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Industrial Relations
Your detailed review of the information system suggests that every part of it will have to be
substantially overhauled. As a newcomer, you can see quite clearly that Burke
Engineering is not acquiring and organising the range of data that it needs to control the
business, nor is it making this information available to the staff that need it. You are
inclined to suspect, for example, that poor information about the company and its plans is
partly responsible for the hostility of the shop-floor.
As MD, you have therefore introduced a programme to provide the entire workforce with
more information about company progress than had previously been available. This has
started to improve relations, but you are aware that there are many other problems that
must be resolved.
On the third Tuesday after starting work at Burke Engineering, you receive a telephone call
at 0915 from the Production Manager that the AEU, the Amalgamated Engineering Union,
was holding a works meeting at 1030 to discuss the possibility of further industrial action. If
the AEU took action, it was highly likely that the GWMU and ASTMS would also become
involved, due to the fairly close cooperation between the three unions in the firm and the
number of common issues that they have outstanding. It was not inevitable that a strike
would take place, but you were already aware from your initial information that industrial
relations were becoming more and more tense. During the previous week, realising that
the most pressing problems would need to be quickly resolved, you have made the
following notes on the situation.
Industrial relations at Burke Engineering had been particularly poor. It seemed that this is a
problem unique to the company, as other firms in the area do not generally report such
serious long term problems. Part of the difference may be accounted for in the multi union
structure of the firm and the fact that in contrast to other employers, Burke Engineering is
an old established firm, with a relatively high proportion of skilled employees. Much of the
local industry in the area is employed in assembly work for overseas manufacturers using
mainly female staff. Some of these firms had been set up with no strike agreements, and
this partly accounted for their slightly higher pay levels, while shop-floor pay levels (in
contrast to management) at Burke had fallen steadily over the past 7 years.
None of the unions involved in Burke Engineering supported the idea of no strike
agreements and though the previous managing director had considered the possibility in
correspondence with the major shareholders, they decided that it was not a viable option
with the current union and working patterns.
All the staff were however aware that there would be major forthcoming changes to
working practices and employment, as the profitability of the company steadily declined.
You were aware that rumours of takeovers and closures of particular departments had
been circulating for the last 6 months. Morale in the company on initial inspection appears
to be very low, and there was a shortage of formal and clear agreements between
management and the workforce. Absenteeism was at fairly high levels, around 7 per cent,
significantly higher than other plants in the area (around 2.5 to 3.5 per cent) and labour
turnover remained a serious problem, at around 20 per cent per annum.
This had been most acute among the younger staff who tended to move after 2 or 3 years
training to other industrial plants, either in the area, but more usually to the south of
England where significantly higher wages were available. Labour turnover was highest
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