Hey can someone help in this case study:

Since the sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Equal Pay Act 1970 came into force employers have been forced to pay attention to the differentials that often exist in workplaces between the jobs men and women perform and the pay they receive. The application of the detailed requirements of the Equal Pay Act in workplaces has raised a number of difficult problems. Very often there are differences of interpretation and the lack of explicit job definitions, for an example in the form of job descriptions, makes the situation even more difficult. Sometimes job titles are different but the jobs are, except for minor details, the same and any pay differentials are discriminatory. In other instances, men and women are ostensibly performing the same job, with the same title, but men receive a higher rate of pay because they perform some tasks that the women do not. This case illustrates a problem of this kind where there is equality but not entirely!

The Water-head Mouldings Company was established in a small rural location 22 years ago. It has a workforce of 150, many of whom live locally. This has led to a stable workforce with exception of the younger women who tend to leave school and work for the firm for a few years until they marry and have a family. Even then they often return after a period of time and the firm considers applications from ex-employees favorable. The firm does not pay highly but for the area gives average pay and alternative employment is difficult to find. The firm is rather paternalistic but the atmosphere within it is very friendly, with many people knowing each other or being related. The firm makes moulds and moulding machinery for the plastics and rubber moulding industry. There is a manufacturing department, which employs skilled tool makers. Supporting this is a stores area which houses all the raw materials including the steel, fasteners, fabrications, seals and so on. The stores personnel, of whom there are ten, are unskilled. They act as the goods inwards department, the stores personnel performing most of the jobs as and when required and this suits everyone. However, as is the case in other parts of the firm, job have evolved piecemeal to suit the circumstances of the time rather than according to any plan.

The firm is unionized with the toolmakers in a craft union and the rest of the firm, including the stores area, in a general union. There have been few disagreements which have upset the settled atmosphere at Water-head Moulding and the union officials have rarely had much to do. Usually any matters arising are dealt with in an unofficial and friendly way. This is true for the stores area as well. One of the stores personnel is the shop steward but the job is something of a sinecure. Where changes are made the manager informs the steward. There are also annual pay negotiations to deal with. Apart from this there is little call on the steward to do very much.

Very recently the union's regional office sent out some literature on the workings of the Sex Discrimination Act and Equal Pay Act and said they were instigating a drive to enforce the letter and the intent of the law. Water-head Mouldings was targeted by the union as one place where there might be some work to be done to bring the firm's practices into line. The unofficial senior steward went to see Jim Bolton, the Personnel Officer to raise the issue of equality. After some discussion the two agreed that a small committee should be set up to investigate this area of the firm's operations. Both agreed that neither knew much about the subject or how well the firm was implementing the law. They also agreed that the committee would have to include some women. Subsequently the committee was formally constituted. It included the Personnel Officer, as the chair, a female representative from the office (albeit not a union official, as the office union representative was currently a man), a female representative from the production department (again not the official union representative) and the office manager. It was agreed that in the event of a tie the committee would vote for a change in favor of female members of staff.

The committee met quite frequently initially, then less often as they seemed to lose momentum. They found a number of instances of discrimination in the firm and also it was noted that the senior positions in the firm were all occupied by men. For the latter it was decided to positively assist women in the junior positions to take training courses and for them to be given the opportunity to perform jobs that would enhance their potential for promotion. In the manufacturing department this solution could not work as all the operatives were men. The firm said they would consider employing women in such positions but there had never been any applications from women for such jobs. Ironically it was the unions who were held to blame for the male domination of the tool making trade with their recruitment policies for apprenticeships.

It was in the stores that there were found to be considerable problems. There were three grades of store person (except that all the documentation referred to them as store-men). The committee was concerned that this area in particular needed to be investigated thoroughly as there were a number of discriminatory situations. A further complication that came to light, after inquiries into pay rates, was that the male store men had a slightly higher rate of pay than the women. This had arisen historically as the result of a claim that men had to do the lifting worked and had to climb up steep ladders onto a mezzanine floor that the women would not go up to. The differential amounted to 2.2p per hour.

Here are the question:

Question 1

Evaluate why trade unions are using equity in pay as the basis of negotiations whilst management or employers are using productivity as the basis? (3 marks)

Question 2

Critically analyse the case study and discuss the situations where the trade union and the employer are in healthy competition? (3 marks)

Question 3

Critically evaluate the case study and discuss the situations where the trade union and the employer have unhealthy conflict? (3 marks)

Question 4

Critically discuss the organization politics or power competition between the trade unions and management of Water Moulding Company from the case study? (3 marks)

Question 5

Critically discuss the managerial dilemma in the form of dilemma of cultures that existed in Water Mould Company as depicted in the case study? (3 marks)