Problem: You are the HR manager of a business that, in January 2020 employed 270 full-time employees, and approximately the same number of part-time and casual employees. Currently, employees are all paid under legislated Award conditions (which mean there is no union or collective agreement). CoVid-19 has meant that the company has faced some difficulties with international supply chains and sales. You have been forced to restructure and have lost more than 30 per cent of the 2020 staffing numbers (through voluntary redundancies, voluntary early retirements, and a small number of forced redundancies). Recently, just as business is starting to get back to pre-Covid levels you have heard rumors that some employees are very disgruntled. Your CEO has come to you after hearing rumors that some employees are in contact with a union in an attempt to put in place an enterprise agreement under the Fair Work Act 2009 cth). Your CEO has asked you to provide an options paper which will outline three potential approaches to managing this situation. Your document should provide potential positive and negative outcomes for each of your proposed approaches.
References: You are required to refer to the content in a minimum of three scholarly references (peer reviewed, full-text journal articles) that refer to theoretical and empirical research relating to the role of HR/ER managers in such a scenario.