Question

Find a real example for each term, and prepare a short narrative.

1. Employee relations
2. Fair treatment
3. National Labor Relations Board
4. Unfair labor practice strike

Answer 1

1. Employee relations are an approach to dealing with human resources in order to strengthen a relationship between employer and employees. In most companies there will be employee relations executive, whose job responsibilities include activities such as conducting employee opinion surveys, resolving work place issues, negotiating with the union on various matters, implementing HR policies, etc.   An example of Employee relations includes use of watsapp in the workplace. The workplace policies indicate that no employee is allowed to access social media sites and other social networking technology in the work place. One of the mangaers have found an employee using watsapp messenger during the working hours. The employee relations executive has found that the worker is using watsapp to interact with the service providers of the company. In fact the worker was engaged in the job related communication, but the current company policy do not allow the use of smart phone. The employee relations executive has to resolve his issue either by becoming rigorous in implementing the policies or should the policies in favor of use of smart phones.
2. It is mandatory for all organizations to treat their employees with dignity and respect. Acts of unfair treatment is denounced by most legislation. Every company also must ensure that all employees are treating each other with fairness and respect. There are two reasons for the fair treatment of the employees; one is to enable the employees to perform their best and second is to protect the individual rights to be free from harm and humiliation. Only if the employees feel that they are treated with fairness and respect they will have organizational commitment. A couple of examples of unfair treatment are mentioned below. a. Paying different salaries and incentives to equally-qualified employees, b. Denying the use of company facilities to a set of employees.
3. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent regulatory agency that focuses on enforcing the National Labor Relations Act. The Act protects the rights of employees working in private sector i.e. the employees have the right to organize or form groups to bargain with the employers regarding their wages and working conditions. It also monitors labor practices of private sector employers and unions; any unfair labor practice will be handled with rigor.

The NLRB receives more than twenty five thousand cases related to unfair labor practice. Any issue can be brought under unfair labor practice depending on context. For example, one of the employees has complained that the employer has imposed a demand to learn a new language, which was not part of the employment contract.

1. Employees sometimes conduct strike protesting an unfair labor practice. Such strikes are called unfair labor practice strike. Employees who protest about an unfair labor practice strike cannot be discharged from duty or be permanently replaced with another employee. Some common examples of unfair labor practice strike include failure to pay the earned overtime, firing a disabled person, treating employees differently, introduction of unfair policies, etc.