Question BSBWRK510 – Industrial Relations at the Malaga Division.
The Malaga Division of the Powerlite Manufacturing Company came into existence in six years ago when Powerlite completed building a new manufacturing facility at Banksia Grove, Victoria. Banksia Grove is a small town in a rural resort area approximately 225 km from Burswood, Victoria, the head office of Powerlite Manufacturing.
The workforce has grown and has approximately 900 employees today. They were recruited from Banksia Grove and several surrounding towns and regional cities. Almost all new employees were lacking in relevant industrial experience. However, employment standards were high, and all staff employed appeared to have considerable potential. With only five exceptions, Recently, all production supervisors in the lower three levels of management had been promoted from within. Malaga Division had the usual general teething problems of new manufacturing facilities plus the technological problems associated with a production process that was completely new to the industry.
About three years ago, the facility which had been unionized to some extent became heavily unionized by the Amalgamated Workers of Australia after a long and costly strike. Good employee-management relations never returned. There were numerous changes in both top management and union leadership. However, hostile relations between Powerlite management and the union were very much entrenched. The union frequently demanded instant affirmative answers to all problems and issues it raised with Powerlite. Strikes were frequent as was the practice of a significant number of employees calling in sick on the morning of the same day, making the maintenance of productive capacity on these days impossible. Significant losses were incurred by Powerlite as a consequence of such practices.
Given the information presented, your tasks are to identify the specific problems that exist, the causes of the problems identified (and that need to be addressed) and the specific actions that now must be taken by John and Powerlite to solve them.
Question BSBWRK510 – Industrial Relations at the Malaga Division
To complete this task, you must
- develop a documented negotiation strategy
- complete a negotiation meeting with the CEO.
The documented negotiation strategy must be clearly presented and include
- intended outcomes
- strategies for the negotiation