Man in employment: the fundamental principles of industrial relations

IT is no exaggeration to say that upon the proper and efficient conduct of industrial relations depends the prosperity-indeed, the very existence of all industrialised democratic countries. Collective bargaining, or negotiating machinery between employers and employees, is the system generally adopted in such countries for the settlement of terms and conditions of employment for most employees.

But there is a great deal more to industrial relations than the determination of the material conditions of service. Man does not live by bread alone, essential though bread is to existence. To be permanently sceptical and cynical about the essential truth that man has a mind and a soul as well as a body is to be hopelessly remote from the reality of things. The democracies must show that Karl Marx was wrong when he declared that the bourgeoisie, having put to an end all feudal, patriarchal and idyllic relations, left no other bond between man and man than naked self-interest and callous cash payment.¹

If it is accepted that man is the most complicated product of creation, then it follows that industrial relations, which are concerned with everything relating to man in employment, require a great deal of and understanding. Every country, and every commercial and industrial undertaking therein, as well as all the public services, if they are to continue to progress, must accord them their continuous vigilant interest. For, apart from their supreme importance, industrial relations are dynamic, requiring continuous adaptation and reorientation on the part of all the parties concerned.