Trade Unions

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What is a Trade Union?

Trade unions are organizations of workers that seek through collective bargaining with employers to:

·       Protect and improve the real incomes of their members

·       Provide or improve job security

·       Protect workers against unfair dismissal and other issues relating to employment legislation

·       Lobby for better working conditions

·       Offer a range of other work-related services including support for people claiming compensation for injuries sustained in a job.(International labor Organization, 2017)

Trade unions, also referred to as labor unions, organizations of employees in a specific trade, industry or business created by collective bargaining for the purpose of enhancing wages, benefits, working conditions or social and political status (Perera, 2016).

Modern Developments

The evolution of Human Resource Management has meant that the corporate culture has changed. Schemes used in this technique, such as career enrichment, job rotation and multi-skilling, have all helped to give the working class greater participation. The fall in trade union membership is directly affected by this approach. It has also made it more difficult for labor unions to represent the workers by using performance-related wages and replacing collective contract arrangements with individual contracts as they are increasingly subject to different terms of employment(Sri Lanka Labor Force Statistics, 2017).

Unionism usually loses some of its appeal in periods of full employment and increasing incomes, especially among younger workers, while it becomes more appealing in recessionary times. The globalization of the labor market had brought new challenges to the labor movement by the end of the 20th century, essentially undermining collective bargaining in industries whose workers could be replaced in a different part of the world by a cheaper labor force (Perera, 2016).

Conclusion

In conjunction with the emergence of a service economy and precarious work, technology and automation are changing the way society is currently organized around work. In certain types of low-paid employment, it is already directly impacting workers, but people in generally secure white-collar occupations, such as accountancy, will also soon begin to see changes in their working lives.

In addition, the modern labor union of the 21st century will help shape the way technology and automation are used in our workplaces, champion decisions that empower workers, increase demand for human capabilities and improve productivity.

References

International labor Organization, 2017. Labor migration in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ilo.org/colombo/areasofwork/labour-migration/lang--en/index.htm
[Accessed 02  Dec 2020].

 

Perera, A., 2016. Women’s Labor Force Participation In Sri Lanka, s.l.: The Sunday Leader.

 

Sri Lanka Labor Force Statistics, 2017. Statistics.gov. [Online]
Available at: http://www.statistics.gov.lk/samplesurvey/LFS_Q1_Bulletin_WEB_2017_final.pdf
[Accessed 02 Dec 2020].