1

Theories of Employee Relations

Unitary Pluralist Marxist
Assumptions • Capitalist society • Post-capitalist society • Capitalist
• Integrated group of people • Coalescence of sectional • Division of labour and capital
• Common values, interests groups • Imbalance and inequalities in society
and objectives • Different values, interests (power, economic, wealth, etc.)
and objectives
Nature of conflict • Single authority and • Competitive authority and • Inherent in economic and social systems
loyalty structure loyalty structures (formal • Disorder precursor to change
(management's) and informal)
• Irrational and frictional • Inevitable, rational and
structural
Resolution of • Coercion • Compromise and • Change Society
conflict agreement
Role of trade • Intrusion from outside • Legitimate • Employee response to capitalism
unions • Historical anachronism • Internal and integral to • Expression and mobilisation of class
• Only accepted in economic work organisation consciousness
relations (if forced) • Accepted role in both • Develop political awareness and activity
economic and managerial
relations
Extracted from M.Salamon (1998)

2
 Employee Relations and Theoretical Interpretation
Definition:

M.Salamon (1998)

" a set of phenomena, operating both inside and outside the workplace, concerned with
determining and regulating employment relationship"

Limitations of the core theories

Unitary

• Fails to recognise existence of differing interests between management and labour.

• Reliance on communication to disseminate management's objectives and limit existence
of countervailing force.
• Dismissal or the law as means to quash persisting conflicts.
• Difficult to establish a clear corporate culture that will integrate all subcultures.

Pluralist

• Believes in existence of democracy that ensures recognition of individual rights.

• Assumes institutions of democracy operate to resolve differences between management
and labour.
• Relies on existence of common set of rules and procedures guiding subsequent
behaviour in workplace.
• Views the different parties in ER as possessing equivalent power and influence,
competing for power with similar levels of influence.
• Relies on the power and success of negotiation and bargaining to overcome fundamental
differences between management and labour.
• Fails to reveal the inbuilt biases and inequalities of the structures of modern capitalism
institutions.

Marxist

• Concentrate on the structure of capitalism and fails to address some of the inbuilt
assumptions about those structures, i.e doesn't encompass female views about modern
work.
• Unlike other theories, does not believe in consensus based upon shared interests.

3
Employment Relations framework (Institute of
Personnel Development)

People Positive
Management psychological Commitment
practices contract Productivity

• Job design • Trust Motivation

• Skills • Fairness
Profitability
development • Delivery of the Willing contribution
• Involvement deal
climate
Satisfaction Agility
Organisation
culture supportive
to employees

Extracted from "Employment relations into the 21st Century: an IPD position paper" - IPD

"Good people management practices, a positive psychological contract and a

supportive organisational culture lead to commitment, job satisfaction and a
willing contribution from employees. These characteristics positively feed
through to higher productivity and profitability."

Partnership
Formal agreements for long term relationships based on cooperation rather than
adversarialism.

A. Principles of partnership at the workplace according to the TUC (1999) in the Partners
for Progress document:

1. Commitment to the success of the organisation

Successful partnerships are based on shared understanding of, and commitment to, the
business goals of the organisation and to its lasting success.

2. Recognising legitimate interests

Recognises that differences of interests will occur in partnership firms, and suggests that it is
through the recognition of such differences, and their resolution, that long-term trust can be
built.

4
3. Commitment to employment security

Effective partnership-based approaches address flexibility of employment but must not at the
expense of security of employment. Hence the need for measures that enhance employment
security and employability.

4. A focus on the quality of working life

Effective partnerships should deliver something concrete by emphasising measures that

improve personal development and growth.

5. Transparency

Involvement and communication at work through a real sharing of information about the
future business plans and genuine consultation over workplace change.

6. Adding value

Tapping into sources of motivation and commitment and/or resources that were not accessed
by previous arrangements. Emphasis is placed on the value added benefits of training and
development, both in terms of skill acquisition and skill deployment.

B. The Involvement and Participation Association (IPA) established relevant benchmarks

for partnership, emphasising:

• Commitment to business success

• Employment security
• Employee voice
• Sharing the success of the organisation with all employees
• Training and development
• Flexible job design and direct participation

5
 Employee Participation and Involvement

Industrial democracy (or workers’ control)

A sociopolitical concept or philosophy of industrial organisation which focuses on the
introduction of democratic procedures to restructure the industrial power and authority
relationships within organisations.

A system is created which involves ‘the determination by the whole labour force of the
nature, methods and indeed purpose of production’.

Central objective is to establish employee self management within an organisation where

ownership is vested in either the employees or the state and where managerial function is
exercised ultimately through a group, elected by the employees themselves, which has the
authority over all decisions of the organisation, including the allocation of ‘profits’between
extra wages and reinvestment.

Participation

Hyman and Mason:

State initiatives which promote the collective rights of employees to be represented in

organisational decision making, or to the consequence of the efforts of employees themselves
to establish collective representation in corporate decisions, possibly in the face of employee
resistance. (collective bargaining, work councils, worker directors, etc.)

IPD:

… indirect influence on decisions affecting the wider organisation usually takes place in
indirect consultative systems such as works councils or joint consultation committees.

Reasons for introducing participation

• Moral – ideological belief in the right of employees to participate in decisions which

affect them.
• Power – pragmatic reaction by management to the employees’ collective power within
the organisation.
• Union – direct union activity which pushes management towards greater participation.
• Political – policy and legislation from the political system for organisations to adopt more
participative management arrangements.

Involvement

IPD:

…direct involvement in the job, and the way in which work is organised, includes job design,
quality circles and team working, iteration of management thinking and policy and process
development.

6
Salamon:

‘the means used to harness the talents and cooperation of workforce in the common interests
they share with management’, ‘any activity which helps to release the full potential of people
at work’ and ‘a range of processes designed to engage the support, understanding, optimum
contribution of all employees in an organisation and their commitment to its objectives’

Mechanisms introduced under the heading of ‘involvement’

• Empowerment
• Teamworking
• Briefing groups
• Quality circles

Measures introduced by management in order to:

• Optimise the utilisation of labour

• Improve organisational quality and flexibility
• Secure the employee’s identification with and
• Commitment to the aims and needs of the organisation

Classification and types of EPI

Classification Type
Workers’ control Worker self-managed cooperatives
Representative participation Collective bargaining
Worker directors
Representative consultation Joint industrial councils
Joint consultative committees Works
councils
Financial Participation Profit sharing
Employee share ownership
Unit wide bonus schemes
Task-based involvement Quality circles
Teamworking
Total quality management
Suggestion schemes
Customer care programmes
Non-representative consultation Attitude surveys
Communicative involvement Team briefing
Company journal/newspaper
Employee reports
Videos

7
EPI in practice

1. Communicative involvement

• House journals

One of the most popular downward form of communication.

Use to reinforce company culture or convey in a favourable light changes required in working
practices.

Involve employees by providing for worker representations and column space for employees
to air their views without undue editorial interference.

Publication of state of companies finances in a company report, for internal consumption,

with the view that ‘opening the books’ will improve employee commitment to the
organisation. Danger is employee’s perception when company is doing badly = management
practising ‘creative accounting’, company is performing well = demand greater share of
prosperity.

• Team briefing

A system of communication involving line managers disseminating information, approved

by top management, to the workforce on a regular basis.

Objectives:

To advance employee commitment

Improve efficiency
Control the information airways
Gain acceptance of change
Give more weight to line manager’s role
Improve middle management commitment

2. Non-representative communication

• Attitude surveys

Opinion surveys used to test employees’ views on a wide range of issues including job
satisfaction, job specifications and the organisation and management of the company.

Opinions or problems uncovered by surveys can provide an important source of information

in the formulation of policy, but employees need to see that their views can actually
influence decision making.

8
3. Task centred involvement

• Total quality management

Assumes unitarist employee relations culture, is customer driven, with a flatter management
structure and commitment from all employees to forge a new quality culture base on
continuous improvement.

To work successfully TQM has to be driven from top of the organisation down and it will
take several years to become fully established. EI not extending operational task levels or
holding employee interest and commitment, given that managers’ powers are enhanced first
before empowerment trickles downwards.

No real evidence to suggest that TQM will extend EI to the level of organisational decision
making.

Role of EPI in TQM programmes = empowering workers at the point of production

= extending EPI into the realms of decision making in policy areas such as restructuring,
investment, acquisitions, etc.

Climate of trust more important to the success of TQM, and trust can only be achieved if
TQM arrangements do not increase managerial control or incur job losses.

4. Financial participation

Reasons for introduction of such schemes:

♦ To secure employee compliance
♦ Philanthropic or reward for loyalty
♦ To weaken the trade union presence and influence
♦ Reduce or eliminate the need for collective bargaining, increasing control over workers.
♦ Counteract periods of heightened industrial unrest
♦ At macro-level financial participation schemes have been used as part of the overall drive
to bring about a shareholding democracy.

Types of financial participation

• Profit sharing
• Employee share ownership plans

Can result in an attitudinal change by employees from conflictual to more cooperative

relationships with employers.

9
Claimed effects from the implementation of employee involvement.

It has been claimed that effective employee involvement should:

• improve employees’ business awareness;
• generate employees’ commitment to the objectives of their employing organisations;
• foster trust by employees towards those who manage them ;
• create a more customer-focused approach and improve customer service;
• improve product quality;
• promote greater acceptance of organisational change;
• lead to employee flexibility;
• encourage more effective working relationships;
• generate employee empowerment;
• improve employee relations;
• improve job satisfaction and employee morale.

Categories of employee involvement

Main categories of EI Examples of methods Brief (intended)rationale

Downward communication
Problem-solving involvement and
upward communication
Consultation
Involvement through structural
changes at job and work
organisation levels
used
Team briefing;other To provide information;
briefing groups; Uniform messsages;to
Corporate newspaper, be educative or re-educative.
Journals & reports aimed
at employees;
Videos;audiotapes;
e-mail;recorded
telephone briefings.
Quality circles; Explicit access to employees’
Quality action teams; experience and skills; gain co-
quality improvement operation and opinions.
teams; suggestion
schemes; employee
surveys.
Joint consultation Providing information and
committees, working testing reactions.
parties or groups; staff
forums; work councils
Job redesign: job To be re-educative; providing
enlargement and job greater levels of motivation
enrichment. Work and satisfaction; empowering.
reorganisation: team
working; autonomous
working groups;
‘empowerment’.

10
Financial involvement
Managerial style and leadership
Employee share To be re-educative; providing
ownership plans; profit- incentives and promoting
related pay; effort.
performance-related pay;
bonus schemes.
Participative managerial To provide support; encourage
style; being visible, positive working relationships
accessible and informal; and trust; reduce barriers.
creating credibility;
ensuring actions in line
with key messages.

Broader organisational strategies/characteristics that may encourage or inhibit employee

involvement:

• Organisational performance, prospects and corporate direction

• Organisational culture
• Organisational structures and restructuring
• Training, human resource development and career management
• Performance management
• Other strategies such as those relating to health and safety and employee relations
approaches

Problems in relations to the realisation of EI

Organisational characteristics and circumstances that inhibit EI:

I. Effects of organisational structures

• Mechanistic organisational structure may inhibit EI.
• Project-based structure may encourage it.
II. Organisational performance and perceptions about job security, prospects for
development and advancement in the organisation in the prevailing ER climate.
III. Prevailing organisational culture and environment.

Implementation issues in the use of EI as a change strategy

i. Line managers to play a central role in implementing EI.

Resistance from line managers:

• Waste of their time
• Misguided in terms of EI intended outcomes
• Feel their discretion to operate as they wish is threatened
• Lack of resources to promote EI
• Since managers feel their power is threatened, the resulting organisational culture will
inhibit effective EI
• Pursuit of production or financial targets conflicting with EI

11
ii. Employees may not perceive EI as a positive development

Factors affecting employee perceptions about particular attempts to introduce EI strategies:

• Employee past/previous experiences of EI introduction

• Accustom to environment of non involvement
• Existence of other threats from the organisation and inconsistencies with the way it treats
them
• Failures in introduction of empowerment

12
 Conflicts and Discrimination

Conflicts in Employee Relations

Refers to frictions between individuals, between groups of workers and between various
levels of authority within the firm.

Conflicts arise from employee opposition to management policies, feelings of discontent, and
attitudes that interfere with the attainment of organisational goals.

Positive aspects of conflicts

• Spur initiative
• Create energy
• Stimulate new ideas

Negative aspects of conflicts

• Be disagreeable
• Misdirect employees’ efforts
• Waste time
• Involve large amounts of stress
• Lead ultimately to major disruption

Types of conflicts

Two general categories of conflict:

1. Conflicts of interest – various interest groups compete for the largest shares in a fixed
amount of resources.

2. Conflicts of right – arise from alleged violations of agreed terms in workers’ contracts of
employment, a statute, or a collective agreement.

Communal and non-communal conflict

Communal conflict: despite conflict there remains a basic community of interest between the
parties concerned.

Non-communal conflict: no existence of underlying community of interest, thus hardly

possible to achieve compromise between parties within the normal operation of the system.

13
Causes of conflict

Common causes include:

• Arguments concerning ‘who should do what’

• Poor co-ordination of activities
• Differences in the perception of group and organisational objectives
• Unclear authority structures
• Inflexible and insensitive attitudes and excessively formal personal relationships among
employees
• Differences in individual values and opinions about how people should behave
• Petty status and wage differentials that could encourage aggressive and unhealthy
competition among individuals and groups
• Poor communication

The resolution of conflicts

Three perspectives to look at conflict:

• Expression of conflicting ideas and interests represents a direct challenge to the internal
order and stability of the social system.

• Conflict is a necessary prelude to the development of a new social order.

• Open expression of conflict is an important element in the maintenance of stability within

the social system.

Effective resolution of any form of conflict requires mutual acceptance of outcomes.

Amicable settlement of conflicts is most likely where there is:

• Open and extensive communication between management and the workforce and between
individuals, sections and departments
• Joint problem-solving
• Willingness to compromise

Conflict within an organisation might be minimised through:

• Arranging work to ensure that it cuts across departmental and occupational boundaries
• Designing jobs to make them more interesting
• Provision of group bonuses
• Teamwork and developing team spirit
• Employee counselling

14
 Discrimination

Definition:
To make a distinction based on characteristics that are not relevant to the job such as sex,
sexuality, marital status, colour, nationality, disability or age.

Various forms of discrimination in an organisation

Individual: A member or members of the organisation demonstrate prejudice against another

individual often as a result of stereotyping thinking.

Structural: Requirements for appointments or promotion have the effect of excluding certain
groups or individuals. This may be deliberate or accidental and often results from an over-
reliance on levels of experience and qualifications when defining entry into a job.

Organisational: Reflecting common assumptions about the type of job certain groups of
people are capable of performing, e.g. ‘women are best at secretarial work’, ‘men are most
suited to transport and haulage’.

Consequences of unfair discrimination

• Failure to select/promote the best individual for the job because of restrictions placed on
applicants as a result of discriminatory practices.
• Failure to create a balanced workforce containing individuals with a diversity of
experience whose creativity and ideas can be utilised by the employer;
• The creation of resentment and poor morale, which undermine team spirit and co-
operation.

Addressing discrimination - state and organisational levels

1. Use of legislation to set and enforce appropriate standards of behaviour

2. National initiatives and educational programmes
3. More radical approaches such as affirmative action (positive discrimination) programmes
4. Managing diversity approach

Legislation approach to discrimination and equal opportunities

The state adopt various models:

• Free collective bargaining model

• Free labour market model
• Employee protection or social justice model

National initiatives and educational programmes

Educating and influencing organisation by persuasion rather than by legislation.

Codes of practice Awareness training National campaign

• Attempt to control • Help recognise prejudices • Mobilise support for
managerial behaviour and impact on judgement equality and against
• Behaviour change v/s • Enhance commitment to discrimination
attitudinal changes changes

15
More radical approaches: Affirmative action (positive discrimination) programmes

Two approaches to management of equal opportunity:

Liberal Radical
• Legislative/codes • More concerned with equal outcomes
of practice based • Involves a commitment to achieving fair distributions, or
around equal quotas, of underrepresented groups in the workforce
treatment • For quota system to be effective, need for enforcement, i.e.
penalties for non-compliance need to be clear

Another approach other than quota could be positive discrimination:

• Statements in recruitment adverts actively encouraging certain individuals to apply

• Guarantee of an interview to all applicants of a disadvantaged group
• Targeted recruitment, utilising publications addressed to minority groups
• Providing special training for women or ethnic minority groups

N.B: Affirmative action can bring negative evaluations from others on the organisation
practising it, e.g. ‘stigma of incompetence’.

Managing Diversity

All individuals are different, and the potential of all members of the working population
should be harnessed – no one is excluded.

It helps to:

• Identify hidden organisational barriers which make it more difficult for people who are
perceived as being different from the majority of their colleagues to succeed and develop
their careers.
• Effect cultural change and create an environment in which people from all backgrounds
can work together harmoniously.
• Combat prejudice, stereotyping, harassment and undignified behaviour.
• Make equal opportunities an issue for everyone and an integral part of the achievement of
business goals.
• Develop equality policies and procedures in ways which take into account organisational
needs and culture, and the way employees need to be able to balance their personal and
working lives.
• Nurture creativity and innovation, and tap hidden capacity for growth and improved
competitiveness.

16
Reasons why diversity matters in business:

• Improving customer care and increasing market share

• Developing organisational ethics and values
• Enhancing people management practices
• Reflecting changes in society and personal expectations
• Complying with legislation
• Keeping up with best practice to attract and retain talent and enhance competitiveness

Required actions for Managing diversity

1. Ensure organisations have an open workplace culture based on trust and mutual respect

• People value and treat each other with dignity

• Differences in personal backgrounds and characteristics do not prejudice decisions about
the suitability of individuals for employment or training
• Different views and ideas are welcomed
• Needs commitment of everybody in the organisation

2. Ensure all decisions about employment and training of people are objective, based on
merit, relate to individual personal development criteria and support business goals.

• Continuous review of workplace policies, practices and behaviour to check that these are
helping all employees to give their best.

N.B: Fundamental requirement – changing the way in which things have always been done.

Equal opportunity and Managing Diversity compared

Equal opportunities Managing diversity

Is focused on the needs of the members of Aims to be ‘inclusive’ focusing on the
particular groups and so excludes other needs of all individuals in employment
individuals

Treats members of a particular group as if Recognises that each and every individual
they all shared the same characteristics and is unique in his/her needs and experiences
experiences

Uses special initiatives to focus attention Does not utilise positive action campaigns
on the issues affecting particular groups

Emphasises the moral, ethical and social More business focused

issues

Led predominantly by Personnel More acceptable to line managers

practitioners

17
Reasons for equal opportunities not vigorously implemented in organisations:

• Relationship between line managers and personnel/HRM specialists

• Conflicts between equal opportunities and other priorities facing managers
• Resistance from employees

N.B: Managing diversity and equal opportunities are not alternatives but are rather
interdependent.

Roles of stakeholders in managing discrimination

Management

Ensure that working systems provide equality of opportunity for all, e.g. implementation and
enforcement of codes of practice.

Recruitment and selection

• Selection criteria based on detailed analysis of the job to be performed, ensuring objective
assessment criteria.
• Choose sources of recruitment reaching all sections of the community.
• Design and content of recruitment advertisements is most important – no indication of
any intention to discriminate against particular groups, include statement of commitment
to equal opportunities.
• Collection of information about candidates through application form should provide
consistent set of data on all candidates.
• Monitoring data should be collected from all candidates to ensure whether progress
through interview and final selection is affected or not by discrimination.
• Shortlisting according to objective criteria and results formally recorded.
• At interview – interviewers should have received training in how to conduct a structured
selection interview
• Test chosen so as not to discriminate.
• Final selection should compare candidates against objective criteria and results of process
documented for future reference.

Induction

• Ensure all materials free from bias and do not stereotype employees
• Welcome all new staff to workplace
• Help them to socialise with others
• Structure induction training for individual variations in pace and learning

18
Training and development

• Access to training for all employees

• T & D materials free of bias
• Training courses committed to equal opportunities
• Evaluation of training courses on equal opportunities criteria

Promotion and appraisal

• Access to promotion not based on stereotypical assumptions or prejudice that excludes

non-typical applicants
• Objective and quantifiable criteria in appraisal schemes
• Appraisal system less prone to impression management tactics

Pay and terms and conditions of employment

• Ensure fairness in pay and related benefits

• Pay system based on objective job evaluation methods
• Ensure evaluation criteria not based on discriminatory assumptions
• Same conditions for both men and women on membership of pension schemes and
related benefits
• Part-time workers enjoying pay and benefits (pro rata) as full-time colleagues
• Ensure flexible contracts do not disproportionately affect particular groups in the
workplace

Harassment and grievance

• Organisation committed to elimination of harassment and treat all grievances of this sort
seriously

Discipline, dismissal and redundancy

• Carry out uniformly organisation’s rules on discipline regardless of sex or race of the
individual concerned

Trade Unions

Unions have dual responsibility regarding equal opportunities:

• Promote equality in workplace negotiations with employers

• Ensure adoption of equal opportunities within their own organisations

19
Individuals

Individuals need to be reminded of their own unconscious prejudices and encouraged to

empathise – ‘put themselves in another’s shoes’

Qualities needed for effective cross-cultural communications:

• Capacity to accept the relativity of one’s knowledge and perceptions
• Capacity to be non-judgemental
• A tolerance for ambiguity
• Capacity to appreciate and communicate respect for other people’s ways, backgrounds,
values and beliefs
• Capacity to demonstrate empathy
• Capacity to be flexible
• A willingness to acquire new patterns of behaviour and belief
• The humility to acknowledge what one does not know

What can individuals do?

• Examine their own behaviour styles, attitudes and beliefs
• Considering their own feelings and reactions to people
• Trying to see things from other people’s perspectives
• Being honest with others
• Examining your own communication style
• Looking at how flexibly they treat others
• When leading teams, taking care that all people feel part of the team
• Developing others
• Challenging accepted practices
• Acting as a role model

20
 Egalité de chances

Gurbux Singh: “Toute démocratie a besoin d’une telle loi”

Gurbux Singh, président de la Commission sur l’Egalité des Races (CRE) de la Grande-Bretagne, à Maurice
depuis hier matin, affirme que toute démocratie a besoin d’une législation selon laquelle l’égalité des chances
est garantie. Il a fait ressortir que son pays a fait beaucoup de progrès ces trente dernières années dans ce
domaine, en faisant voter des lois. “It is the duty now on all the services of the public sector, is it in the police,
the fire services or health, to promote equality”, a-t-il souligné, hier soir, à la presse qu’il a rencontrée dans les
locaux du ministère de l’Industrie et du Commerce.
M. Singh est en tournée officielle à Maurice à l’invitation du gouvernement, pour animer des conférences dans
le cadre de la présentation au Parlement d’un projet de loi, le Equal Opportunity Bill, dont une ébauche est déjà
prête. Ce thème, rappelons-le, fut le cheval de bataille de Xavier-Luc Duval lors de sa campagne électorale pour
l’élection partielle de Beau-Bassin/Petite-Rivière.
Le président de la CRE a d’ailleurs rendu une visite de courtoisie à ce dernier avant d’animer la conférence de
presse et il a été présenté aux journalistes par Loganaden Ramsamy, chef de cabinet du ministre Duval,
actuellement chef du service civil et secrétaire au cabinet par interim. Selon le programme de visite de M. Singh,
il rencontre le président de la République, ce matin, l’Attorney General, ministre de la Justice et des Droits
humains dans l’après-midi avant de s’adresser au Bar Council et à la Law Society à l’université. Il se rendra à
Clarisse House lundi, soit quelques heures avant son départ.
Selon l’invité du gouvernement mauricien, l’approche britannique a permis de non seulement faire adopter des
mesures théoriques, mais aussi de les mettre en pratique, notamment de pourvoir une assistance légale,
promouvoir un code d’éthique même dans le secteur privé au niveau de l’emploi, établir des liens entre les
différentes communautés, etc. Il a évoqué le récente démarche faite en Europe, dans le cadre de la réunion qui a
eu lieu le 6 juin sur les affaires raciales.
“Every country should treat all citizens equally, everybody should have an equal and fair treatment”, insiste M.
Singh. Il est d’avis que les politiciens devraient prendre les dispositions nécessaires pour s’assurer que cela soit
ainsi, tout en affirmant que l’éducation également demeure un atout important pour apporter un changement de
mentalités.

Equal opportunity

Gurbux Singh: Impossible sans “strong political leadership”

Intervenant, hier, lors d’une conférence organisée par l’Association of Personnel Managers (APM), Gurbux
Singh, qui présidera prochainement la Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) britannique, a soutenu que le
succès de toute législation sur la Equal Opportunity doit bénéficier de “strong political leadership” pour donner
des résultats positifs. Gurbux Singh, venu à Maurice pour conseiller le gouvernement quant aux organismes à
créer dans le cadre de la législation à venir sur la Equal Opportunity, a rappelé aux directeurs des ressources
humaines présents que leur devoir est de veiller à ce que leur personnel soit motivé et bénéficie de promotions
avantageuses. Toute organisation, a-t-il affirmé, doit recruter des personnes qualifiées pour un travail spécifique
et ce qu’importe leur appartenance ethnique ou leur sexe.
Prenant comme exemple la Grande-Bretagne, M. Singh a rappelé que la discrimination y était criante dans les
années 40 et 50, et ce même à un moment où la main-d’œuvre étrangère était vitale pour la reconstruction
d’après guerre. C’est pour mettre fin à cette discrimination que les Britanniques, a-t-il poursuivi, devaient
légiférer en 1965 et 1968 contre toute forme de discrimination à l’emploi, ce qui devait mener à une législation
plus complète en 1976 - loi qui allait créer la CRE.
Cet organisme, a expliqué M. Singh, veut promouvoir une bonne “policy of practices” en matière de relations
publiques, mener des enquêtes dans des cas où il y a eu possible discrimination et accorder une assistance légale
à toute personne qui en a besoin.
La législation britannique, avance-t-il, oblige les employeurs à promouvoir la Equal Opportunity. “This is a way
to ensure that the public sector is potentially abiding by this legislation”, a déclaré M. Singh.
Si l’intervenant se dit opposé à la “discrimination positive”, il pense, néanmoins, que certains cas peuvent la
justifier, citant l’exemple britannique, où des cours de formation sont dispensés à des minorités ethniques dans
un secteur spécifique où ce groupe est peu ou pas représenté.
Extracted from Le Mauricien

21