the increase of frustration among
the employees of the organization. There is more than a source of power in the
relationship between the leaders or the managers of the business and between the
employees. The Union group is often the central component to this kind of approach as it
tends to bring in a balance of power between the leaders and the employees. According to
this approach a strike or conflict between the members of the organisation is inevitable
but still the key component of the innovation of the company. The labor force were
underpaid which resulted in a conflict among the employees, since the power resided
only with the managers of the company. Thus it was a sort of pluralist approach on the
behalf of the retail pharmacy and the managers.
c. Radical Approach
The radical frame of response implies that the employees are bound to have
conflicts with the managers as a result of capitalism (Van Doorn, 2017). This approach
consists both the benefits as well as limitations towards the employee relationship. It
involves trade unions who can work together to protect the rights of the employees.

3MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP
However on the other hand most managers feel the potentiality of inequality of power
towards their employees (Arrowsmith & Parker, 2013). In this kind of approach the
conflict that is inevitable arises as the workers feel more like they are parts of the
assembly. The workforce of the organisations can bview their leaders only because they
are concerned with the profits. The labor exploitation and the warehouse workers’ ill
treatment involves capitalism , which resulted in the conflicts between the two different
groups of people. The power that resides with the manager are unequal to that of the
employees which forced them to rise to an indefinite strike. This clearly reflects the
radical frame of reference.
Solution
In order to prevent the probable conflicts and the poor work productivity on behalf of the
workers of the organization, there should be improvement in the social security and the welfare
of the employees of the organization, so that they remain motivated to contribute to the
production and the economy (Benmelech, Bergman & Kim, 2018). The economic imbalances are
the prime reason of the strike. So the poverty of the families of the employees should be kept in
mind and they should be properly paid for their work. There must be proper labor laws and low
wage policies which would not let the employees work for extra time without being paid extra
money (Wolfers & Zilinsky, 2015). They should be treated with dignity and respect and their
physical and mental health should be taken into consideration.
Also there must be improvement in the justice system of the nation and this could
eliminate the labor exploitation. To prevent any kind of job casualization on the behalf of the
managers, it is important for the government to enforce laws and policies and strengthen the

4MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP
supervision that the organizations abide by the laws. There should also be an established
effective labor law which would restrict the working conditions and also prescribe a minimum
age of employment and the workers should not be forced to work in any insecure working
conditions. Lastly, the most important of all, there should be balance in the economy and the
wage gap must be reduced. (Meuris & Leana, 2015).
Regarding the sexual harassment and the workplace bullying, there must be a department
that would maintain a strict authority and proper actions should be taken for those who sexually
abuse the women as well as the men of the organisation. There could be a psychology
department in the workplace which would have the facility of a psychiatrist for the employees
who turn out to be the victims of work environment and suffer from slightest of traumatic
experience. It could help them to come over the trauma of the workplace bullying by having a
talk therapy with the councilor.
The employers of the organisation on the other hand should know their labor rights and
take steps to inform the authority of the organisation about any kind of workplace sexual
bullying or harassment. They even have the right to demand for proper wage rates and they can
take legal help if there is any kind of discrepancy.
Conclusion
From the above analysis it can be concluded that the workers of the Chemist Retail
industry had risen to an indefinite strike because they were underpaid and they were not given
the deserving working conditions where they would have been motivated to work. This case
study clearly reflects the Fox’s three frame of reference the Unitarist, the Pluralist as well as the
Radical approach. The probable solution should have been enforcement of proper labor policies

5MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP
which could help to eradicate the labor exploitation and reduction of the wage gap between the
managers and the employees.

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Reference
Arrowsmith, J., & Parker, J. (2013). The meaning of ‘employee engagement’for the values and
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Benmelech, E., Bergman, N., & Kim, H. (2018). Strong employers and weak employees: How
does employer concentration affect wages? (No. w24307). National Bureau of Economic
Research.
Meuris, J., & Leana, C. R. (2015). The high cost of low wages: Economic scarcity effects in
organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 35, 143-158.
Thunnissen, M., Boselie, P., & Fruytier, B. (2013). Talent management and the relevance of
context: Towards a pluralistic approach. Human Resource Management Review, 23(4),
326-336.
Van Doorn, N. (2017). Platform labor: on the gendered and racialized exploitation of low-
income service work in the ‘on-demand’economy. Information, Communication &
Society, 20(6), 898-914.
Wise, R. D. (2013). The migration and labor question today: Imperialism, unequal development,
and forced migration. Monthly Review, 64(9), 25.
Wolfers, J., & Zilinsky, J. (2015). Higher wages for low-income workers lead to higher
productivity. RAISING LOWER-LEVEL WAGES: WHEN AND WHY IT MAKES, 6.