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The areas covered by employee relations policies are: trade union recognition ,collective
bargaining, employee relations procedures; participation and involvement, partnership, the
employment relationship, harmonization of terms and conditions of employment for staff and
manual workers, working arrangements
(Source: ARMSTRONG, M. and TAYLOR, S., 2014)
Four approaches to employee relations policies have been identified by Industrial Relations
Services (1994):
Adversarial: the organization decides what it wants to do, and employees are expected to fit in.
Employees only exercise power by refusing to cooperate.
Traditional: a good day-to-day working relationship but management proposes and the
workforce reacts through its elected representatives.
Power sharing: employees are involved in both day-to-day and strategic decision making.
Adversarial approaches are much less common than in the 1960s and 1970s. The traditional
approach is still the most typical but more interest is being expressed in partnership, as discussed
later in this chapter. Power sharing is rare.
Definition and the difference between employee participation (EP) and employee involvement
(EI):
Although EP and EI appear to be similar in meaning, they are not. Involvement means that
management allows employees to discuss with it issues that affect them but that management
retains the right to manage. It is primarily a management-driven concept. Participation is about
employees who take part in the decision making process. Therefore, it is closer to the concept of
employee voice systems, that is, arrangements for ensuring that employees are given the
opportunity to influence management decisions and to contribute to the improvement of
organizational performance.
There is a number of reasons companies are concerned about employee relation. A success
employee relations program will bring out many advantages for organization, especially in HRM
decision making. Firstly, it creates a pleasant and productive workplace for both employees and
management which has a strong impact on employees trust and loyalty to the organization. In
other words, it encourages a loyal workforce. The owning of such a workforce will decreases
both the cost and time of recruitment and training while it still maintains the quality of labour.
Secondly, it decrease conflicts and fights among individuals. Instead of wasting their time in
meaningless disputes, they focus on adjusting and improving theirself to perform better.
Employees rarely get stress because of several problems related to the behaviors in the company.
The relationship between all the staffs will be closer and it generates effective team-work.
Sometimes we may miss out on some important points, but our colleague might come out with a
brilliant idea which would help us to achieve our targets more quickly. You also need people
who can act as critic and correct you wherever you are wrong. Nobody is willing to support you
if you do not have a good relation with them. Besides, employee relations will generate an
effective communication and solving problems network. Information is conveyed quickly and
obviously, so it is beneficial for quick resolution when problems occur. Hence, human resource
management decisions are made easier.
Application:
6.1.Main employment legislation and standards such as minimum wages, equality, health
and safety, redundancy, dismissal and the like.
Minimum wages have been defined as the minimum amount of remuneration that an employer
is required to pay wage earners for the work performed during a given period, which cannot be
reduced by collective agreement or an individual contract. The minimum wages in each country
or region are different. It can be set by statute, decision of a competent authority, a wage board, a
wage council, or by industrial or labour courts or tribunals.
The purpose of minimum wages is to protect workers against unduly low pay. Moreover, it helps
ensure a just and equitable share of the fruits of progress to all, and a minimum living wage to all
who are employed and in need of such protection. Minimum wages can also be one element of a
policy to overcome poverty and reduce inequality, including those between men and women, by
promoting the right to equal remuneration for work of equal value.
According to two diagrams above, the minimum wages in Viet Nam tend to increase annually.
However, if we compare the minimum salary in Viet Nam to other countries in Southest Asia, it
remains lower. The low wage will has a strong influence on HRM decision making. It reduces
the the cost of inputs so the price of products will decrease. In the early years of the integration
process many foreign investors have recognized low labor costs in Vietnam and have invested
heavily in Vietnam (though with medium or low technology) . However, as Vietnam integrates
deeply and broadly into the world and regional economies, the level of product competition is
increasing. Therefore, cost savings, improved labor efficiency and improved product quality are
vital requirements for enterprises. This, in parallel with investment in technology innovation,
requires the improvement of labor quality, the amount of gray matter in product quality must
increase. Increasing the value of Vietnamese products in the global value chain requires
employment positions with high professional and occupational skills. Cheap labor will gradually
decrease in the total labor force of the enterprises and instead there will be skilled workers. Thus,
creating a skilled force through education and training, especially vocational education, is the
objective demand of the economy in the context of integration and high competition. Cheap
labor is no longer the advantage of Vietnam in the near future and if not quickly have appropriate
training strategy, this cheap labor will become a barrier and the risk of high unemployment,
impact negative for the national social security system.
Equality
Individuals covered under Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws are protected from illegal
discrimination, which occurs when people who share a certain characteristic, such as race, age,
or gender, are discriminated against because of that characteristic. People who have the
designated characteristics are called the protected class. Federal laws have identified the
following characteristics for protection:
Race, ethnic origin, color (for example, African American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian)
The main purpose of the EEO laws is to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity of getting
a job or being promoted at work.
Written health and safety policies are required to demonstrate that top management is concerned
about the protection of the organizations employees from hazards at work and to indicate how
this protection will be provided. They are, therefore, first, a declaration of intent, second, a
definition of the means by which that intent will be realized, and third, a statement of the
guidelines that should be followed by everyone concerned which means all employees in
implementing the policy.
The general policy statement should be a declaration of the intention of the employer to
safeguard the health and safety of employees. It should emphasize four fundamental points:
Every effort will be made to involve all managers, team leaders and employees in the
development and implementation of health and safety procedures
Health and safety legislation will be complied with in the spirit as well as the letter of the law.
A genuine redundancy arises only when either there has been or there is going to be:
A cessation of business
A cessation of business at the employees site
A reduction or cessation of work
In other words, the work that the employee does no longer needs to be done at all, or not in the
same place
Objective
Employees who may be affected by the discontinuance of their work are given fair and
equitable treatment;
As far as possible, changes are effected with the understanding and agreement of the unions
and employees concerned.
In the event of impending redundancy, the individuals who might be surplus to requirements
should be selected by the departmental manager with the advice of the manager responsible for
personnel on the principles that should be adopted.
The manager responsible for personnel should explore the possibilities of transferring affected
staff to alternative work. The manager responsible for personnel should inform management of
proposed action (either redundancy or transfer) to obtain approval.
The union(s) will be informed of the numbers affected but not of individual names. (Armstrong,
M. and Taylor, S., 2014)
Dismissal
In order to be lawful, the dismissal of an employee must be substantively justified, and must be
conducted in a procedurally fair manner. In order to be substantively justified, there must be a
genuine reason for a dismissal. The requirements of procedural fairness may vary depending on
the circumstances; for example, in serious cases the employer will be justified in dismissing the
employee without first giving a warning (see below).
If an employer issues a warning or dismisses an employee unlawfully, an employee can lodge a
personal grievance claim with the Employment Relations Authority. The employee can be
awarded lost wages and damages for distress. See how to defend a personal grievance claim
brought by an employee. The test of whether the dismissal was justifiable and the procedure was
fair is an objective one - namely, whether it meets the standard of what a fair and reasonable
employer would have done.
If there has been serious misconduct, a summary dismissal will be justified that is, the
employee can be dismissed without receiving any earlier notice or warning. However, the
dismissal must still be procedurally fair (see below for the general rules of procedural fairness).
Examples of serious misconduct include: theft or some other act of dishonesty fighting in the
workplace or assaulting an employer or co-worker breaching work rules deliberately disobeying
a lawful and reasonable instruction from the employer possessing illegal substances at work.
Even if an employee is dismissed for serious misconduct, he or she is still entitled to outstanding
wages, holiday pay and any other entitlement under the employment contract. (Howtolaw.co,
2017)
The relational contract is a long-term contract that focuses on support and loyalty rather than
on monitory issues, it is a more emotional contract.
The transactional focuses on short term and specific monitory agreements with little
involvement of the parties where employees are more interested in good benefits and
compensations.
Psychological contracts are a set of promises or expectations that are exchanged between the
parties in an employment relationship
Psychological contract expresses the combination of beliefs held by an individual and his or her
employer about what they expect of one another.
6.3. Main terms and conditions and contracts of employment
A labor contract should include the following:
+ Full name, date of birth, gender, address of residence, people's identity card or other legal
papers of the employee;
+ The wage level, form of wage payment, time limit for payment of wages, wage allowances and
other supplements; In case of late payment of 15 days, the employer will have to pay extra
+ Social insurance and health insurance are stipulated in the Regulations on salary and allowance
for social insurance in 2016.
If laborers working in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fishery and salt-making work, depending
on the type of work, the two parties may reduce some of the main contents of the labor contract
and supplement the internal agreement. The method of settlement in cases where contract
performance is affected by natural disasters, fires or weather.
References
ARMSTRONG, M. and TAYLOR, S. (2014) Armstrongs Handbook of Human Resource
Management Practice. 13th Ed. London: Kogan Page.
K Ton Vit Hng. (2017). Quy nh khi lm hp ng lao ng nm 2016 - K Ton Vit
Hng. [online] Available at: http://lamketoan.edu.vn/hop-dong-lao-dong.html [Accessed 15 Dec.
2017].
Howtolaw.co. (2017). HowTo Dismiss an Employee - United States - US Law. [online] Available
at: http://www.howtolaw.co/dismiss-an-employee-392063 [Accessed 14 Dec. 2017].
Dantri.com.vn. (2017). Bo Dn tr | Tin tc Vit Nam v quc t nng, nhanh, cp nht 24h.
[online] Available at: http://dantri.com.vn/su-kien/tu-1-1-2018-luong-toi-thieu-tang-them-tu-
180000-230000-dong-20171211195819458.htm [Accessed 13 Dec. 2017].