Why is the employment relations system in the USA characterised by low Essay

Why is the employment relations system in the USA characterised by low levels of collective bargaining - Essay Example Every country have specific norms and labour policies based on which the framework of the employee relation system is designed. In USA there are three basic laws with regard to the employee relationship. They are: a) National Labour Relation Act, which is also known as the Wagner Act, b) Labour Management Relation Act, also called the Taft-Hartley Act, and c) Disclosure Act, which is called the Landrum Griffin Act. The Federal authorities throughout USA make sure that these three laws are implemented in organizations. The agency responsible for its enforcement is the National Labour Relation Board (NLRB). It is into labour management and relation assessment. The Department of Labour (DOL) is responsible for the enforcement of the other important aspects in labour relationship management laws. The major requirement for doing such activity is to ensure the democracy of the internal union and the financial accountability. Both of these regulatory bodies are responsible for ascertaining that the laws are strictly followed and organizations are working under the assistance of these stated frameworks. The private sector workforce or employees have laws set for them under the federal labour laws of the two regulatory bodies such as DOL and NLRB. It has been stated in the Commerce Clause that these regulatory bodies even have regulatory authority to control the labour or employee relations in the privately owned companies (Cahuc and Zylberberg, 2004, pp. 371–373). Traditionally, the unions were formed by skilled craftsmen to safeguard their interest in the organization. With the advent of scientific management in the organizations and industries, the rationale for collectively acting to bargain for the disbursement and working conditions among the workers increased. However, the capitalists in those times were extremely powerful and they opposed the union movement. The anti-union employment laws were even floated by them so as to dishevel the union movement of t he craftsmen. However, during the Great Depression of 1930s, the factory workers united and started forming unions. It was during this time when these unions were successful in performing many activities such as the Wagner Act of 1935, which gave the employees or workers the right to plan and organize strikes. In 1940–1950, the unions began to grow though the federal legislation controlled and monitored them from time to time. In 1960 and 1970, the unionization in the public sector increased considerably (Harcourt and Wood, 2006, pp. 141–145). The regulatory bodies in US affect the industrial and employee relation system in many ways such as: They provide the terms and conditions of the employment in details and directly. They regulate the way in which the organized labour or employees and the management are related to one another. The regulatory bodies had ascertained the minimum wage rate and the maximum working hours for the workers. The overtime rates were also asc ertained by the federal and state bodies. The concept of â€Å"employment at will† operates in US. This means that the employer would have to show no specific reason for dismissing any employee. In this scenario, the National Labour Relation Act was introduced, which provided a specific structure of policies for employee rights in relation to the collective actions. A few of the regulations also required union certification through secret ballot (OECD, 1997, pp. 86–87). In 2007, the union density in US was about 36 percent. Among this about 7.5 percent was in the private sector and the rest in the public sector. It is said that the US unions have a unique approach because they provide benefits mainly to the existing