Rebuilding Employment Relationships

After industrial action, conflict or redundancies, relationships between unions and employers can break down with negative implications for the organisation and its employees. Relationships can also often be strained without any industrial action taking place. Without intervention—an analysis of the problem, a joint mediation-style process, a commitment to change and/or a long-term joint change programme—the relationships are likely to continue to deteriorate, increasing the chance of a recurrence of conflict. It is important to understand the root cause of any conflict or deterioration in relationships and identify what needs to change to create a more positive employment relations environment. In this chapter we explore, via a series of case studies, what actions can be taken to rebuild relationships, the critical factors which must be in place, the barriers and obstacles and the potential impact of these approaches.