Industrial Action

What is Industrial Action?

An industrial action list documents any working condition disputes leading to employee strikes, protests and potentially shutdowns.

An industrial action list provides details all working condition disputes where there was evidence that the employees’ acts disrupted certain business operations.

Industrial action can be taken by employees to attempt to settle any workplace disputes in the form of:

• Strikes: Outright refusal to perform duties in the form of protests

• Go-Slows: Unreasonable delay in work completed

• Overtime Bans: Refusal to work beyond specified times

The list covers:

• Start and end dates and nature of the actions

• Names and total number of employees and trade unions involved

• Reasons behind the actions and key demands of your employees

• Resolution process followed by your company

• Impacts of industrial action on your company’s performance

Why is Industrial Action important for business today?

An industrial action list enables your company to:

• Assess the frequency and nature of the industrial actions faced by your company
• Evaluate the impact of an ongoing or a resolved action on your company’s performance
• Ascertain the reasons behind the action and the key demands of your employees
• Identify the employees and trade unions involved in instigating the actions
• Estimate the time and costs required to resolve an action

Why is Industrial Action important for an event tomorrow?

An industrial action list is important for an event tomorrow, as it helps:

• Assess the reasons behind each action and its impact on your company’s performance
• Review the resolution process implemented by your company and benchmark against best practices
• Evaluate the control and authority of trade unions and employees involved in each action
• Determine the relationships between management and employees by evaluating the frequency of the actions
• Assess the negotiation capability of your management team to resolve any disputes

Pros of addressing Industrial Action

• Formulate strategies to mitigate industrial actions and negotiate with instigating trade unions and employees
• Improve employee satisfaction and provide a better work environment by reviewing working conditions
• Determine potential actions which may arise in the future by analyzing historical trends
• Improve your company’s ability to take timely corrective action for resolution of industrial actions
• Use as a reference list to resolve ongoing and future actions

Cons of not addressing this topic

• Disruption to your business’ operations
• Limited ability to detect and manage disputes with employees at early stage
• Adverse impact on the relationship between your management team and employees due to failure in addressing key demands of your employees
• Difficulties in tracking the impact of an action on your company’s performance
• Reduced time and cost of due diligence combined with improved confidence of investors due to the high level of transparency