Labour relations tone, the CEO’s job

Davies Ndumiso Sibanda, Labour Matters

MANY organisations are known for bad labour relations management and are characterised by frequent conflict with employees reflecting badly on the chief executive’s leadership style.

After the infamous Marikana incident in South Africa, many organisations today hire only chief executives with a good track record in labour relations management as it is now widely accepted that labour relations management is ultimately the chief executive’s responsibility.

No matter how good and skilled the human resources manager is in labour relations, if the chief executive is unable to thread effective labour relations

management into the organisation’s strategic plan, then the organisation will fail.

Where the chief executive is failing to manage labour relations, workers don’t meet targets, there is frequent conflict between supervisors and managers, there are frequent disciplinary and grievance cases, employee absenteeism is high, workers committee members are not employees, the trade union is hated, workers committee members are seen as a nuisance and a manager who stands for his workers is labelled a weakling or called the “workers committee” chairman and many others.

In the majority of cases, the moment the chief executive runs with the legal department instead of human resources on labour matters, usually the results are that an inhuman environment is created where workers are not viewed as human beings but seen as tools to do work just like shovels or tractors as very few legal people are able to clothe legal advice with a face.

This usually results in a highly impersonal organisation run on rules and policies devoid of people management principles.

Not long ago, I was assisting a union put together a position paper in preparation for wage negotiations. I was surprised by the amount of input the union was getting from managerial employees and from NEC member organisations. I asked why managerial employees would

provide the union with information that would tilt scales against the employers at negotiations and they said that in most companies top management treats managerial employees the same way as non-managerial employees and what is given to unionised workers is extended to managerial employees.

When the above happens to an organisation, it is clear that the chief executive has failed to provide leadership that brings managerial employees near him and the result is that performance standards drop as managerial employees see the non-managerial employees as kings who determine their salaries, benefits and conditions of service.

Successful organisations have chief executives who have well capacitated human resources teams with all in senior management trained in strategic labour relations management irrespective of the discipline they lead. That way all senior managers understand the value of effective labour relations management in the achievement of organisational goals and ensuring employee satisfaction.

In conclusion, unless the chief executive understands and threads effective labour relations into the strategic plan, it is very difficult for the organisation to meet set goals.

-Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on: Email: [email protected].