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Employment

Foundation of Employment Relationship

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Foundation of Employment Relationship

Introduction.

Employment relations mainly deals with the Management of general employment relationships that are associated with the agreement of employment terms and conditions as well as the challenges which emerge from employment. Most of the successful organizations make use of a consistent set to control the employees as well as establishing the best exercises that are satisfactory for their requirements.  There exists a positive relationship between the strategies of management on employment relations and the identification of employees to support the organization’s changes and improvement in performance. Industrial relation scholars have recently realized various perspectives, but this paper will mainly focus on the unitary, a significant aspect that is used to analyze the relations at the workplace. It makes use of the paternalistic approach, which require the employees to be loyal to the management which intern have to perform within their powers to ensure employees wellbeing. There are wide variations still seen in the unitary approach. Most of the businesses are now adopting a pluralist view in employment relations as a way of improving the stakeholders’ welfare and performance. This is done through an agreement with the trade unions, and therefore, in the absence of the trade unions, it shows that the management uses a unitary approach.  This study will apply unitarist and pluralist theories of employment relations. These theories will help to critically examine the given statement i.e., in the twenty-first century, a revival of unionism is essential to improve wages and the conditions for workers in the digitally enabled gig economy.

Digitally Enabled Gig Economy

The gig economy may, at one point, have a drastic impact on the nature of employment. Also, it may disrupt the stable, employed individuals and even the full-time traditional practices who are under menace from on-demand freelance work by the contractors. Therefore, in this gig economy, there are various protections and benefits which are usually enjoyed by workers that are not provided to workers (Veen & Barratt, 2019). There exist three theoretical perspectives that try to analyze employment relations. They are Unitarist, Pluralist, and Radical views, and they offer different perceptions regarding workplace relations. They differently interpret such events as the role of trade unions, job regulation, workplace conflict, and employees-manager relationships in different ways. Based on the origin of these perspectives, they are all contrasting. Unitary can be defined as the belief that both the employees and the management are working for the company’s wellbeing. It states that they are United with the same organizational goals where the organization is seen as an integral as well as harmonious whole with an idea of on family that is so happy. It puts more emphasis on working as a team and coming up with the rules and regulations that will help the teamwork together for the good of the company. The unitary approach also emphasis managing the commitment and integration of employees to the organizational strategies and individualization of the employment relations.

The unitary approach sees the trade unions as unwelcome intruders whose intentions are to upset the unified as well as the cooperative structures in the organization. They don’t see the necessary existence of the trade unions and view them as divisive. The trade unions are seen to be competing with the management for the employees’ loyalty. According to this unitary perspective, the loyalty between the employees and the company is believed to be mutually beneficial. The primary role of all the employees in any organization is to be loyal to the company and management as well as to know their common objectives. It is therefore argued that an organization cannot have two groups of employees, one for and the other one against the set organizational objectives since it will be so challenging to achieve them. This extols the teamwork virtue, and everyone works hard to the common goals accepting their places and functions by following their leaders (Wood & Hjorth, 2019). For most employees, the unitary approach means the working practice has to be flexible; the individual workers must be oriented to improve the business process, multiskilled, and ready to perform effectively. Most focus is on the excellent relationship and the term and conditions of employment agreed on between the employer and the employees. The trade unions fight for the rights of workers in terms of wages and working conditions. The unions play a vital role in ensuring that the employees are treated fairly when it comes to payments and are also working under a conducive environment. According to most of the employees in the gig economy, unionism doesn’t exist, and they are not given much attention when it comes to payment of wages. Most of them complain about being paid low wages and working under deplorable conditions. The working conditions and better wages for the employees can only be improved by joining the trade unions, which advocate for better wages and good working conditions for the employees.

In this economy, there existed a lot of distinct practices of labor rights and also to the classification of the workers globally. Generally, there are comparable jurisdictions like New Zealand, the United States, and Canada which adopt the same practices to Australia in the classification of the workers as either employees or contractors (Tassinari & Maccarrone, 2020). In consideration of workers’ rights, some cases recommend that the employees in the gig economy be permitted to greater rights. In contrast, there are other circumstances where they are found to have very few reasons.

Moreover, the debate on this gig economy may be polarizing. It is very accurate to say that gigs economy is disrupting the traditional approach of carrying out businesses, and it seems that it is here to stay, which is a great challenge. Some people support it, arguing that better choices, as well as flexibility, are the useful results of technological innovation. There are also many other people against this economy, with the reason that it is exploiting the workers and labor laws (Stewart & Stanford, 2017). Among the problems caused by this economy is that some employees are not getting benefits like paid leave, accident insurance, and superannuation contributions. For instance, this matter has been polarizing in Australia. The proponents of the gig economy have been championing for freedom as well as flexibility relating to freelance job or even an independent contractor. The support emanated for the idea of choice where people can make decisions on when or how to do the work (Rosenbloom, 2014). Besides, the work structure may be so appealing, and the customer requires the task to be done; an entrepreneur, therefore, has the proficiency to do that task and finish it. In connecting the two, online platform promotes a virtual market place.

Conflicts in The Gig Economy

There are various adverse factors in the gig economy that have been outlined by the Rights groups of workers. There are several benefits for permanent workers, such as health insurance, paid leave, accident insurance, insurance income, and superannuation contributions that are not looked at in this employment relation. Besides, most entrepreneurs with un-specialized proficiency have to take up low rates of payment for them to secure a job (Minter, 2017). In turn, this economy doesn’t offer for the limit as to the minimum fees to be charged. This is because the gig economy doesn’t subscribe to the laws on minimum wages since the entrepreneur is not considered as a platform employee. Consequently, the entrepreneur must operate as a freelancer or an independent contractor an implication under the industrial law on minimum wage, and the other working conditions do not apply to this case at any given time.

An excellent example of this is seen in Deliveroo, a food delivery company that operates in at least 200 cities in the world. The drivers and riders who deliver the foodstuffs for the firm are regarded as independent contractors, and the payments are made depending on the deliveries made. However, to make the deliveries, the workers are required to have a motorcycle, Smartphone, a valid motor vehicle insurance policy, and a scooter. The company still holds that its platform is of great merit to all the parties taking part (Kalleberg & Marsden, 2015). The riders and drivers enjoy flexibility and freedom; customers have convenience and choice, whereas the restraints gain more profits by providing delivery services. However, these workers have stated having low wages and also poor working conditions. The company’s drivers have reported that three workers out of four earn less than the required minimum wages, which comprise the effective rates of payment as low as $7 in every hour (Healy & Pekarek, 2017). The drivers have also complained regarding the lack of assured payment or even work and the company changing the rules and payment rate without any consultation.

In the named conflict, the employer is getting more revenue every day from the worker’s services while the workers are deemed disadvantaged. They have note been able to raise their concerns since the company doesn’t allow them to join any labor movement advocating for the rights of employees since they are not considered as the company’s employees (Goods & Barratt, 2019). This dramatically shows that the work is so insecure as this matter is so much entrenched in the gig economy.

The employer is using it to benefit while the workers are being exploited by the use of an independent contractor, which doesn’t guarantee workers the benefits that are enjoyed by the workers under traditional employment. Most of the companies in this economy are highly criticized due to the structure of their work. They have an insensitive job to time and also tightly managed by the owner. Conversely, most of the workers are considered as a freelancer or independent contractors but not the company’s employees, and they, therefore, do not enjoy the rights of employees held under the industrial law. These rights comprise of paid leave, notice periods, maximum working hours per day and week, protections from unfair dismissal, and redundancy compensation.

Furthermore, this economic system allows Deliveroo and Uber companies not to offer necessary working rights to the service providers. According to the Act by the Unions regarding the current operating system of Deliveroo and Uber companies, these firms are capable of deactivating their workers without even giving them any notice (Goods & Barratt, 2019). All the drivers in the company are no longer considered as the company’s employees since they don’t have an agreement for the work-wages bargain. Lack of this agreement among the service providers and the online platforms indicates that they are no longer employees of the company as per the common law. In this gig economy, there is a need for changes to be made in the federal laws to ensure that the service providers are correct the company’s employees (Ellem & Cooper, 2019). The current trend shows that due to the rise in the number of workers in this gig economy, there could also be an increase in the labor that is offered without payment of any superannuation contributions. This, in turn, may lead to very low superannuation balances during the retirement period, thus reducing the efficacy of the superannuation system. If this goes on, a good number of workers will be left without any life insurance cover as well as the rise in underinsurance cases. This may also lead to a significant burden on the social security system of the country.

Factors That Explain the Occurrence of Conflict in The Gig Economy

The best employment relations mainly deal with the agreement of the terms and conditions of employment as well as other issues that may emanate from the job. It provides sufficient and consistent guidelines if making the rules compatible in dealing with the problems of employee relation and also the fair procedure to assist improve the employees’ mechanisms of resolving the disputes or any other type of differences. The unitary and pluralist approaches put more emphasis on the firm as the coherent group that is brought together by similar purposes where the company is seen as integral and harmonious. In this approach, both the Management and other staff members are assumed to have the same goals (Goods & Barratt, 2019). However, in the case of the gig economy, conflict occurs only when the workers are used in achieving the cited company’s tasks with no cooperation. The only thing that brings them together is the task assigned to them; hence the workers end up missing so many benefits enjoyed by other employees.

The unitary standpoint offers an orientation that her paternalistic where the workers are thought to be loyal to Management, and in turn, they do anything possible to uplift the welfare of employees. The emergence of conflicts in this economy is due to workers having the feeling that they are not regarded as part of the organization (Kalleberg & Marsden, 2015). The workers can be dismissed at any time without any notice or even following the required process. The majority of them experience unfair treatment like dismissal since they are not considered as part of the company’s employees. They are mostly taken as casual workers but not permanent employees; hence there is a rise in the cases of unfair job termination.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I agree with the statement given above that the revival of unionism in the twenty-first century is necessary for the improvement of wages and conditions of the workers in the digitally enabled gig economy. The unions play a vital role in fighting for the rights of all the employees and ensure they are working under better conditions and are not exploited when it comes to payment of wages. In this system, there still exist industrial conflicts and other cases regarding the workers’ wages and working conditions like we have seen in Deliveroo, a food delivery company. The drivers and riders have the feeling that they are being exploited through working under poor conditions a d getting low wages. It can, therefore, be concluded that industrial conflict and poor working conditions for the workers is still a big issue in employment relations.

 

 

 

 

References

Ellem, B., & Cooper, R. (2019). What have they ever done for us? Unions in Australia.

In Contemporary Issues in Work and Organisations (pp. 95-109). Routledge.

Goods, C., Veen, A., & Barratt, T. (2019). “Is your gig any good?” Analyzing job quality in the

Australian platform-based food-delivery sector. Journal of Industrial Relations61(4), 502-527.

Healy, J., Nicholson, D., & Pekarek, A. (2017). Should we take the gig economy?

Seriously? Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work27(3), 232-248.

Kalleberg, A. L., & Marsden, P. V. (2015). Transformation of the employment

relationship. Emerging Trends in the social and behavioral sciences: An interdisciplinary, searchable, and linkable resource, 1-15.

Minter, K. (2017). Negotiating labor standards in the gig economy: Air tasker and Unions New

South Wales. The Economic and Labour Relations Review28(3), 438-454.

Rosenbloom, D. H. (2014). Federal service and the constitution: The development of the public

employment relationship. Georgetown University Press.

Stewart, A., & Stanford, J. (2017). Regulating work in the gig economy: What are the

options? The Economic and Labour Relations Review28(3), 420-437.

Tassinari, A., & Maccarrone, V. (2020). Riders on the storm: Workplace solidarity among gig

economy couriers in Italy and the UK. Work, Employment and Society34(1), 35-54.

 

 

 

Wood, A. J., Graham, M., Lehdonvirta, V., & Hjorth, I. (2019). Good gig, bad gig: autonomy

and algorithmic control in the global gig economy. Work, Employment and      Society33(1), 56-75.

Veen, A., Oliver, D., Goods, C., & Barratt, T. (2019). The ‘gigification’of work: consideration of

the challenges and opportunities. In Contemporary Issues in Work and Organisations: Actors and Institutions (pp. 27-41). Routledge-Cavendish.

 

 

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