Employment Relations in Organisation Assignment Sample

Introduction

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An organization's employee relationship plays an important role in its sustainability and continuous improvement. Communication between the management and employees is a critical part of employee relations. Employee relations include verdicts made at work, ailments, conflicts, issues with unions, communal bargaining and dilemmas that need to be unravelled. Employee relations are important to an organization to ensure employee productivity, allegiance and reduced conflict.

McDonald's Corporation is one of the globe's widest fast-food chains. The corporation was established in 1955 by Raymond Albert Kroc and is headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois.

A 30-minute break is provided at McDonald's if the employee has worked more than 3.5 hours. Each 10-minute rest break is a paid break for every four hours worked, provided that he/she remains on the premises. A 30-minute meal break will be given if, during a meal break, the employee clock in early. This paper discusses this issue forwarded out by HRM.

Discussion

Employers and employees are lawfully linked by the employment relationship. Performing work or providing services under certain conditions for remuneration is considered to be employment. Employers and employees have mutual rights and obligations as a result of their employment relationship (Safiih et. al., 2021, January). As a primary vehicle for gaining access to rights and benefits associated with employment, it has been and continues to be the primary vehicle for workers to obtain those rights and benefits. Labour and civil security law prerequisites addressed employees' dependants upon the existence of an employment relationship. Employers' rights and accountabilities towards their workers are legislated by it as the principal point of reference.

A big American fast food chain, McDonald's is part of the McDonald's Corporation, Oak Brook. Since 1955, McDonald's has been owned and run by Raymond Albert Kroc who acquired and collected the franchise rights from two brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald, who were exclusive distributors of a dairy product called the Multimixer (Akash Sakthi & Hassan, 2022). With more than 33,000 restaurants worldwide, McDonald's runs its business in 119 countries. Among the top 500 companies in the world, McDonald's is ranked 131 by Fortune500 in the year 2018.

There are always employee issues at McDonald's, whether they're positive or negative (Sulistya, 2020). Although McDonald's has been providing employees with a lot of job opportunities, employees still face some issues when it comes to employment. Minimum wage, rude customers, and bad management are all haunting McDonald's. Employee relations are affected by these issues in most organizations. The issue of hourly wages and hours is causing a lot of disagreement among McDonald's employees. In general, the UK labour market is becoming tighter, and most companies have had trouble filling up their positions in recent years (Roca & Martín-Díaz, 2021). As a result, there are a few issues related to hourly wages and salaries as a result of a lack of labour supply. The issue of minimum wages is haunting McDonald's management in this context.

There are about 200,000 employees at McDonald's in the United States, and the company has rigorous policies for crew members that are meant to protect them both federally and state-wide. As part of McDonald's safety policy, the company maintains a break policy that protects the workers and maintains the safety of the workplace. A McDonald's employee handbook describes two types of breaks: a 30-minute unpaid meal break and a 10-minute rest break that is paid. Whenever one is asked to take a 30-minute unpaid meal break, one must clock out before starting the break. One can take this break once they work for more than 3.5 hours. If minors are working over 4.5 hours, McDonald's imposes strict break policies (ALAJMI & LENGYEL, 2021). The employer will provide the employee with another 30-minute break if he/she needs to return early from a meal break. To qualify for payment, one must take their first meal break within 15 minutes. Also, anyone

McDonald's franchisees have been investigated by the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union, working four or five-hour shifts or longer is entitled to a 10-minute paid rest break. RAFFWU and Shine Lawyers, and there is a possibility that a class action will be filed against the franchise. Fast Food Industry Awards and Enterprise Agreements, EBAs prevent 250,000 current and former employees from taking 10-minute breaks. An employee who works between four and nine hours is legally entitled to a ten-minute paid break under the EBA and Award. There are two 10-minute breaks allowed if a shift exceeds nine hours. It is alleged that some McDonald's employees were told they could not take breaks unless they were working more than four hours, but the EBA and Award clearly stated breaks were only available between four and nine hours. An employee is legally entitled to a 10-minute break if they worked for four hours and fifteen minutes. Despite McDonald's spokesperson claiming all employees were given legally required breaks at the time of the allegations, it will be interesting to see if Shine and the RAFFWU have a winning case since hundreds of employees have already signed up for the class action, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, SMH. SCOPE is the policy that is applied by McDonald's to their franchises, franchise employees, contractors and their employees whether they are working on field undertakings or inside the corporate hub.

Unions are formed because employees are dissatisfied with management's treatment of them and because they believe that unions can improve workplace conditions (Van Buren III, 2020). Union organizing tactics often focus on pay and benefits, but employees are more likely to join a union if they feel they are being treated unfairly, unresponsively, or under substandard working conditions.

Among the three theories of employee relations, which are the Unitarist, Pluralist and Radical approaches, the Unitarist approach seems to be the best in terms of the employees' perspective and can resolve the issue regarding working hours and in turn, can solve the employee shortage question as well (Zeller, 2020). Members of a unitarist organization share similar interests and are homogeneous. Employers and employees have a mutually beneficial relationship, so third parties are not relevant. Employee loyalty to the organization constitutes unitarism, which is the loyalty of management and staff towards the organization. An employer and employee must have a b sense of cooperation at work for workers to concentrate on their primary goal. Despite employers' and employees' interests, conflict will occur within organizations, Wood and Elliot pointed out in 1997 that the unitary ideology isn't realistic because it denies the legitimacy of conflict. According to Fox's Royal Commission Research Paper, this is the case, since the unitary ideology isn't realistic (Signoretti, 2020). Furthermore, employees and employers may have poor communication when using this approach. Therefore, the performance of employment relations is a limited aspect of the company. Such an organization's management is outstanding because it emphasizes and applies its principles. As a result, it has been concluded that trade unions are not necessary for organizations and employees to have mutual exclusivity when it comes to loyalty (Wei, 2020). As a result of interpersonal friction, communication breakdowns, and employee agitators, employee conflicts are considered pathological and disruptive.

When it comes to the employees approaching the Unitarist theory, they can communicate well among their union to decide what will be best for them as well as for the company to negotiate a solution for the issue. Also, they can work together to communicate their concerns to the corporations, and as McDonald's has already been suffering from an employee crisis, they will be obligated to negotiate as per the employee concerns (Gravelle & de Bruet, 2020). This is the best way for the company to keep thriving with ample employees and to work positively on their employee relations.

Conclusion

The McDonald's Corporation as well as all restaurants are committed to equal opportunity employment. All hiring decisions and other employment-related matters are solely the responsibility of the restaurant that posted the job opportunity. A McDonald's franchisee does not give McDonald's a copy of any applicant's application, nor does it control whether or not the person will be interviewed or hired, nor does it have any control over the employment policies and practices of franchisees. Franchisees at McDonald's or its parent company are not employed independently.

As the principal point of reference, it regulates employers' obligations and rights towards their employees. In unitarist theory, unions are structured to communicate with employees their concerns. It can therefore be concluded that there is no need to form trade unions when it comes to mutual loyalty between organizations and employees. In the workplace, employee conflicts can become pathological and disruptive due to interpersonal friction, communication breakdowns, and agitators.

References

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