Reference no: EM133505035
"Mr Bruce Johnson has worked as a manager at "B Company" for 30 years. Company B uses line management and policies that are legally required to manage the production process in the company. The Company had generally been fair and respectful in dealings with staff pre-COVID. However, post-COVID the culture has changed. Employees have been threatened with dismissal because they were caught not smiling at customers, and other workers who had received customer feedback scores below 6, * were cautioned. Furthermore, to manage the effects of COVID on the business, the company had implemented digital tablets that customers could use for frontline enquiries and placement of orders in the stores. Although there is an employee/employer consultative committee at the workplace, there was little formal consultation with employees about these changes. Therefore, while employees were happy to stay behind if needed and had been a source of ideas about how to make the work more efficient pre-COVID, today employees strictly work the hours that they are employed, and only do what is in their job description; many employees are looking for another job. After 30 years as a successful manager at B company, Mr Bruce Johnson was fired after lodging a complaint of bullying with the Fair Work Commission against his supervisor. In his claim, Mr Johnson alleges that he was pressured to terminate members of his team who he claimed had been doing a good job. Mr Johnson alleges that his supervisor often referred to his team members as "idiots, and dumb" in front of other staff and customers. When he refused to terminate them, Mr Johnson alleges that his supervisor began bullying him by forcing him to take unpaid overtime leave and threatening to sack him and bring in a replacement. Whilst refusing to comment on the case itself, Company B management had said n response to Mr Johnson's claim that they had a 'zero tolerance' policy on bullying, pointing out their anti-bullying polict as evidence. However, in his submission, Mr Johnson said management paid little attention to these policies. In fact, meetings have been organised by workers to discuss Mr Johnson's treatment, and his case has also been discussed at the employee/employer consultative committee"
1. Using Dunlop's framework, identify and discuss how the context is influencing employment relations in Company B.
2. How have the forms of control used by management in Company B changed after COVID?
3. Is there industrial conflict at Company B? Discuss what sort of conflict you think it is.