21, How to manage a labour union and is it possible to avoid the formation of a union

The newsletter on Human Resource expert opinion, for the Indian context

Worker unions or employee unions is something which we assume to be a very dangerous topic to talk about, a very stressful thing to have in an organisation, and a very troublesome thing to know that a union has been established in an organisation.

But the fact of the matter is, a union, whether you have it for employees or workers, is a group of individuals, is a group of people coming together and saying that we are going to work in a certain fashion, or we want certain negotiations, certain benefits, certain way of treating us to be done.

So, rather than focusing a lot on trying to ensure that a union is not established in an organization, we would recommend, that an organisation can ensure that a union, irrespective of whether it is established or not established, works towards enhancing the organisation benefit rather than making sure that the organisation sees a dip or an organisation sees some kind of a constraint.

Any group of individuals who form a union or form any collective, form with the basic assumption that the working conditions and the working benefits should be reasonably distributed.

Let us not talk about industrial espionage. That is a separate topic. If a union is working or a group of workers is working as a result of industrial espionage, then that's a separate topic.

For collectives or groups of people working as a union or as a group to enforce some kind of benefit from the organisation, then it works on certain principles.

And the principle is, is the organisation fair in dealing with us?

Therefore, we start with the basic premise of when you start your organisation right at the root, at the base, you start imbibing the culture of fairness and trust in the culture at that stage. Something we start on cannot be changed so quickly.

In terms of having a wonderful organization culture, you start at the basics and you start ensuring that kind of a culture is built, which is full of trust and fairness.

That also brings in the second aspect which is necessary, which is of having a very robust and a transparent performance management system. If a robust and a strong performance management system exists in an organisation, dealing with under-performers is a very, very transactional activity and a very fair and a transparent activity.

Therefore, any individual, if they can clearly see transparency and fairness in performance appraisal, and the repercussions it brings in, will not be able to have a collective which can then put the organisation on a negative footing or a defending situation.

The third and the most important aspect is employee communication. If, as an organisation, we can have employee communication, which is structured and which is sharing what is necessary to be shared rather than relying on grapevine, then you have built the three strong pillars of ensuring a strong organisation, which does not need to depend on collective forces to bring about change.

Because you have given a system which can bring about change for the benefit of both sides by having a wonderful culture, which is on transparency and fairness and trust. You have built out a performance management, which ensures that there is a good amount of discussion happening and then having a reward or a punishment as a result of the performance management. And the third, you have built a strong communication system.

So, will it ensure that you do not have a union?

No, the fact of the matter is, as time progresses, you will have a union. Initially, any organisation can succeed by not having a union. Eventually, you will have an unregistered union or a collective or a group of people who will be friends and then a collective, and then they will eventually have a registered union. And then, we will see that the union starts actually bargaining. So it is a matter of time that a union will eventually be established.

So how do you make sure that you live with that?

The effort should be on ensuring you have a trustworthy culture, you have a strong performance management system, and you have a strong communication system. If these three things are in place, irrespective whether you have a union or not, your organisation will grow positively, and you will be able to manage the group of employees fairly reasonably, and in a fairly structured manner without having an implication or an negative impact on the organisation or the deliverables of the organisation.

India HR Guide is aimed at discussing and shedding light on aspects in a crisp manner that organisations in India follow in the area of Human Resources. It is aimed at CEO's, MD's and line managers to understand how various aspects of Human Resources can help shape their organisations journey in India. Our industry leading expert, Mandeep Singh, offers years of accumulated knowledge from having advised clients across sectors, and spread across the remotest corner of the country. Let's make the workplace, a better place.

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