Problematic: Despite the economic significance, labour-intensive and unique regulatory framework of India's alcoholic beverage sector, there is an empirical gap regarding IR in this sector. The purpose of this study is to find the determinants of effective industrial relations in liquor manufacturing units of western Uttar Pradesh based on employee–management relations, collective bargaining, trade unions, participative management and health, safety and welfare provision and to test whether there is difference of opinion between workers and officers regarding IR climate.
Design/methodology/approach: Structured questionnaire with seven IR constructs based on five-point Likert scale was administered to 356 respondents (259 workers and 97 officers/executives) both in five liquor manufacturing units of western Uttar Pradesh in January to June 2026. Construct validity was determined by exploratory factor analysis (KMO =.964; a clean seven-factor structure was achieved, accounting for 55.3% of variance), composite reliability (.86–.88), average variance extracted (≥.50) and discriminant validity (Fornell–Larcker criterion was satisfied; HTMT ≤.83). Cronbach's alpha for all scales ranged from.798 to.837, and Harman's single-factor test resulted in no significant common method bias. Pearson correlation, simple and multiple linear regression, independent samples t-test, chi square analysis and one way analysis of variance were used to test hypotheses.
Results: Effective industrial relations was significantly predicted by employee–management relations (β =.662), collective bargaining (β =.659), trade union functioning (β =.631) and health, safety and welfare measures (β =.665), and job satisfaction was significantly predicted by participative management (β =.593), while perceived industrial harmony was significantly predicted by participative management (β =.547). Together, the five antecedents accounted for 62.5% of the variance in IR effectiveness; participative management was the best single predictor (β =.224). In addition, workers reported significantly lower perceptions than officers on participative management, grievance handling, welfare provision and overall IR climate (Cohen's d = 0.33–0.82), but no differences were found between worker and officer perceptions on collective bargaining and perceptions of trade unions.
Practical implications: In order to consolidate the industrial peace in the sector, Managements should focus on the need to encourage worker participation, grievance machinery and their transparency etc.
Originality/value: One of the first multi-firm quantitative studies of industrial relations in the Indian liquor industry, and quantification of a perception gap hierarchy, which the pluralist IR theory suggests but has not been measured in Indian manufacturing.