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    Case - Top Trucking Co

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    Purnima Sidhant Babbar
    The case study describes how a trucking company improved workplace relations through new leadership and practices. A new yard manager consulted with union representatives and employees, invested in training and equipment, and shared performance information transparently. These changes built respect and led to improved safety, productivity and contracts. However, sustaining the progress could be at risk if the supportive union delegate or yard manager were to leave the company.

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    Case - Top Trucking Co

    Uploaded by

    Purnima Sidhant Babbar
    23 views1 page
    The case study describes how a trucking company improved workplace relations through new leadership and practices. A new yard manager consulted with union representatives and employees, invested in training and equipment, and shared performance information transparently. These changes built respect and led to improved safety, productivity and contracts. However, sustaining the progress could be at risk if the supportive union delegate or yard manager were to leave the company.

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    Lecture Note 9 Australian Employment Regulation

    Original Title

    Case- Top Trucking Co

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    The case study describes how a trucking company improved workplace relations through new leadership and practices. A new yard manager consulted with union representatives and employees, invested in training and equipment, and shared performance information transparently. These changes built respect and led to improved safety, productivity and contracts. However, sustaining the progress could be at risk if the supportive union delegate or yard manager were to leave the company.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    23 views1 page

    Case - Top Trucking Co

    Uploaded by

    Purnima Sidhant Babbar
    The case study describes how a trucking company improved workplace relations through new leadership and practices. A new yard manager consulted with union representatives and employees, invested in training and equipment, and shared performance information transparently. These changes built respect and led to improved safety, productivity and contracts. However, sustaining the progress could be at risk if the supportive union delegate or yard manager were to leave the company.

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    of 1

    MHR001 Managing Workplace Relations

    CASE STUDY: CONSTRUCTIVE RELATIONS AT TOP TRUCKING COMPANY


    Top Trucking Company's Wollongong yard was rapidly getting a reputation within the company and
    within the region as a high performance workplace; and oddly enough, George Psaros- a union
    delegate- was playing a pretty important part in the transformation. The yard had long held a strong
    position in the local product market, but it had been a tough place to work. The yard manager was
    very autocratic, preferring to tell people what to do, or yelling at them if it had been a 'bad' day. The
    family that owned the company had been reluctant to spend money on the trucks, which were older
    than they should have been. There were some 'bad eggs' among the drivers and there had been a lot
    of conflict, lots of accidents and lots of stoppages.

    About 3 years ago, the family company was bought out by a big national transport group and the old
    yard manager 'retired'. The new owners had capital that they were prepared to spend on rejuvenating
    the fleet; they cleaned up the yard bought the drivers new uniforms. A new computer system was
    installed in the warehouse. Even more importantly, they appointed a new yard manager who was 'a
    breath of fresh air'. He began to talk to his drivers and their union representatives. When problems
    arose, his approach was not to immediately blame the drivers, but to 'check things out' and explore
    the issues rationally rather than have a knee-jerk reaction. He consciously worked on improving OHS.
    As part of this, the drivers received more training, both technical and in customer service. This guy
    was no pussy cat' - in the early days George had several major arguments with him and there had
    been a couple of short strikes. But George had to admit that the manager always had a reasonable
    point of view and some of George's members were out of line in those disputes. In fact, a couple of
    the 'bad eggs', whom George had been forced to support, had left; which improved the atmosphere a
    lot.

    Things began to change. Most of the drivers started to see that they were no longer being treated like
    children. They felt good about the new trucks and uniforms, and their backs started to straighten.
    They did not like some of the changes in work practices, but once they were introduced, they could
    see their benefits. They came to respect the new manager. George saw the same things. he could
    deal with this manager. In fact, the manager went out of his way to consult with George - not 'crawl' to
    him or patronise him, but talk with him almost as an equal in an effort to improve the image and
    operation of the company. The manager also shared information about the yard's performance with
    the drivers and the union - he was not afraid to open up about the pressures and successes they
    experienced.

    The result over the last couple of years had been impressive. Top Trucking had won a number of new
    contracts. Wollongong topped the tables of key indicators that were used within the company to
    benchmark the various yards. They started to get visitors from head office and from other yards
    around the country to observe their operations. This attention reinforced the growing sense of
    achievement within the yard. George was impressed and he just hoped that the manager was not
    promoted to head office too soon.
    Source: adapted from Kramar et al. 2014 (5e) originally from M. Bray, R. Cooper & P. Waring, 2009, Employment Relations: Theory and Practice, McGraw-Hill, Sydney

    Questions:
    1. How do the new workplace practices introduced by the new yard manager complement one
    another?

    2. What are the risks to sustaining these changes if George or the yard manager move on?

    3. Do you think ‘tough’ blue-collar unions like the Transport Workers Union are more or less likely to
    engage in workplace changes like these than public or service sector unions? Explain why.

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