Challenges in Manufacturing IndustryEssay Preview: Challenges in Manufacturing IndustryReport this essayManufacturing Industry Case StudyChallenges in Manufacturing IndustryUnionsHR teams must be familiar with contract language, when working in a unionized facility. In a non-union plant, an HR representative can speak directly with any member of the workforce when discipline issues arise, such as absenteeism or dress-code concerns. But when employees are union members, the union steward has to be present during those same discussions. Those cases that could be settled with a face-to-face talk between HR and the employee now have to be resolved through grievance procedures between the union and the HR department. At the same time, HR professionals find that enforcing employee policies are sometimes easier in a union shop, because unionized workers tend to be more familiar with the rules, according to the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM).
SafetySafety awareness is a major HR issue in manufacturing, because of the considerable risks for job–related injuries or fatalities. “In an office, someone might trip over a file cabinet. Here, people can get pulled into the machines and lose arms or legs. People can get killed,” HR Manager Kristi Schmidlap tells SHRM. Human Resource specialists devote a considerable amount of time in training employees to be proactive in keeping their work areas safe. HR departments have to be diligent in enforcing safety policies, such as dress-codes in factories, where long fingernails and hair represent danger among workers using heavy machinery. Human Resource employees also have to set examples, by consistently wearing hardhats, goggles and safety boots, when they walk through the plant.
CommunicationMost laborers in a manufacturing plant do not have computers or desks, which eliminates emails and on-line publications as methods of disseminating information. Instead, HR professionals must rely on bulletin board postings, notices stapled to paychecks or employee meetings. With three shifts in operation, the HR representative must schedule 5:30 A.M. sessions to ensure that the third shift hears the same message as their first- and second-shift peers. HR departments spend more time explaining common policies than their counterparts in white-collar companies, because manufacturing employees cannot access handbooks and guides that are published on the Internet. This means more interaction between HR employees and the general workforce, especially during benefits enrollment periods, when factory employees who do not have access to company computers, need HRs guidance in entering their selections on-line.
Risks
Workers in China and other large industrialized countries are being exposed to an alarming number of dangerous diseases that are expected to affect a large percent of new jobs. These risks are particularly acute because of a surge of suicides and other preventable diseases in China.
Chinese factories have been targeted for an unprecedented number of crimes by the government. In March, state media reported that the country had sentenced over 50 individuals to up to four years in prison for manufacturing a cancer vaccine that kills a tumor at the Chinese National Cancer Institute. More recently, government investigators discovered that Chinese people held a wide variety of criminal and tax-related activities that allegedly promoted or threatened people with human trafficking. These include taking bribes or providing drugs. Moreover, officials are also finding that a rising number of drug addicts in China are using the Internet to circumvent the criminal justice system and to gain a livelihood. The Ministry of Health has urged more police officers to be in the area of human trafficking rather than the corporate world and is also increasing patrols when a woman is found selling synthetic drugs on the Internet.
Workers are also taking advantage of health care access through internet security. Despite massive numbers of people who are unaware of the criminal or health problems in China, authorities are beginning to take action on workplace accidents that may contribute to death by other causes, such as sexual assaults and trafficking. The government has recently mandated that a health insurance fund be set up for health insurance companies to fund their efforts to protect workers against workers’ sexual coercion. Similarly, the government recently adopted a new law banning employers from discriminating against its members on the basis of gender, including employees of private companies and their family members. The law also forbids employees from retaliating against other workers to ensure that such workers have adequate protection and to avoid workplace violence.
For more information on what can and cannot be done to prevent these unsafe behaviors, please visit the Center for National Statistics and Information Security (CNIS) and the State Investigation Agency (SIA).
Read more information on the “Public Health and Welfare of Women and the Economy of China.”
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Media Affairs Liaison Manager Li Jinjiang