The Adoption of the Unitarist Approach to Employment Relations Has Not Made the Role of Trade Unions Obsolete and Government Intervention in Er Outdated

The adoption of the unitarist approach to employment relations has not made the role of trade unions obsolete and government intervention in ER outdated

This article is to discuss whether the recent shift of employment relations (ER) approaches from pluralist to unitarist has made trade unions and government intervention in ER out of date. There are two main perspectives to understand the underlying mechanisms of ER: unitarist, which is related to human resource management, and pluralist, which is related to industrial relations (Guest, 2007). The unitarist perspective is a series of viewpoints which are built on the belief that all people in an organization pursue the same goals, so employers and employees can work together harmoniously (Guest, 2007). However, the pluralist perspective sees ER in a different way. It believes that organizations consist of people who have different, sometimes competing interests, so conflicts are inevitable (Guest, 2007). In recent years, unitarist approaches are more and more widely used to deal with ER issues (ROSS & BAMBER, 2009). A statement is proposed that trade unions and government intervention, which are essential elements of pluralist perspective, are no longer needed. This article will demonstrate that trade unions are still needed from two aspects: first, employees still have not enough strength to protect their interests individually; second, trade unions still have functions that cannot be substituted by unitarist approaches. It will then prove that government intervention is also necessary by referring to some facts and cases. This part will reveal that although the role of the government is weakening, it is still needed to address ER problems, especially conflicts. Several cases of Australia will be used to support the arguments, and the pluralist theoretical framework will be applied to the cases. Finally, it will conclude that the roles of trade unions and the government are still critical to ER practice....