Explain the difference between industrial relation and employee

relation and describe the industrial relation in Mauritius?

The success and failure of any organization is directly proportional to the labour put by each and
every employee. The employees must share a good rapport with each other and strive hard to
realize the goal of the organization.

Employee Relation

(1) Employee relations refer to the relationship shared among the employees in an organization.
The employees must be comfortable with each other for a healthy environment at work. It is the
prime duty of the superiors and team leaders to discourage conflicts in the team and encourage a
healthy relationship among employees.

(2) An employee must try his level best to adjust with each other and compromise to his best
extent possible. An individual spends his maximum time at the workplace and his fellow workers
are the ones with whom he spends the maximum hours in a day. Conflicts and
misunderstandings only add to tensions and in turn decrease the productivity of the individual.
One needs to discuss so many things at work and needs the advice and suggestions of all to reach
to a solution which would benefit the individual as well as the organization.

(3) It is of utmost importance that employees behave with each other in a cultured way, respect
each other and learn to trust each other. An individual alone cannot achieve the company’s
objective. It is essential that all the employees share a cordial relation with each other,
understand each other’s needs and expectations and work together to accomplish the goals and
targets of the organization.

1|Page
Importance of Employee Relation

 Work becomes easy if it is shared among all. A healthy relation with your fellow workers
would ease the work load on you and in turn increases your productivity. One cannot do
everything on his own. Responsibilities must be divided among team members to
accomplish the assigned tasks within the stipulated time frame.

 An individual feels motivated in the company of others whom he can trust and fall back
on whenever needed. One feels secure and confident and thus delivers his best. An
employees need to shared his/her knowledge with their colleagues so as better ideas can
be obtained. A sense of trust is important.

 A friendly employee relation reduces the problem of absenteeism at the work place.
Individuals are more serious towards their work and feel like coming to office daily. They
do not take frequent leaves and start enjoying their work. Employees stop complaining
against each other and give their best

 A good employee relation also discourages conflicts and fights among individuals. When
there is a good employee relationship at work, conflicts and misunderstanding tend to
decrease at the workplace and all employees corporate together for the achievement of
the common goal

Industrial Relation

Industrial relations has become one of the most delicate and complex problems of modern
industrial society. Industrial progress is impossible without cooperation of labors and harmonious
2|Page
relationships. Therefore, it is in the interest of all to create and maintain good relations between
employees and employers.

The term industrial relations have a broad as well as a narrow outlook. Originally, industrial
relations were broadly defined to include the relationships and interactions between employers
and employees. From this perspective, industrial relations cover all aspects of the employment
relationship, including human resource management, employee relations, and union-management
relations. Now its meaning has become more specific and restricted. Accordingly, industrial
relations pertains to the study and practice of collective bargaining, trade unionism, and labor-
management relations, while human resource management is a separate, largely distinct field that
deals with nonunion employment relationships and the personnel practices and policies of
employers.

The relationships which arise at and out of the workplace generally include the relationships
between individual workers, the relationships between workers and their employer, the
relationships between employers, the relationships employers and workers have with the
organizations formed to promote their respective interests, and the relations between those
organizations, at all levels. Industrial relation also includes the processes through which these
relationships are expressed (such as, collective bargaining, workers’ participation in decision-
making, and grievance and dispute settlement), and the management of conflict between
employers, workers and trade unions, when it arises.

Evolution of Industrial Relation

One of the significant theories of industrial labor relations was put forth by John Dunlop in
the 1950s. According to Dunlop industrial relations system consists of three agents –

3|Page
management organizations, workers and formal/informal ways they are organized and
government agencies. These actors and their organizations are located within an
environment – defined in terms of technology, labor and product markets, and the
distribution of power in wider society as it impacts upon individuals and workplace. Within
this environment, actors interact with each other, negotiate and use economic/political
power in process of determining rules that constitute the output of the industrial relations
system. He proposed that three parties-employers, labor unions, and government- are the
key actors in a modern industrial relations system. He also argued that none of these
institutions could act in an autonomous or independent fashion. Instead they were shaped,
at least to some extent, by their market, technological and political contexts.

Thus, it can be said that industrial relation is a social sub system subject to three
environmental constraints- the markets, distribution of power in society and technology.

Dunlop's model identifies three key factors to be considered in conducting an analysis of

1. Environmental or external economic, technological, political, legal and social

2. Characteristics and interaction of the key actors in the employment relationship:

3. Rules that are derived from these interactions that govern the employment
relationship.

Dunlop emphasizes the core idea of systems by saying that the arrangements in the field
of industrial relations may be regarded as a system in the sense that each of them more or
less intimately affects each of the others so that they constitute a group of arrangements
for dealing with certain matters and are collectively responsible for certain result.

4|Page
 In effect - Industrial relations is the system which produces the rules of the workplace.
Such rules are the product of interaction between three key “actors” – workers/unions,
employers and associated organizations and government.

The Dunlop’s model gives great significance to external or environmental forces. In other
words, management, labor, and the government possess a shared ideology that defines
their roles within the relationship and provides stability to the system.

Industrial Relation in Mauritius

5|Page
Mauritius has been witnessed of major economic and social developments on a rather short scale
of time. Consequently, our economic resources were utilized in 3 major industries, namely
Sugar, Textile and Tourism Industry.

It all began when the first slaves were brought to Mauritius in 1639 from Madagascar by the
Dutch after they discovered it and decided to adopt the island. However, development was
altered by the slaves running away upon arrival and many more calamities such as cyclones and
bad harvests. In 1715, the French took possession of the island and brought slaves from the east
Africa to help mainly in sugarcane developments. From the early development of the island,
from the Dutch to the British, the main developments were based around the plantation of sugar
which later on nearing independence became the main pillar of the Mauritian economy.

Following great industrial revolution in 1950’s in the European countries, Mauritius had to
diversify its economy in order to become competitive. Moreover, proceeds from the sugar
industry decreased because of fierce competition from South American countries, that is, Brazil
and Cuba. Therefore, the Mauritian government decided to emancipate the Zone France, that is,
the Textile Industry in the early 1980’s. Huge financial help were offered to owners of factories
and also saw the emancipation of women who gained employment as machinists. This period
witnessed major changes from an industrial focused system to an employee oriented one due to
human resources development around the world. With all these developments, employment rate
increased drastically and factories like Compagnie Mauricienne de Textile (CMT) became
references in our country and dealt mostly with European countries bringing more foreign
currency to our economy.

However, during the mid 1990’s Mauritius experienced fierce competition from countries like
China and Pakistan who could produce at lower costs in terms of raw materials and labour in the
Textile Industry. Eventually, Mauritius once again had to look for a messiah industry which
gained the form of Tourism. Economists saw that we were not considerably exploiting our only
natural resources, that is, “L’or Bleue”. The Government gave loans and invited investors to
finance development of hotels where our island became a leisure icon in the Indian Ocean, well
known for its large sandy beaches and comfortable climate.

6|Page
The emancipation of a dynamic Tourism Industry created employment for many youngsters and
upgraded the image of our island around the world. Employers generated much attention
towards a motivated workforce which thus, achieved greater efficiency. After the 2000’s, the
Mauritian economy was based on 3 solid pillars, but we had to anticipate further distractions
which could be in form of competition or natural calamities. Therefore, the government decided
to make Mauritius a knowledge hub and also a Cyber island only to diversify the economy. In
line of these developments, many offshore companies were supported.

In guise of conclusion, we can see that when moving from the Sugar Industry to Tourism
Industry, employment relations also gained more attention. Employers began to consider human
resource as their most valued asset which consequently saw less and less conflicts. Trade Unions
no longer hold the same position and power as it had during 1960’s and 1970’s. The legal
framework allocated more Acts to protect employees from injustices at work. Moreover, the
local university (UoM) provided a literate workforce which contributed in the development of
the island. It can de deduced that only education can promote a better economy, that is, a better
Mauritius!

7|Page