logo
 

PAPUA NEW GUINEA - BUAI DIGITAL PROJECT

IDRC Pan Asia Networking sponsorship

 




Technology & applied sciences

PNGBUAI.COM
Home page

SEARCH ENGINE
Search collection

Chapter 8 :  Conclusion - Industrial & Employment Relations in the Mining Industry - Papua New Guinea 2000

By:  Benedict Y. Imbun - UPNG Press 2000.
Table of contents |

Conclusion of Book

This book set out to examine industrial relations in PNG mining by particularly making reference to the Porgera mine. It throws light not just on the phenomena under investigation but also on the wider canvas of the country, its people, economy and the mining industry, along with the Porgera mine with its host local community. Analysis of a variety of data collected through interviews, document analysis, secondary sources, and direct and 'participant' observations of a number of events in Porgera and other mines indicate that labour relations is a challenging area for multinational mining companies in PNG. Much of the challenges or 'problems' stem from the recent introduction of capitalism into the previous predominantly subsistence economy.

As noted before, PNG has a large subsistence sector. The formal economy is identified by the following notable features: a small industrial sector and working class, a small labour market where skill deficiencies in some core professions still occur, a striving but small mining sector, the dominance of the state as an employer, generally weak trade unions, and the existence of a paternalistic management. According to Siddique's (1989) model these conditions allow states in developing countries to have an interventionist role in industrial relations and to promote corporatist policies as normal. Yet, as articulated, unlike most developing countries, PNG is an exception in that the state's role in industrial relations and also in the economy is a laissez-faire role and it only intervenes as an intermediatory or a facilitator of productive employment relations. Industrial relations in PNG and in particular Porgera are influenced by a complex web of issues and concerns emanating from both the workforce and the local community which requires delicate attention by management. It is important to stress that the neglect of either one is detrimental to the continued safe and sound operation of the mine.

This book's findings on employment and training provides evidence of worker dissatisfaction concerning localisation of crucial management jobs, and provides a active picture of a local community acting both 'formally' and informally to influence management to favour locals for jobs in the mine. On going co-operation between tribal workers and management is one of the issues which make industrial relations in PNG mining more complex than the Kerr et al. (1960) model of human resource development suggests.

The findings of this book can be related to general concepts and models used in the field of industrial relations. However, the unique character of PNG's industrial relations system with issues, history and limited economic parameters, is not explained in the general theories. There are important areas of union, community, government and management (developer) interest where participatory involvement by the parties occurs because of the way the political and economic structure of the country is shaped, together with a cynical perception of multinational mining companies. The inter-play of the elite parties of managers, bureaucrats and tribal headmen may demonstrate participation at the highest level but they are not at all indicative of the day to day experience of the newly trained industrial worker in the less spectacular, mundane areas of mine work in PNG. Nevertheless, in the argument of this book, the articulation of interests within a global framework of procedural cohesion represents a basic form of 'pluralism'.

However, there is a cautionary note which concerns the origins of the fundamental concepts of union, management and above all, industrial relations. These terms which resulted from the introduction of capitalism and which have been intrinsically accompanied by the adoption of a western legal framework in PNG are of recent foreign origin and are unfamiliar to the bulk of the mine workforce at Porgera mine and other workplaces in the country. The evidence suggests that most of the Porgeran mineworkers have sought industrial employment only in the past decade, as a result of the establishment of the mine. Thus they look at work simplistically as a medium which can provide them with money to purchase much-envied western goods. Any explanations of their somewhat peculiar behaviour towards work, union, and management which is not intelligible to them raises questions about the validity of the observer's concepts and their significance. However, this is neither to patronise nor to save face for the Porgeran workers. The cautionary note is merely to make the point visible.

Notwithstanding the difficulties of applying theoretical concepts from the advanced west, this study supports the claims of pluralist industrial relations theorists (Fox, 1966; Clegg, 1976) who argue that industrial conflict is a product of diverse interest groups and sources of loyalty. Contrary to the widely reported developing countries trend towards a unitarist perspective in managing labour relations, pluralism in industrial relations is relatively strong and is surviving in PNG. Despite the imperfections in the Australian-style industrial relations system, various industrial disputes demonstrate that functioning representative machinery is capable of settling emerging industrial problems within the existing framework of the law. In particular, industrial dispute settlements in the mining industry indicate the genuine ambition of the various independent trade unions to take up workers' grievances and to fight them through to a pluralist compromise. Contrary to Siddique's view of unitary frameworks sponsored by an authoritarian state as characteristic of developing country labour policy, industrial relations in PNG mining exhibits secure pluralistic forms. These include independent unionism and structures at the company and national level able to accommodate a range of bargaining issues together with representational rights for a range of stakeholders which, in this case, includes non-individual parties from the community.

Industrial relations in PNG mining does not closely resemble the historically stereotyped 'western' industrial relations: characterised by hard management, voracious international capital and the archetypal proletarian: the male collier. The PNG experience challenges the universality of the archetypal proletarian miner as a skilled worker in a dangerous industry less likely to imagine jobs outside the industry and belonging to a highly socialised labour process which helps shape an 'isolated mass' essentially distinct from the broader society. It is been theorised that such isolation explains differences in strike propensity between industries (Kerr and Siegel, 1954). This book recognises that there is local variation and distinctive local features influencing workers. The Papua New Guinean miner does closely resemble the old-time British collier, the underground coal miner who is a staunch trade unionist and very conscious of his 'class position' in a traditional and conservative single-industry community. In the case of the average Porgeran miner, he is first a tribesman and then a semi-skilled individual worker and this allows him to freely rotate between paid work and his other essential source of survival and community solidarity, namely subsistence farming. Belonging to a trade union is not very crucial because he is constrained by more than economic necessity in seeking and maintaining his work. He has not even become urbanised like the colliers of England and Australia in mining towns and villages.

Another crucial difference in the Papua New Guinean experience of mining that differentiates it from the western popular stereotype has been the role of indentured mine labour. Like bonding of labour in some earlier Asian mines and convict labour in China, Japan and lately Australia, indentured mine labour demonstrates the complexity of social relations that was a feature of PNG mining in the 1930s and 1940s. PNG mine workers in these periods endured conditions of exploitation in a quite different social context from the stereotypical western male collier. The PNG mineworkers' labour was indentured and unfree and their wages were paid in kind to comply with the labour policies of a paternalistic colonial administration. Much of their dissatisfaction over working conditions was reflected in various forms of covert conflict.

Additionally, unlike the committed western miner whose orientation to work is a result of experience, tradition, and community situation, many Papua New Guinean tribal workers with their very basic understanding of formal industrial and employment relations still perceive work as belonging to individuals and not institutions. In order for them to do a required amount of work the manager responsible has to be capable of communicating with them in a fairly intensive way. Although such skills are applied by managers in workplaces elsewhere, what is particularly demanding about PNG workplaces is the overwhelming expectation by workers of their manager to be like their typically traditional but benevolent 'big man' or chief in their villages. As well as technical and co-ordinating skills, a manager at this stage of development is required to emulate the kinder and familiar qualities of a 'big man' (like being considerate, kind, and understanding) in order to have a sound workplace which is conducive to increasing productivity. If there is an insensitive approach to local circumstances a western manager can expect the least in productivity from tribal miners.

Similarly, another notable difference is how Papua New Guinean tribesmen have assimilated to the modern concept of mine work. For most, jobs have been seen as a stepping stone to advancement to other activities outside mining. For example, as examined in chapter seven, the illiterate and unskilled Porgeran workers have the lowest degree of commitment to mine work. They want to accumulate enough money to attend to various tribal activities. Some of them had also entrepreneurial aspirations which led to get involved with businesses while employed in the mine. Only a privileged few educated persons resemble the western miner who sees wage employment as the sole source of a cash income. In this sense, PNG's miners are at an early stage in the culture of industrialisation as theorised in Kerr et al.'s sequential model. For all but a few of PNG's miners, exclusive commitment to wage labour and the industrial way of life was not greatly in evidence at the time this book was researched. However, with the expansion of the world mineral economy, this may well change. This book has sought to account for both the institutional actors and the local factors which determine workplace behaviour in PNG mining. The role of social and economic formations that pre-date capitalism has been examined as a factor in local workplace attitudes and behaviour. However, nothing is static, and even an ancient subsistence culture such as PNG has been affected by the corrosive and dynamic forces of modern capitalism. Younger mines than Porgera have been established during the course of this study such as Lihir and Tolukuma which await their researchers to chronicle the evolution of their employment and industrial relations.

In terms of the theoretical literature, the empirical findings from PNG mining have novel implications. Unlike the usual case in developing countries, PNG industrial relations exhibit strong signs of 'pluralism' as traditionally understood by the Oxford scholars and American political scientists. In addition, PNG offers a relatively modest role for the state in labour matters, and is again, for this reason, something of an exception when measured against the general pattern for developing countries analysed by Siddique. Moreover, in contrast to the empirical cases which inform Kerr et al.'s model, PNG's labour market is structured by employer recognition of ethnic and affirmative action and its claims. In summation, the book concludes that PNG is, to a considerable degree, 'exceptional'

   Benedict Y. Imbun - UPNG Press 2000

Authorization has been given by the author to reprint the following sections of this book on PNGBUAI.COM web site:

| Technology & applied sciences areaTop of page | PNGBUAI.COM home page | Site search engine |

© copyright 2000 - Benedict Y. Imbun PNGBUAI.COM Papua New Guinea

to return to mining section click here

References
  • 1999 the Canadian Globabl Almanac / John R. Colombo, general editor - Macmillan Canada, Toronto - ISBN 0-7715-7616-1 - pp.478

This is a prototype web site ©2000 pngbuai.com  You can contact site administration team by email.



















Site News
























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page 























 Top of page