Industrial relations and trade unions

Industrial relations (IR) is the system of relationships among employers, employees and the state, covering how work is governed: wages, conditions, discipline, disputes and participation. Its three actors — management, workers and their unions, and the government — interact within rules set by labour law and by practice. Worked example: when a factory's workers demand a wage revision, IR is not just the negotiation meeting; it is the union's claim, management's offer, the conciliation officer's role if talks fail, and the legal machinery that applies if a strike or lockout follows. Understanding the whole system, not one meeting, is what exam questions test.