Employee Relation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Employee Relation - Essay Example This paper discusses the employee relations in a public sector organization – the UK Firefighters. The UK Firefighters has always been associated with the heroism and skills of largely working class masculinity but the firefighters’ dispute gave it a different dimension – conflict and dispute of class and gender (Kaplan, 2000). This was one of the longest and the most serious industrial disputes in British history (Dinan, Ford, McConnell & Pyper, 2006). While the reasons for the dispute were many, when it precipitated a public safety emergency, the government was forced to deploy emergency plans. This was the first national strike by firefighters in 25 years and had several complex themes and issues intertwined together. The dispute had started in May 2002 when the Fire Brigades Union lodged a 40% pay claim which was rejected by the local authority employers. The local authorities were prepared to offer 4% pay increase and also link future increases to national pay deals. By September when the government felt that the negotiations were not heading anywhere, it sough t an independent review. Based on the recommendations of the Bain Report, the government then added 7% as modernization package and also announced certain other benefits in working patterns and local pay additions. The FBU did not agree to any of these recommendations and first initiated a 48-hour strike in November followed by an eight-day strike from November 22. The FBU staged a series of walk-outs and pickets across Britain, suspending the national cover fire and forcing army ‘green goddesses’ to step in (Edwards, 2007). The two main issues at the heart of the dispute were – pay increase to be comparable or at par with other public services and the government led agenda of modernization based on the Bain Report was taken as an attack on the way that firefighters worked. The two issues were however interlinked because the modernization proposals linked pay to

Importance of Diversity in Most Organizations In the Global Market Research Paper

Importance of Diversity in Most Organizations In the Global Market - Research Paper Example However, this diversity which meant variations in beliefs as well as in attitudes had posed some challenging concerns for a wide array of companies and businesses all throughout the years. To manage such differences has happened to confront various organizations. The problem of diversity had been present for such a long time ago. In fact, the past of each organization had been marked by the discriminatory processes such as discriminating individuals because of certain preferences on individual’s race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, and others. In order to address this concern, the United States had even developed an anti – discrimination law. Currently, it had been mandated by the government that companies should forget about diversity through requiring a non – diversity rule on every organization. ... In this manner, the companies had gone further than just following the government legislation as they tried to use the differences among their employees for their own advantage. Despite the diversity issues, organizations had managed to recruit and retain those with best talents and skills to make the company work on its utmost efficiency. Aside from that, this global diversity had also contributed to the economic advantages of an organization. Given that diversity had been regarded first as a concern but this ever – growing diversity in the workplace could be leveraged to the advantages of an organization, the focus of this paper should delve on the importance of diversity in most organizations in order to be competitive in the global market at present. Basically, this paper would take into consideration looking at the current condition of organization’s management on global diversity. This paper also aimed at figuring out the importance of differences in the most orga nization which could be used for its own advancement. By this, this would also like to identify the types of diversity that could play a significant role in an organization. This would also seek to analyze the effectiveness of an organization as it had dealt with the concern on diversity. In this study, only one measure of whether organization or company had supported a management style which recognized and respected the differences of characteristics of individuals, was assessed. This research was limited in a number of aspects especially in the methodology that had framed the study. However, this would be supported by the qualitative data as well as the existing literatures. Meanwhile, the necessity to conduct this study could be backed up