Understanding Workplace Conflict and Industrial Relations

War at Work? Understanding Workplace Conflict and Industrial Relations

Let's go back for a minute to the famous railway industrial action that took place in the UK in December / January 2023. It's 6:45 AM on a freezing December morning in 2023. You're standing on a railway platform somewhere between Manchester and London, staring at a digital departures board that's completely blank. Not delayed. Not cancelled. Just... nothing. Welcome to the UK's biggest wave of industrial action since 1989, where over 40,000 railway workers decided enough was enough.

Workplace conflict is rarely that simple. One person's "greedy union demanding too much" is another person's "workers fighting for fair pay after years of real-term wage cuts." And as future business managers studying for your IB Business Management exams, you need to understand both sides of this story.

The Spark That Lights the Fire

So what actually causes conflict in the workplace? Turns out, it's not usually one massive blow-up moment os specific incident. It's more like death by a thousand paper cuts.

When Voices Go Unheard

Conflict kicks off when employees' needs and wants get ignored or swept under the carpet. Think about it from a human perspective - imagine you've been asking your boss for months about getting proper safety equipment, or you've noticed you're being paid less than colleagues doing the exact same job. At first, you might just grumble about it in the break room. But if nothing changes? That frustration builds.

This is what we call a grievance in business speak - it's when workers have a proper cause for complaint, especially around unfair treatment. It's basically a perceived injustice that festers if left unaddressed. The junior doctors in England know this feeling intimately - they went on strike multiple times between 2022 and 2024, claiming they'd experienced over a decade of real-term pay cuts. That's not a sudden decision; that's years of feeling undervalued building to a breaking point.

When Values Clash

Then there's the problem of incompatible opinions and values within organisations. Different stakeholders see the world differently. Management might think "we need to cut costs to stay competitive," while employees hear "we're going to make your job harder for the same pay." Both viewpoints might have some merit, but when they're miles apart, you get conflict.

Miscommunication and Office Politics

Add miscommunications and workplace politics into this mix, and you've got a proper mess. Ever played that game of telephone where a message gets completely twisted by the time it reaches the end? That's workplace communication on a bad day. And internal politics - where people are more focused on protecting their own positions than solving problems - just makes everything ten times worse. The result? Demoralised staff, people calling in sick more often (absenteeism), workers leaving for other jobs (labour turnover), and ultimately, industrial unrest.

Conflict itself isn't always bad. Sometimes it's exactly what's needed to drag real problems out into the open. It's how conflict arises and - crucially - how it's managed that determines whether it destroys a business or makes it stronger.

When Employees Fight Back: The Arsenal of Industrial Action

Alright, so employees are frustrated. What can they actually do about it? They've got three main weapons in their industrial action toolkit, ranging from "let's talk this through" to "right, we're shutting this down."

The Negotiation Table: Collective Bargaining

Collective bargaining is basically employees and employers sitting down for a proper chat about pay, hours, and working conditions. But here's what is relevant - individual workers have about as much negotiating power as a Year 7 trying to haggle with Apple over an iPhone price. Zero.

That's why we have employee representatives - individuals or organisations (like trade unions) that act as the collective voice of workers. They're elected by their colleagues to negotiate on everyone's behalf because, let's be real, a company with 5,000 employees can't sit down and hash out contracts with every single person individually. That would be chaos.

These representatives have a proper job description:

• Make employees' views known to management

• Fight for better training, improved conditions, and higher pay

• Represent workers during legal disputes or redundancies

• Build trust between workers and bosses (when things are going well)

When collective bargaining works, it's brilliant. Take the American Postal Workers Union in 2024 – they negotiated a three-year deal with the US Postal Service that 95% of members voted to accept. No givebacks, protection from layoffs, proper cost-of-living adjustments. That's collective bargaining doing its job.

But when negotiations fail? That's when things can get a bit nasty.

The Subtle Rebellion: Work-to-Rule

Work-to-rule is essentially malicious compliance turned into an art form. Employees follow every single rule, policy, and procedure of their organisation to the absolute letter - with the specific intention of disrupting production and reducing output.

Let's imagine you're a train driver, right? Normally, you might drive slightly over the speed limit when the line's clear, take a shortcut through the depot, or help out with announcements when the system's dodgy. These little extras keep everything running smoothly. But during work-to-rule? Nah. You'll drive at exactly the speed limit. Check every safety regulation three times. Take your full break. Not answer your phone during lunch. Follow your contract exactly as written.

In August 2024, GPs in England voted to work-to-rule by capping appointments at 25 per day - the recommended safe limit that they'd been regularly exceeding to keep the system afloat. Suddenly, appointment availability plummeted, and the government couldn't even complain because the doctors were literally just following safety guidelines.

The genius of work-to-rule is that workers can't be disciplined for it. They're following the rules! But it exposes how much businesses rely on employees' goodwill and willingness to go "above and beyond." and to do "the extra mile". It's like that moment when your parents tell you to "help around the house," and you respond by doing exactly what they asked and absolutely nothing more. Technically compliant. Practically disruptive.

The Nuclear Option: Strike Action

Strike action is when employees refuse to work, full stop. It's the industrial action equivalent of walking out - extreme, dramatic, and usually a last resort after everything else has failed.

When railway workers struck across the UK in 2022-2024, trains ran at just 20% of normal capacity on strike days. Junior doctors striking for six consecutive days in January 2024 led to almost one million lost NHS appointments. It's disruptive. That's entirely the point. It makes the system collapse.

Strikers don't get paid while they're on strike. Which means it's usually temporary, because most people need to, you know, pay their rent and eat food. That's why unions often have a "National Dispute Fund" (like the RMT does) to help support members during strikes. Some workers even get "strike pay" from their union.

There are also legal hoops to jump through. In many countries, trade unions need to give advanced warning before striking. In the UK, for "important public services," you need at least 50% turnout in the ballot, and at least 40% of all eligible members must vote in favour. These rules exist because strikes can cause a genuine crisis for businesses and the public.

The 2022-2024 UK rail strikes lasted two years – TWO YEARS – before being resolved. That's not a quick fix; that's a war of attrition where both sides are bleeding money and patience.

When Employers Strike Back

Right, so that's what employees can do. But employers aren't exactly sitting there powerless, are they? They've got their own playbook, and some of these moves are absolutely ruthless.

Employers Can Also Bargain

Yes, collective bargaining works both ways! Employer representatives - usually senior management or specialist consultancy firms - negotiate on behalf of the company.

Smart employers actually prefer negotiation to confrontation. Why? Because industrial action costs everyone money. Lower productivity, damaged reputation, lost customers - it's expensive. When your website is down is expensive. The UK government only managed to resolve the rail strikes after Labour won the 2024 election and actually sat down to negotiate properly. The previous Conservative government had refused to negotiate in England for over a year, while Scotland and Wales resolved their disputes quickly because transport is devolved there. Funny how talking helps, right?

Legally, employers sometimes have to consult employees about big decisions - relocations, redundancies, potential takeovers. It's not optional; it's the law.

The Threat That Hangs Overhead: Redundancies

Redundancy happens when a business can't afford certain workers anymore, or when jobs disappear due to technology, seasonal factors, or lack of work. It's not the same as being sacked - redundancy means the job itself is gone, not that you did something wrong.

Employers sometimes use the threat of redundancies as a negotiation tactic. "Accept these new terms or we'll have to let people go" is a powerful motivator when people have mortgages to pay. It's dark, but it happens.

Redundancies can be voluntary (with decent severance packages to sweeten the deal) or involuntary (forced). The latter absolutely destroys staff morale and creates instability. How do you choose who goes? Often it's "last in, first out" (based on years of service), but it's always horrible.

Changing the Contracts

If threatening redundancies brings too much negative media attention, employers might go for changes of contract instead. But - and this is important - they can only legally change contracts when it's time to renew them. You can't just wake up one Tuesday and decide everyone's now working Sundays for less pay.

In extreme cases, employers have the legal right not to renew contracts for employees they consider "counterproductive." That's corporate speak for "we're getting rid of troublemakers," and yes, it's as controversial as it sounds.

The Ultimate Checkmate: Closure and Lockouts

Here's where things get properly brutal. Closure is when an employer stops all business operations to force workers to renegotiate. No work = no pay, which weakens employees' bargaining position pretty quickly.

Lockouts are even more specific - the employer literally prevents employees from entering the workplace during a dispute. We're talking changed locks, security guards, the whole nine yards.

IB Business Management Real-life Examples: In August 2025, Dalhousie University in Halifax became the first top Canadian university (U15 institution) to lock out its faculty union. They physically couldn't get into work.

In August 2024, two Canadian railway companies - CN and CPKC - declared lockouts that essentially shut down rail activity across the country. The supply chain chaos was immediate and massive.

The thing about closures and lockouts is they hurt everyone. Workers lose income, but the business loses revenue and - perhaps more importantly - its reputation. Public perception of a company locking out workers is usually... not great. It looks hostile, aggressive, and like you're playing hardball with people's livelihoods.

Some Real-World Details

Here's what your IB Business Management textbook might not tell you: in the real world, these situations are intense, emotional, and rarely have clear winners.

Take the 2022-2024 UK rail strikes. The unions argued that after years of below-inflation pay rises, railway workers' real wages had been decimated. Management countered that the industry needed modernisation and couldn't afford massive pay increases. Both had legitimate points! The strikes cost the economy millions, disrupted millions of journeys, and created genuine hardship for both workers and passengers.

The resolution? A 15% pay deal spread over multiple years. Was it perfect? Probably not for anyone. But it was what became possible when both sides finally sat down properly to negotiate.

Or look at the Birmingham bin workers currently striking in November 2025. Their dispute? The council wants to abolish a role that some workers claim will cost them up to £8,000 annually. The council says it's necessary cost-cutting. The bins pile up in the streets. Residents get angry. Workers feel undervalued. Everyone loses something.

What Is Relevant About All This?

As future business managers, you need to understand that industrial relations isn't just a chapter in a textbook - it's about real people, real livelihoods, and real consequences. The barista at your local coffee shop who's in a union. The warehouse worker at the Amazon depot. Your future employees, if you end up managing people.

The outcome of any negotiation depends on the methods used and the relative bargaining strength of each side. But the strongest position isn't always about who can hold out longest or cause the most damage. Sometimes it's about who can build the most trust, communicate most clearly, and find solutions that work for everyone.

Because at the end of the day, businesses need workers, and workers need businesses. The challenge - and this is what makes industrial relations so fascinating and frustrating - is figuring out how to make that relationship work when interests don't naturally align.

The IB Business Management Bottom Line

For your exam, remember:

• Sources of conflict: ignored needs, incompatible values, miscommunication, grievances

• Employee industrial action: collective bargaining, work-to-rule, strike action

• Employer responses: collective bargaining, threats of redundancies, contract changes, closure and lockouts

• Key players: employee representatives and employer representatives

• The big idea: Conflict isn't inherently bad, but unmanaged conflict leads to absenteeism, turnover, and industrial unrest

And when you're writing essays about this unit, don't just reproduce theory. Use real examples. Reference the UK rail strikes. Talk about the junior doctors. Mention work-to-rule at GP surgeries. Show you understand that behind every labour dispute there are actual humans trying to pay their bills, keep their dignity, and ideally, sleep at night without stress-induced nightmares.

That's what examiners want to see: theory application to the real world. And let's face it - in November 2025, we've got no shortage of real-world examples to choose from.

Stay well,