Labor-employer relationship

Labor-employer relationship

From Media Indonesia

The relationship between a laborer and employer started when European landlords hired farmers to till their vast property. This was developed by the industrial revolution so that laborers were not only peasants but also factory workers.

There was a counter version in this relationship as there were conflicts of interests. Employers wanted to increase profits to finance their establishments, while laborers wanted reasonable wages. In the struggle, the laborers always had a lower bargaining position than the employers.

Civilized communities advised laborers to unite themselves, and ever since there emerged what is now known as a "collective labor agreement", which we have followed. And due to this new paradigm the existence of trade unions became absolute, while employers are reluctant to materialize it.

Disagreement leads to difficulty for both parties. Each party wants to force its own will. Workers go on strike and employers threaten to fire them, resulting in the loss of the former's employment and the ruin of the latter's business and stake holders involved.

Our question is: Will we always be in this kind of antagonism? A criticism based on thesis-antithesis philosophy will make employers consider workers as cost elements only, while workers consider employers as enemies who persistently want to curtail workers' wages.

On the one hand laborers are indeed cost elements in the eyes of employers, but on the other hand they are also elements of efficiency, capacity enhancement, cost reducing and zero defect. But unfortunately, because of the existing counter version between the two parties, employers fail to observe and make use of a worker's potential for the company's progress.

It is now time for employers and workers to live in peace and stop opposing each other. This can be realized through a synergy based on a win-win condition. As such, workers should be paid according to the situation resulting from the unpretentious partnership, and be entitled to part of the results of their efficiency, capacity enhancement, cost reducing and zero defect. This will encourage workers to boost the company's extra profits.

Many methods have been applied by several companies in their policy to empower synergy in this new paradigm.

EDDY OM BOEKOESOE

Bogor, West Java