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Approaches To IR
Approaches To IR
approaches to IR are:
1. Unitary Approach
2. Pluralistic
Approach
3. Marxist Approach
These are discussed
one by one
• 1. Unitary Approach:
• The Unitary approach to IR is
based on the assumption that
every one-be it employee,
employer or
government-benefits when
emphasis is on common
interest. Alternatively
speaking, under unitary
approach, IR is founded on
mutual co-operation, team
work, shared goal, and so.
• Conflict at work place, if any,
is seen as a temporary
aberration resulting from
poor management or
mismanagement of
employees. Otherwise,
employees usually accept and
cooperate with management.
Conflict in the form of strikes
2. Pluralistic Approach:
• British scholars in
particular by A. Fox
the approach
perceives that
organisation is a
coalition of competing
interest groups
mediated by the
management. At times,
it may so happen that
management in its
• In such a situation,
employees may unite in the
form of trade unions to
protect their needs and
claims. As a result, trade
unions become the
legitimate
representatives of
employees in the
organisation. Thus, the
system of IR gets grounded
on the product of
concessions and
compromises between
management and trade
unions.
• Conflict between
employees and
management understood as
• Like unitary approach,
pluralistic approach
also suffers from
certain limitations.
• The basic assumption
of this approach that,
employees and
management do not
arrive at, an
acceptable agreement
do not hold good in a
free society.
3. Marxist Approach
• Like pluralists, marxists also view conflict
between labour and management as
inevitable. But marxists unlike pluralists,
regard conflict as a product of the capitalist
society based on classes. According to
marxists conflict arises because of division
within society in terms of haves i.e., capitalists
and have not’s i.e., labour. The main objective
of capitalists has been to improve productivity
by paying minimum wages to labour. Labour
views this as their exploitation by the
capitalists.
• The marxists do not welcome state intervention as, in their view, it
usually supports management’s interest. They view the pluralistic
approach is supportive of capitalism and the unitary approach as an
anathema. Therefore, the labour-capital conflict, according to
marxist approach, cannot be solved by bargaining, participation and
cooperation.
• Election Disputes
• Strike Fund
• Trade Union Journals
• 1) Strikes
• “A cessation of work by a body of persons
employed in an industry acting in
combination, or a concerted refusal or a
refusal under a common understanding of any
number of persons who are or have been so
employed to continue to work or to accept
employment .”
Types of strikes
• 1) Protest strike-short period, fixed duration
• 2) Sympathetic Strike –show sympathy to workers
in other industry
• 3) General Strike- political and economic in nature
• 4) Unofficial strike- without the consent of the
union
• 5) Bumper strike- the whole industry is attacked
firm by firm. Supported by those who are still in
work.
• 6) Sectional strike
• 7) Ca canny, Go slow, pen down
Item 2012 (January & June) 2013 (January & June) (P) 2014 (January & June)
(P) (P)
Centr State Total Central State Total Central State Total
al Sphere Sphere Sphere Sphere Sphere
Spher
e
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
A: Industrial Units
affected by:
(I) Strikes 104 53 157 69 40 109 20 39 59
(II) Lockouts - 151 151 - 11 11 - 14 14
(III) Mandays Lost 640,3 3,543,8 4,184, 1,035,63 885,440 1,921,0 640,62 481,492 1,122,
95 83 278 2 72 5 119
B: Workers Affected as a
result of:
(I) Strikes 653,0 33,405 686,4 543,462 123,246 666,70 336,81 9,003 345,81
34 39 8 1 4
(II) Lockouts - 54,970 54,97 - 3,312 3,312 - 4,599 4,599
0
P = Provisional and based on the returns/ clarifications received in the Bureau till
1st May, 2014.- = Nil
2012(P) 2013(P) 2014(P)
January to March January to March January to March
Central State Total Central State Total Central State Total
Sphere Sphere Sphere Sphere Sphere Sphere
A.
Industrial
Units Affected
by:
- 6 6 14 2 16 1 5 6
(iv) Retrenchm - 32 32 - 10 10 - 11 11
ents
(v) Closures
B. Workers
affected as a
result of:
- 201 201 1167 117 1284 373 35 408
(iii) - 892 892 - 265 265 - 416 416
Retrenchments
(iv) Closures
• While Tata Motors has decided to move its Nano factory out of Singur after violent
protests by farmers, this isn't the first time that there has been a standoff between
industry and farmers unwilling to surrender land.
• Here are four other large industrial projects in India that have recently been wracked by
protests
• 1 In August, the Supreme Court gave South Korean steel firm POSCO the use of large
swathes of forestland in Orissa for a $12-billion plant that protesting farmers said
would displace thousands of people. The protests delayed the start of construction on
the plant, which could be India's single biggest foreign investment to date.
• 2 In the same month, the Supreme Court allowed Vedanta Resources to mine bauxite in
hills considered sacred by tribal people in Orissa. The mining would feed an alumina
refinery, part of an $800-million project that has been widely opposed.
Environmentalists say the open-cast mine will wreck the rich biodiversity of the remote
hills and disrupt key water sources vital for farming.
• 3 Goa, famous for its beaches and tourist industry, in January dropped plans to build
special economic zones for industry after protests from political and environmental
groups.
• 4 West Bengal last year aborted a plan for a special economic zone for a chemicals
complex in Nandigram after fierce protests. At least 35 villagers were killed in clashes
between locals and communist party workers and the state government put all SEZs on
hold in the state.