Employment Relations

            The employment relationship is a central concept within the workplace and consists of a number of actors, all of whom play an integral role. This essay will focus on primarily on Management and the Employer as a single entity and demonstrate it's clear importance in the relationship. The roles of each of the key actors needs to be defined to provide a background to the paper so that the issue of whether one role is any more important than the other can be discussed.
             Employees/Unions includes employees who are the workforce employed by management to do the work. The unions are the representatives of the employees in negotiations with management over work place issues.
             Management/Employers includes the management structure that is appointed by the Employer from CEO to first line supervisor. Employers are represented by management in the workplace to ensure the organisations success. .
             Finally the state plays the role of legislator /mediator. The state puts in place laws and regulations to ensure the workplace and or the business is attending to those issues which society considers being for the common good. In the work/ business environment this includes issues relating to safety and fairness, the environment, the taxation system, competition and consumers. .
             Each of these actors plays a separate role in the employment relationship however the question focuses on whether or not a particular role is more important than another. .
             "The employment relationship is characterised by a struggle for controls over the content of work itself" (Keenoy & Kelly, 1996:73). The struggle for how much work is to be done? And how much work is being done? Are the questions being consistently asked in our workplaces. It is up to management to come to an agreement with employees in order for these questions to be answered. The ambiguities surrounding the range of tasks included in any given job and over how much 'effort' can be expected are often matters for negotiation between employer and employee after the contract of employment has been signed (Keenoy & Kelly, 1996).