It can be said that a new saga of Industrial Relations is on the way when people will work as per their choice. There will be no boundary on either part, viz.,worker and company, as well as to remain fixed with the employment terms of conditions and confrontation for the demands, which is a basic job of confrontation between the employer, company, and working class people through various trade unions.The problems of dealing with flexible employment and the unorganised sector bear heavily on industrial relations in developing countries. Solving these problems necessitates the approach of enhancing representation, working conditions, and the regulation of regimes.
Hence, integration of unorganised workers into the industrial relations policies is very crucial in the creation of an efficient and fair labour market in society. The disruption of flexible employment and the gig economy means that there is a perceived need to reframe common expectations of work, employees’ rights, as well as the possibility of organising themselves for collective action. As these new paradigms of work evolve, so must approaches to governing, regulating and supporting workers to avoid seeing flexibility cost workers their welfare and giving employers a license to exploit. Such components imply that future research should add to the discussion of these dynamics of change to build effective policy and in Industrial Relations.
The overall effects of flexible employment and the gig economy on traditional Industrial Relations are as under:
- The unionism of working people will be impacted greatly as there is no congregation of workers at a single place, which happens in conventional manufacturing locations. There remains the issue of workers at manufacturing locations related to their working hours, wages, overtime payments, working conditions, working floor level amenities, rest rooms, drinking water, hygiene, safety, social security in case of any accident or injury, and, of course, their living conditions.
Also read – 𝗙𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵 Enquiry Report 𝗣𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵ment : 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿t by Deepanjan Dey
- The social security norms of labour laws are also not applied as all these things come into play when there is employment for scheduled hours and remunerations accordingly.
- No doubt, the productivity is increased by flexible employment as worker knows that as much they work,their level of income increases.The work-life balance is also increased as there is ample freedom, that when to work and when not to work. It all depends on individual choice.Flexible working can reduce the working hours for a particular assignment, and thereby, the stress is also reduced.
- The retention is also good in flexible employment as there is no boundary of work, and hence employees do not pay attention to what else could be better for them in terms of facilities in an area within boundary walls.
- The flexible employment/Gig working will have no place for job security, which is a concept much liked by people; even more so in developed countries, i.e. getting retirement on attaining superannuation at the age of 60 years with all retirement benefits of gratuity, pension, Provident Funds accumulation, etc.There will be no concept of fixed income every month.In flexible employment, there is no limit on income level. A person can earn as much as he is capable of,based on the favourable conditions of payment terms connected with the job assignments.
- There is no opportunity for any training or skill building in Gig/flexible employment, as it is not the burden upon the employer to train the employee/gig worker, as the employer has the choice to change the gig worker by simply terminating the contract in an easy way.
- Gig worker can define their career objectives and avail the benefits of their suitability in their favour. The scope to learn the career of choice and up to what time duration, it all remains totally in the hands of a gig worker, unlike fixed or regular employment. This is set to change and is already happening.
In conclusion, the future of work and labour relations is at a crossroads where technology, global economic forces, and human-centric values intersect. There are genuine possibilities for creating new forms of work organisation, of work recognition and of work protection in the context of what is otherwise sensible uncertainties and perhaps dangers of job precariousness and social polarisation. It will be a balancing between the economic necessity and the social necessity, so that the main stakeholders of the labour environment will need to be sensitively active. Subsequent research could observe these trends into the future, and what new forms of work and work organisation mean for the employee and Industrial Relations Systems.
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