Manage Industrial Relations

Manage Industrial Relations – Assessment 2

Dispute Resolution Procedures

The dispute resolution procedure that was created by Fair Work Australia includes:

Identify whether the dispute is about an organisational agreement or the National Employment Standards.

May appoint another representative

Attempt to resolve the dispute in the workplace environment to avoid more serious outcomes, and involving more people into the dispute.

Only if the dispute cannot be resolved in the workplace level, should an external party be involved.

The external party, in most cases the fair work commission, will now try to resolve the dispute by using all policies and procedures under the act.

The two parties in the dispute will agree to accept the outcomes decided by the fair work commission.

Legal remedies

Legal remedies will involve the court of law to resolve disputes, which relate to rights of humans, breaking of the law or protection. Legal remedies uses the rules that are written in the book of laws, to resolve the disputes fairly and justly.

In this situation, I believe that the increase in commission on sales is the easiest grievance to eliminate. This is because the commission is earned and will also help the organisation significantly. If the employees can earn more than $10,000 worth of sales a month, they deserve a good reward. The more they earn above $10,000 the more commission they will get, however the organisation will also benefit by the 85% of the sales that were made. This will give the employees motivation to work harder and they will get rewarded more in return. The commission should be increased by 5% as it is the most beneficial to both parties.

The main problem is that the workers are demanding more than what the management is offering to the workers. The amount that the workers are demanding is not just a little bit higher, but it is a significant amount higher than what was offered. This can be quite negative for the organisation as the employees may feel that their efforts are not appreciated, or the management may feel that the workers are greedy. An appropriate negotiation is in order, to solve this dispute and allow both parties to agree on the terms.

Fair Work Commission – this is the main government organisation for workplace disputes and issues.

Human Rights Commission – this is a general human rights commission, however does resolve a lot of workplace issues.

There are a lot of trade unions that employees are apart of such as:

ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions)

SDA (Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association)

......

SDA (Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association)

ASU (Australian Services Union)

4% increase base wages

Penalty rates remain the same

Commission of sales increased by 5%

These are the best outcomes which have been negotiated to help both parties.

Increase base wages by 3%

Reduction of penalties

2.5% commission

This will be the management offerings, which are not negotiated. Employees will feel unappreciated and they will not work as hard. The commission is not high and therefore, they do not get motivated.

When negotiating, I will have to identify the best result for both parties. This will usually mean negotiating evenly to all both parties to either benefit from or lose something. I will also be considering the minimum amount each party will accept without reacting negatively. Finally I will have to consider the maximum each party is able to offer without losing too much. My final settlement should be in the middle of these two outcomes. To get these amounts and outcomes, I will have to collaborate with the parties and ask them these outcomes.

It will have to be before the expiry date and therefore it must be within 3 months. I would place a timeframe of 2 months to give a lot of time to prepare and discuss, without going over the expiry date.

To advocate the company’s position, I will have to look at the future forecasts. I will be able to see how Colesworth is going to perform in the next financial year, and then I will be able to measure the amount of finances the management team is able to spend on extra rewards.

If the negotiations fail, external parties and tribunals must be involved. The most common tribunal organisation is the fair work commission. They will attempt to resolve workplace disputes fairly and ensure that a fair resolution is identified. However if the fair work commission still cannot resolve the dispute, the case will be taken to the court of law, where lawyers and judges will resolve the dispute.

Firstly the agreements must be documented. This should be done on a contract or agreement report. The agreement document should have the negotiated terms as well as the date and signatures of both the parties. The agreement should also be certified by the Fair work Australia. The agreement report should then be record for future uses. The agreement should also be recorded to the external party which helped resolve the dispute.

…

...