Collective Bargaining Basics

As per ILO, Collective bargaining is defined as all negotiations which take place between an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations, on the one hand, and one or more workers’ organisations, on the other, for:

(a) determining working conditions and terms of employment

(b) regulating relations between employers and workers

(c) regulating relations between employers or their organisations and a workers’ organisation or workers’ organisations.” (Article 2)

Collective Bargaining Involves:

• Negotiations
• Drafting
• Administration
• Interpretation of documents written by employers, employees, and the union representatives
• Organizational Trade Unions with an open mind.

Forms of Collective Bargaining:

• The working of collective bargaining assumes various forms. In the first place, bargaining may be between the single employer and the single union, this is known as single plant bargaining.
• Secondly, bargaining may be between a single firm having several plants and workers employed in all those plants. This form is called multiple plant bargaining.
• Thirdly, instead of a separate union bargaining with the separate employers, all the unions belonging to the same industry bargain through their federation with the employer’s federation of that industry. This is known as multiple employer bargaining which is possible both at the local and regional levels.

Pre-Requisites for Collective Bargaining:

Effective collective bargaining requires the following pre­requisites:

• Existence of a strong representative trade union in the industry that believes in constitutional means for settling the disputes.
• Existence of a fact-finding approach and willingness to use new methods and tools for the solution of industrial problems.
• The existence of strong and enlightened management can integrate the different parties.
• Collective bargaining should be best conducted at the plant level.

Features of Collective Bargaining

• It is a Group Action
• It is a Continuous Process
• It is a Bipartite Process that is collective bargaining is a two party process.
• Collective bargaining is a process in the sense that it consists of a number of steps.
• Collective bargaining is based on the principle of industrial democracy.

Means of Collective Bargaining:

Generally, there are four important methods of collective bargaining, namely, negotiation, mediation, conciliation, and arbitration for the settlement of trade disputes.

• Conciliation is a term often applied to the art of collective bargaining, a term often applied to the action of the public board which attempts to induce collective bargaining.
• Mediation is the intervention usually uninvited, of some outside person of the body with a view of getting conciliation or to force a settlement, compulsory arbitration is extreme mediation.

Collective Bargaining Steps

There are three distinct steps in the process of collective bargaining:

The Creation of the Trade Agreement:

In negotiating the contract, a union and management present their demands to each other, compromise their differences, and agree on the conditions under which the workers are to be employed for the duration of the contract.

The Interpretation of the Agreement

The administrative process is the day-to-day application of the provisions of the contract to the work situation. At the time of writing the contract, it is impossible to foresee all the special problems which will arise in applying its provisions.

Enforcement of the Agreement

Proper and timely enforcement of the contract is very essential for the success of collective bargaining. If a contract is enforced in such a way that it reduces or nullifies the benefits expected by the parties, it will defeat the basic purpose of collective bargaining.

Collective Bargaining Theories

The Marketing Concept and the Agreement as a Contract

The marketing concept views collective bargaining as a contract for the sale of labour. According to this theory, employees sell their individual labour only on terms collectively determined on the basis of a contract which has been made through the process of collective bargaining.

The Governmental Concept and the Agreement as Law

The Governmental Concept views collective bargaining as a constitutional system in the industry. The union shares sovereignty with management over the workers and, as their representative, uses that power in their interests. The contract is viewed as a constitution, written by the point conference of union and management representative in the form of a compromise or trade agreement.

The Industrial Relations (Managerial) Concept as Jointly Decided Directives

The industrial relations concept views collective bargaining as a system of industrial governance. It is a functional relationship. Group Government substitutes the State Government. The union representative gets a hand in the managerial role. The union joins with company officials in reaching decisions on matters in which both have vital interests. Thus, union representatives and the management meet each other to arrive at a mutual agreement that they cannot do alone. The industrial relations approach can be traced to the Industrial Disputes Act of 1947 in our country, which established a legal basis for union participation in the management.

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