The role of the trade unions
The purpose of the following essay is to demonstrate the various ideas about the trade unions on the international basis. The trade unions are indeed very important factors for the employment relations. The comparative discussions will have to be made in the background of the employment relations between South Korea and Japan. The different issues that can be discussed in this light are the major roles of the trade unions. The trade unions are really very important to run the organization smoothly and establish the rights of the employees in the best ways. There are certain aspects of the employment relations like the monthly wages, sick leaves, relations between the employers and the employees, the collective relations, the cultures of the companies and the various issues related to this. As per, Ahmadjian and Robinson(2001), the companies always have tomaintain the employment relations of the particular countries as well. The trade unions look after the employee rights and make sure that all the employees get all the benefits and facilities from the organizations. They look after the labor disputes and grievance procedures for the organizations as well. It is the trade unions who work laboriously to let the employees have all their rights to work in the organization. The representatives of the union make the collective bargaining as well.
One of the major roles of the organizations is the collective bargaining process for the employees. It has been observed that many disputes come up within the organizations as the employers do not maintain or obey all the legislations of the employment relations of the countries. Therefore, Bullock, Stritch and Rainey(2015), opines that it becomes very much evident for the trade unions to interfere and save the rights of the employees. The employees will have to be secured by the trade unions. The trade unions should work as the go between the employers and the employees. It is believed that the leaders of the trade unions are very much experienced in solving the different issues and problems. The trade unions always believe that the solutions should be put in such a way that both the sides should feel that they have achieved something great(Cole2013). The purpose of the trade unions is mainly to decrease the turnover rate of the organizations. The working hours, leaves and wages are the most important things in the case of the trade unions.
The first important issue in this context is that of the trade unions is to discuss about the role of the trade unions in South Korea. According to the experts, the trade unions are very integral in the Asian countries since the people in Asia follow the collectivism culture. This is why it will be extremely important to note that the trade unions play a major role in the private and Government organizations in South Korea (Cooke and Jiang 2017).
The role of trade unions in South Korea
The labor politics has a very special place in the background of South Korea indeed. The organizations have always looked upon engaging the authoritarian labor. This is why the rights of the employees have been threatened here altogether. As informed by Freeman,(2017), the different organizations and the government also have implemented different policies that has not helped the employees at al. This is why it has been very much important for them to look after the various issues within the organizations. However, this has yielded good points as well since the economic growth of the country has been aggravated because of these things. The main reason behind this economic growth was mainly the hard labor of the South Korean workers.
The workers had been reportedly mistreated and this had been a major reason for the organizations and the state to be focused because of the conflicts and disputes. Thus it can be said that the authoritarian labor has been a major issue in terms of the Asian countries. The trade unions possessed the political control in the countries. As per the views of Gooberman(2017), some of the issues that have been caught in discussing the role of the trade unions in the country are working conditions at the workplace, negotiations on the wages and unfair practice in engaging the labors. The security of the workers had been overlooked completely.
This is why the trade unions had to come to the scene to save the rights of the employees. There are some codes in the international labor relations that should be maintained all the time. Another important thing that took place in the scenario is that of the frequent strikes called by the trade unions. The national security had been in practice at some point of time but later it had been abolished by the trade unions since many workers of the unions had gone against the laws and violated them (Hopewell 2015). The security personnel began to go away from the different industrial parks and big size factories.
The trade unions had also been very much active in the different areas in Japan. As the experts have said that the trade unions had played a major role in shaping up the business scenario in the country. Japan is considered to be a leading country in the technological advancement. On the contrary to Korea, the trade unions had very often played the positive role as well. The nation is very much advanced in industrialization. Japan has performed very well in spite of the different hurdles in terms of the economic recessions in the 1990s (Hur, Moon and Jung 2015). In stark contrast to that of the South Korean model, the trade unions in Japan are definitely unique. The trade unions in different countries including South Korea have interrupted the flow of work but in Japan, the trade unions had completely played a pivotal role in shaping up the industries. The trade unions on Japan are generally formed within the boundaries of one firm only. These firms are generally called the enterprise firms. The industrial relations in Japan are very much cooperative and this has catered to the unified business in the country. It is a great matter that the job security in the country has been very high (Jung and Yoon 2015). The industrial relations system within the country is very much different from South Korea. The system in Japan is generally based on three segments namely enterprise unionism, lifetime employment and wages based on the seniority of the employees. The job security in the Japanese organizations has attracted the people to work in the organizations for decades now. If the employees are dedicated to work for the company they will receive the lifelong employment opportunities. The Japanese trade relations regulations are strictly against the sacking of the employees. The model of trade unionism in Japan pertains to corporate standards of collaboration and inflicts a co-operative working relations among the workers and the unions (Jung and Yoon 2016). The co-operation exists at both enterprise level and in the long term relationships of employment. This multi-faceted model of unionism in Japan began to gain shape after the 1950s when a strife torn period began to continue following the democratization of the Japanese government.
The role of trade unions in Japan
Labor movement and unionization peaked in Japan during the 1949 when 49% of the organizations and the enterprises had a trade union at an enterprise level and this unionization of labor have a significant contribution to the economic boon accomplished by Japan during the 1970s (Kong 2014). However, the model of unionism in Japan began to slacken after the 1970s when globalization gradually started to step foot in the organizational models. Primarily identified outcomes that gave consequence to this decline are the shift of industrialization towards service sector, reduced acceptability the labor and lack of representations of the workers in the unions and increased affinity of the trade unions with political structures.
The position of employee relationship in Korea is different from that in Japan. On one hand Japan saw the development of trade unions upholding employment rights since the 1960s, and on the other, Korea witnessed strict intervention of the government in the service sector in the time period from 1962 to 1980 approximately (Kraakman and Hansmann 2017). The employees in the service sector of Korea had attempted to form impactful unions to highlight their rights and grievances. However, the authoritarian position of the government nullified the trade unions and employee forums most often. Since 1970s, the scenario began to change (Moore and Jennings 2017). This year is a period of high contrast for Japan and Korea in this context.
The trade unionism that have effectively developed as a culture in Japan showed its significant contribution in the economic development of the country. However since 1970, the trade unions began to slacken. The government gradually segregated the private service sector and the private public sector began to be gradually crowded with potential global companies with high end economy. On the contrary, in South Korea, the trade unions began to grow in significance since 1970s. Initially they did not grow in prominence, but the memberships began to increase in number in various trade unions. Ultimately took place, the famous Labor Struggle of 1987 (O’riordan and Fairbrass 2018). As an outcome of this struggle, the government recognized the supremacy of the trade unions and their expertise to handle workplace issues and motivate the employees and ensure the deliverance of organizational outcomes. Unions in various business organizations seized the sales domain and racked the businesses and thereby forced the employers to increase the minimum wages. Not only that, the workers’ demands of development of workplace conditions and introduction of welfare schemes for the employees were also granted by the employers.
Sustainability model in the Employee union-ship in Korea
The scenario of trade unions began to change since the 1990s. The government’s changed Wage policy mitigated many of the issue because of which the employees had joined or supported the trade unions and hence their importance began to reduce. Other than that, trade unions had become militant also. They were no more simple platforms for the upliftment of the voices of the workers. They were now autocratic, deciding employment policies and in fact many of the employees were now having issue with the policies they were thrust upon by the unions. Until the communist bloc had been leading the unions, the employee welfare activities were on the right track. However, Olcott and Oliver(2014) states that after the collapse of the communist bloc, the trade unions took the complexion of pressure groups in many cases, demanding funding and other advantages from the employees and this made potential employees groups to turn against them. In Japan, a similar scenario had already emerged owing to the emergence of the model of Lifetime Employment. The employees were now no more concerned with wage issue or other allowances. Rather it was evident that most of the organizations after the swept of the economic reform of the 1970s and the increasing trend of globalization, were giving competitive living wages. The added advantages that the employees received in the organizations made them aligned to the organizational goals. They were now more loyal to the companies and hence the strings of the employees detached from the employee unions. The employees in the service sector of the country were not more concerned with the competitive position of the organization where they worked (Pendleton 2016).
The recruitment structure of the organizations also changed. Previously the unemployed or jobless or employees in mid-career were employed by the companies. However, the workforce began to become more disciplined when they concentrated on selecting employees based on their raw merits. They now recruited school leaving candidates or graduates and with training helped them to handle organizational positions. Other than training, appraisals and other performance management systems were now followed by the companies and this is why the employees as well as the employers both focused on long term employment and lifelong employment models. South Korea on the other hand was witnessing a pressure from the globalized companies, whereby the more competent organizations employed the most reputed candidates at competitive levels and thus the other organizations of the corporate level faced acute shortage of talents. As per Tilly (2017), this created a crisis in the national service sector and as a response to this model, the government formed the Social Dialogue framework by virtueof which a tripartite front was formed consisting government representatives, employers and the employee and trade unions.
The government decided to change the employment policy in 1994 and the new policy was a major hindrance before potential candidates to join corporations as they wished. This followed ample number of strikes in the labor market and anti-government protests. Finally the government changed the policy in 1997. Naturally recession in the governmental service sector was a natural outcome of the industrial conflict in which the companies engaged themselves. In the meantime, The Korean federation for trade unions went out of the tripartite treaty of the government and the working environment in the country became more complicated with polarization taking place. As per Kim and Van Der Westhuizen(2018), the non-standard employees in the country received wages at sub-par level, whereas the regular employees accepted much higher wages. The stature of the labor unions have changed nowadays. The enterprise level of labor unions have gradually dissolved as the employees in that sector are dedicated and receive perfect working conditions and lucrative wages. On the contrary, the then emergent and currently established labor fronts have formed community level unions and they now generally highlight the accumulative demands of the nonstandard workers surviving in the industry. Three primary community based labor fronts are now predominant in the country. They are Employers Federation of Korea, The Chamber of Industry and commerce in Korea, as also The Korean Industrial federation.
After the break-up of the tripartite collateral campaign, the government is now the major recruiter of the service sector in Korea, followed by the private sector dominated by the multinational companies. As per Johnson(2014), the SMEs and emerging firms, nowadays operate under the ordinance of the Ministry of labor and the Labor Standards Act is to be followed by all the companies operating in the country. Organization of business firms in Japan have always been standardized in order to ensure smooth management in the Japanese corporations, Nikkeiren, the employer’s association was being formed in Japan and in 2002 it joined hands with the newly formed Keidanren, to form the Nihon Keidanren, and unified business for companies in the whole of Japan. The labour organisation also became more organised in their demands when the employment opportunities in the country increased and the MNCs dominated the private sector. There is one big contrast between the employment relations in Japan and South Korea.
As informed by Fleckenstein and Lee(2017), every year, the Shunto conference is held in the months of Spring when the Nihon Keidanren sits in discussion with the employers to decide how better employment conditions as well as smooth operational structure in the companies can be maintained. In this context, the three factors that are discussed are the ways to keep stability in the demand and supply in the labour markets, stability of consumer prices and business conditions (Witt 2014). The conference also includes a section where the payroll of the average organisations are considered and considered the national standards they are revised and labour fronts at enterprise and community level makes contract to operate smoothly and help towards reducing lock-outs and strikes so that economic improvement of the country is possible.
Conclusion
Analysing the employment conditions in Japan and South Korea it can be evidently concluded that Japanese companies have flourished at international level greatly, often at the cost of domestic loss. This is because of the growing demand of skilled workers from global firms of the neighbouring countries. However, the labour market of Korea have hugely expanded. The national business front in Japan have controlled the employment conditions mainly, but in Korea employment unions have worked towards accommodating potential companies and developing talent pools so that the majority of the employees of the organised sector gets living wages. In spite of that labour fronts exist as generalised community platforms and upholds the grievances of the nonstandard ad the SME workers.
Reference List
Ahmadjian, C.L. and Robinson, P., 2014. Safety in numbers: Downsizing and the deinstitutionalization of permanent employment in Japan. Administrative science quarterly, 46(4), pp.622-654.
Bullock, J.B., Stritch, J.M. and Rainey, H.G., 2015. International comparison of public and private employees’ work motives, attitudes, and perceived rewards. Public Administration Review, 75(3), pp.479-489.
Cole, R.E., 2013. Functional alternatives and economic development: An empirical example of permanent employment in Japan. American Sociological Review, pp.424-438.
Cooke, F.L. and Jiang, Y., 2017. The growth of non?standard employment in Japan and South Korea: the role of institutional actors and impact on workers and the labour market. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 55(2), pp.155-176.
Fleckenstein, T. and Lee, S.C., 2017. The politics of labor market reform in coordinated welfare capitalism: comparing Sweden, Germany, and South Korea. World Politics, 69(1), pp.144-183.
Freeman, R.B., 2017. Searching for the EU social dialogue model. In Social Pacts, Employment and Growth (pp. 221-238). Physica-Verlag HD.
Gooberman, L., 2017. International and Comparative Employment Relations: National Regulation, Global Changes by Bamber, GJ, Lansbury, RD, Wailes, N., & Wright, CF (Eds.).
Hopewell, K., 2015. Different paths to power: The rise of Brazil, India and China at the World Trade Organization. Review of International Political Economy, 22(2), pp.311-338.
Hur, W.M., Moon, T.W. and Jung, Y.S., 2015. Customer response to employee emotional labor: the structural relationship between emotional labor, job satisfaction, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Services Marketing, 29(1), pp.71-80.
Johnson, R.C., 2014. Five facts about value-added exports and implications for macroeconomics and trade research. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 28(2), pp.119-42.
Jung, H.S. and Yoon, H.H., 2015. Understanding pay satisfaction: The impacts of pay satisfaction on employees’ job engagement and withdrawal in deluxe hotel. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 48, pp.22-26.
Jung, H.S. and Yoon, H.H., 2016. What does work meaning to hospitality employees? The effects of meaningful work on employees’ organizational commitment: The mediating role of job engagement. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 53, pp.59-68.
Kim, Y. and Van Der Westhuizen, J., 2018. Corporatism as a Crisis Response to Democratisation? Comparing the Rise and Fall of Corporatism in South Korea and South Africa. Politikon, 45(2), pp.291-308.
Kong, T.Y., 2014. Neo-liberalization and incorporation in advanced newly industrialized countries: A view from South Korea. Political Studies, 52(1), pp.19-42.
Kraakman, R. and Hansmann, H., 2017. The end of history for corporate law. In Corporate Governance (pp. 49-78). Gower.
Moore, L.F. and Jennings, P.D. eds., 2017. Human resource management on the Pacific Rim: Institutions, practices, and attitudes (Vol. 60). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
O’riordan, L. and Fairbrass, J., 2018. Corporate social responsibility (CSR): Models and theories in stakeholder dialogue. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(4), pp.745-758.
Olcott, G. and Oliver, N., 2014. The impact of foreign ownership on gender and employment relations in large Japanese companies. Work, employment and society, 28(2), pp.206-224.
Pendleton, A., 2016. Ownership, Financialisation, and Employment Relations: Employment, Industrial Relations, and HRM in Stock-Market Listed Firms.
Tilly, C., 2017. From mobilization to revolution. In Collective Violence, Contentious Politics, and Social Change (pp. 71-91). Gower.
Witt, M.A., 2014. South Korea: Plutocratic state-led capitalism reconfiguring, 19(6), pp.1-18.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
