Employer-Employee Relations

Mr. halcroft. the general Motor Industrial Relations Manager, spoke on the great mutual benefit to be derived from an industrial relations programme.

The whole economy of the country, he said, depended upon good mutual relations, industry overall to justify its existence should (i) supply the community with goods; (ii), and provide a place where a man might work and get pleasure in his work. Previously welfare meant bowls of soup and chunks of bread: the modern approach realised that the employee wanted not only opportunities but a life worth living from the proceeds of labour. Industry labour cotts were greater than all other costs put together. Therefore the relation between the worker and his immediate superior provided the single most important relationship in industrial relations. "G.M.'s" [unclear: atti] page 8 tude was set out in their "creed." In the programme of industrial relations there were two steps (a) the sincere self-examination by the employer; (b) and the laying down of basic principles. Unless the employer could get men to work with him instead of for him, all his training was of no use. The basic difference between a good business and a bad one lay in personal relationships. It was all a matter of leadership and the essence of leadership was example.