Question

It has generally been agreed that the increased use of the seniority concept in industrial relations has lessened the degree of mobility among workers. What can be said both for and against such a consequence?

Answer 1

In case of Industrial relations, seniority can be seen as a system which is used to designate the status of employees in comparison to another employee of the similar workforce so that the issues such as layoff and recall ordering and the facilitation of awards and benefits can be determined. This system can use straight seniority which can be seen as a job security acquired mainly on the basis of service length or qualified seniority which mainly involves the different factors such as ability in conjunction with the length of service.

A seniority system regulates the allocation of economic benefits to employees in an organization depending upon the number of years accumulated by an employee on the service of the organization.

As it is quite clear that, greater the number of years spent in the organization, greater will be the benefits received and considerations given to the employee. Thus seniority become the main factor as the employees want to be with the same organization for a longer period of time and thus the mobility of the manpower is reduced.

The pros of this concept are as below:-

This will help the organization to have a lower turnover ratio and thus to have a sustainable manpower.

The company is not required to spend a lot of funds on training and development and recruitment of new employees.

The learning period and thus reduction in the productivity can be overcome.

As employees are aware of the policies and bottom line of the organization, they perform better.

On the other hand, this results in the below-mentioned cons:-

As the number of years spent by the employee in the organization increases, there is a greater chance of lowered performance as the employee can think that management will not kick him out so easily

The senior members will not perform as the rewards are distributed not on the basis of performance level

The fresh ideas and fresh blood in the organization cannot be introduced

The bargaining power of the management reduces

There can be a tough rivalry between senior and junior staff.