ABSTRACT
The standard offering on industrial relations is about what is usually called ‘the British system of industrial relations’ - number, structure and organisation of trade unions; relevant legislation; pay bargaining systems; and probably some analysis of the cause and distribution of strikes. In the flux of industrial relations questions handled by production managers' issues directly relating to pay are a minority. Most industrial relations incidents are more complicated than they appear at first sight. It is important to grasp that the accounts given by either side are likely to be at least incomplete and are sometimes downright misleading. There is a tendency for issues to be redefined in the interest of acceptability in industrial relations. Custom and practice is a standard, indeed hallowed, phrase in the rhetoric of British industrial relations. Industrial relations clashes, and for that matter procedures, are not all ritual: they are about real issues which affect and mean something to the parties concerned.
