Q (1). Explain how trade unions operate in the industry, including how they interact with employers and giving details of any recent disputes.
Trade unions have a long history of existence throughout the world. Labor unions are formed to protect labor rights as it has always been claims by the workers. The core rights of labor unions are higher pays, better benefits, safer and comfortable work environments and health benefits and other similar issues.
Most of the time trade unions have their own leadership and representatives. The trade unions work for their members and they convey the voice of those workers to the administration of an organization. The trade unions use strike as a tool to negotiate their concerns and issues with the employers. They stop working causing loss to these organizations. They strive to bring those decision makers who can address and solve their problems to the table. These strikes usually end after some sort of consensus is reached.
One more instrument that the trade unions use to bring their employers to the discussion table is collective bargaining. A collective bargaining often results from negotiations and trade unions represent the labors.
Trade unions are more powerful than they seem. They exert a tremendous influence on legislation and law making. The laws in many developed countries allows labors to form unions and join presently existing unions. Some countries may have separate laws for some industries that provide the labors protection for example in the US the agriculture, public employees, airlines and railroad employees fall into separate umbrella of laws than other industries (Hamlett, 2014).
Q (2). Give an outline of the employment legislation that affects the industry, with details of the latest equal opportunities law, and explain the role of ACAS.
The employee has the right to have the information on pay and right to know minimum national pay, Illegal deduction from wage, and right to pay slip (Adviceguide.org.uk, 2014). Similarly all the employees has the right to have pay for the work they have done. Failure to do so certainly will adversely affect the in industry (Adviceguide.org.uk, 2014).
In the UK, the equal opportunity rights of workers and other social places are protected under the Equality Act which became effective on 1st October 2010. The Equality ACT covers employment legislations that were made in the past (Gov.uk, 2013).
The legislation of the equality act cover the following aspects of employees. The Equality Act of 2010 provides protection to employees against discrimination of Race, age, ability, religion and sex (Morrisey, 2014).
ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) is public body of the Government of the UK. It came in to existence in 1974 and it has become a house hold name. ACAS workers are employment experts and this organization performs the following roles.
- ACAS has network of help lines and provides help and neutral information to any employee who has or developing work problems.
- ACAS provides conflict resolution and prevention of any hostile situation between employers and workers.
- ACAS also help settle down any complaints about employee rights before the end up in the court which is more expensive and damaging.
- ACAS holds events such as seminars where the most recent worker employer relationships are subjected to discussion. ACAS urges people to work together more effectively (ACAS Facts, n.d.).
Q (3).You need to explain which trade unions represent workers in the industry and describe the mechanisms that the employers use to engage with the unions.
There are two trade unions in event management and hospitality industry in the UK.
- Unite The Union
- Unison-the public service union
(Hse.gov.uk, 2014)
The Mechanisms of Engagement of the Employers with unions
It is quite obvious that the primary goal of a trade union is to protect the rights of workers but trade unions also look forward to build good relationships with employers. The most significant reason being that a healthy and a profitable business is good for every stakeholder including the workers and the trade union. When a business organizational steadily grows the workers that work for the business grow with it.
Collective Bargaining (Negotiation)
If an employer recognize a trade union than he probably is or he can facilitate the agreement of the trade union with the terms and conditions of the employment. Collective bargains like this should be address on time before things worse.
Informing and Consulting
As a business leader you should be consulting and informing the recognized trade union leaders or representatives about new developments in business and business policies such as buying or selling a business and employee responsibilities.
Non and Partly Unionized Workplaces
If you are a manager and you do not have a recognized union in existence or if there is a recognized union but all the workers in your work place are not its member than you may not need to inform or consult the representatives of those trade unions.
Q (4) You should conduct research into events over the past ten years which are applicable to your industry, giving both national and overseas examples where relevant.
Q (5) You should cover the Equality Act, the Employment Relations Acts, the Employment Rights Act and other legislation that is relevant to the industry.
Equality Act. There are many laws in the UK legislation that protect individuals from different forms of discrimination. The Equality Act simplifies all of these laws regarding discrimination against age, gender, religion, sexual orientation etc. These laws are simplified and put under one legislation. This legislation is called the Equality Act and came under existence in 1st October 2010 (Equality Act 2010: What do i need to know? A summary guide your rights., 2014).
Employment Relations Act. Employment Relations Act cover all the steps from employee application until the selection process and beyond. This Act is devised to facilitate healthy and prosperous relationship between employees and employer.
Employment Rights Act. This acts grant the employees some rights that are as follows,
- The employee has the right to know the detailed information about his employment.
- An employee have a right to have a paid leave of for public services (such as training and jury duty).
- The employee has a right to get a proper notice for dismissal and a proper notice period.
- An employee has a right to have a paid long leave in the case of accident, injury or pregnancy etc. (T-vox.org, 2014)
Q (6) You should explain the role of ACAS generally, but also specify how it can (and has) helped resolved disputes, giving examples from the travel and tourism sector where possible.
ACAS is an organization that generally deals with improving the employee and the employer relationship and make them more productive in a work place. ACAS also provide up-to-date information, high quality training, and solution to problem between employers and employees.
ACAS provides in many forms such as the ACAS advisors can visit office they provide consultancy and quality training on resolving issues between employees and their employers. There are many success stories in the credit of ACAS. In some cases ACAS has dramatically transformed organizational performance.
References
Hamlett, K. (2014). How Do Labor Unions Work?. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved 5 June 2014, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/labor-unions-work-2924.html
Adviceguide.org.uk,. (2014). Citizens Advice - Basic rights at work. Retrieved 5 June 2014, from http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/work_w/work_rights_at_work_e/basic_rights_at_work.htm#h_wages
Adviceguide.org.uk,. (2014). Citizens Advice - Rights to pay. Retrieved 5 June 2014, from http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/work_w/work_rights_at_work_e/rights_to_pay.htm
Gov.uk,. (2013). Equality Act 2010: guidance - Detailed guidance - GOV.UK. Retrieved 6 June 2014, from https://www.gov.uk/equality-act-2010-guidance
Morrisey, B. (2014). What are Your Employment Rights?. Aboutequalopportunities.co.uk. Retrieved 6 June 2014, from http://www.aboutequalopportunities.co.uk/employment-rights.html
ACAS Facts. (n.d.) (1st ed., p. 4)
Hse.gov.uk,. (2014). Catering - Hospitality Industry Liaison Forum. Retrieved 6 June 2014, from http://www.hse.gov.uk/catering/forum.htm
Equality Act 2010: What do i need to know? A summary guide your rights.. (2014) (1st ed., p. 1). Retrieved from www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/equlity_act_2010_overview.pdf
T-vox.org,. (2014). Employment Rights Act 1996 - T-Vox. Retrieved 6 June 2014, from http://www.t-vox.org/index.php?title=Employment_Rights_Act_1996
