3 Actors in the Industrial Relations System

There are generally three main actors in the industrial relations,which are directly involved, namely, employees, employer and government or society:

1. Employers:

Employers possess certain rights vis-à-vis labors. They have the right to hire and fire them. Management can also affect workers’ interests by exercising their right to relocate, close or merge the factory or to introduce technological changes.

2. Employees:

Workers seek to improve the terms and conditions of their employment. They exchange views with management and voice their grievances. They also want to share decision making powers of management. Workers generally unite to form unions against the management and get support from these unions.

3. Government:

The central and state government influences and regulates industrial relations through laws, rules, agreements, awards of court and the like. It also includes third parties and labor and tribunal courts. The diagram below depicts the industrial relations system. Industrial conflicts are the results of several socio-economic, psychological and political factors.

Various lines of thoughts have been expressed and approaches used to explain his complex phenomenon. One observer has stated, “An economist tries to interpret industrial conflict in terms of impersonal markets forces and laws of supply demand.

• To a politician, industrial conflict is a war of different ideologies, perhaps a class-war.
• To a psychologist, industrial conflict means the conflicting interests, aspirations, goals, motives and perceptions of different groups of individuals, operating within and reacting to a given socio-economic and political environment”.