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1998 water front dispute:how it could be avoided
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Introduction Waterfront dispute is one of the biggest and the most important disputes in the history of Australia. The waterfront dispute of 1998 was an incredible tale of legal drama, violent confrontation, strange alliances, betrayals, family difference and nefarious deceit. The stakes were high: the economic viability of the company at the centre of the dispute, Patrick Stevedores, was at risk; the government was pursuing a cornerstone of its labour market reform and the breaking of unionisation on the docks; the Maritime Union of Australia and it’s supporter’s, were fighting for survival and the principle of freedom of association: the right to join a union and not be sacked for it. Everyone involved in this dispute faced problems. This dramatic battel between MUA and Patrick Stevedores represented the first major trial of strength between government and the unions. As said by Tom Sheridan “History is important in understanding labour relations, particularly in those singular industries, notably coal mining and stevedoring, which often seem to challenge the old saw that if we forget history we will be condemned to repeat it again”, it is important that if we don’t remember what had happened and repeat it again we will responsible for another waterfront dispute in the future. This dispute was not unavoidable. It could have been avoided if proper steps were taken to make it easier for both the parties to solve the dispute without dissolving personal interest of both the parties, in such a way that everyone gains something out of it rather than everyone loosing, like how it happened where the employees lost their jobs, employers a lot of money and the unions and government faced lots of problems. Some of the most important steps that could have helped are the proper human resource management practices by the stevedoring industry. If stevedoring industry would have taken proper steps and used proper human recourse practices it could have avoided lots of problems that it faced. Role of Human Resource Managers to Avoid 1998 Waterfront Dispute In today’s world Human Resource Manager play a very important role in industries. They have many jobs like recruiting, human resource planning, job analysis and design, selection and placement and many more. In waterfront dispute stevedoring industry could have used proper human resource management practices and with the help of human resource managers could have avoided the dispute. Here some of the points the managers could have concentrate in order to avoid the dispute are: 1. Managing Change 2. Handling Workplace Grievances And Disciplining Employees 3. Development; Training & Career Managing Change: “Managing change means managing peoples fear. Change is natural and good, but people's reaction to change is unpredictable and irrational. It can be managed if done right”. Human resource mangers duty is to manage this change and let the employees feel comfortable and accept the change. Employees are usually feared of this change, they usually have negative attitude and perception towards change. They have different fears like losing their jobs, their status or their social security, afraid of a higher workload and many more. The first effect of change on employees is negative these effects include fear, stress, frustration and denial of change. They are afraid of loosing something as they have incomplete information on how the change process is going to effect their personal situation in the terms of task, workload or responsibilities. Sometimes in changes there are job cuts and people who survive these cuts may also have negative attitude like feeling guilty because they still have the job while others became unemployed and other things which causes stress and thus lead to inefficient and ineffective work which will lead to lesser productivity of the company. The managers need to keep all these in mind and try to achieve positive results and handle the change effectively.
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