Collective bargaining generally includes negotiations between the two parties (employees representatives and employers representatives).

Collective bargaining consists of negotiations between an employer and a group of employees that determine the conditions of employment. Often employees are represented in the bargaining by a union or other labor organization. The result of collective bargaining procedure is called the collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Collective agreements may be in the form of procedural agreements or substantive agreements. Procedural agreements deal with the relationship between workers and management and the procedures to be adopted for resolving individual or group disputes. This will normally include procedures in respect of individual grievances, disputes and discipline. Frequently, procedural agreements are put into the company rule book which provides information on the overall terms and conditions of employment and codes of behavior. A substantive agreement deals with specific issues, such as basic pay, overtime premiums, bonus arrangements, holiday entitlements, hours of work, etc. In many companies, agreements have a fixed time scale and a collective bargaining process will review the procedural agreement when negotiations take place on pay and conditions of employment. The collective bargaining process comprises of five core steps: 1. Prepare: This phase involves composition of a negotiation team. The negotiation team should consist of representatives of both the parties with adequate knowledge and skills for negotiation. In this phase both the employers representatives and the union examine their own situation in order to develop the issues that they believe will be most important. The first thing to be done is to determine whether there is actually any reason to negotiate at all. A correct understanding of the main issues to be covered and intimate knowledge of operations, working conditions, production norms and other relevant conditions is required.

2.

Discuss: Here, the parties decide the ground rules that will guide the negotiations. A process well begun is half done and this is no less true in case of collective bargaining. An environment of mutual trust and understanding is also created so that the collective bargaining agreement would be reached.

3.

Propose: This phase involves the initial opening statements and the possible options that exist to resolve them. In a word, this phase could be described as brainstorming. The exchange of messages takes place and opinion of both the parties is sought.

4.

Bargain: negotiations are easy if a problem solving attitude is adopted. This stage comprises the time when what ifs and supposals are set forth and the drafting of agreements take place.

5.

Settlement: Once the parties are through with the bargaining process, a consensual agreement is reached upon wherein both the parties agree to a common decision

regarding the problem or the issue. This stage is described as consisting of effective joint implementation of the agreement through shared visions, strategic planning and negotiated change.

Collective bargaining operates at three levels:

1. National level 2. Sector or industry level 3. Company/enterprise level Economy-wide (national) bargaining is a bipartite or tripartite form of negotiation between union confederations, central employer associations and government agencies. It aims at providing a floor for lower-level bargaining on the terms of employment, often taking into account macroeconomic goals. Sectoral bargaining, which aims at the standardization of the terms of employment in one industry, includes a range of bargaining patterns. Bargaining may be either broadly or narrowly defined in terms of the industrial activities covered and may be either split up according to territorial subunits or conducted nationally.

The third bargaining level involves the company and/or establishment. As a supplementary type of bargaining, it emphasizes the point that bargaining levels need not be mutually exclusive.

importance
Collective bargaining includes not only negotiations between the employers and unions but also includes the process of resolving labor-management conflicts. Thus, collective bargaining is, essentially, a recognized way of creating a system of industrial jurisprudence. It acts as a method of introducing civil rights in the industry, that is, the management should be conducted by rules rather than arbitrary decision making. It establishes rules which define and restrict the traditional authority exercised by the management. Importance to employees Collective bargaining develops a sense of self respect and responsibility among the employees. It increases the strength of the workforce, thereby, increasing their bargaining capacity as a group. Collective bargaining increases the morale and productivity of employees.

It restricts managements freedom for arbitrary action against the employees. Moreover, unilateral actions by the employer are also discouraged.

Effective collective bargaining machinery strengthens the trade unions movement.

The workers feel motivated as they can approach the management on various matters and bargain for higher benefits.

It helps in securing a prompt and fair settlement of grievances. It provides a flexible means for the adjustment of wages and employment conditions to economic and technological changes in the industry, as a result of which the chances for conflicts are reduced.

Importance to employers 1. It becomes easier for the management to resolve issues at the bargaining level rather than taking up complaints of individual workers.

2.

Collective bargaining tends to promote a sense of job security among employees and thereby tends to reduce the cost of labor turnover to management.

3.

Collective bargaining opens up the channel of communication between the workers and the management and increases worker participation in decision making.

4.

Collective bargaining plays a vital role in settling and preventing industrial disputes.

Importance to society 1. Collective bargaining leads to industrial peace in the country

2.

It results in establishment of a harmonious industrial climate which supports which helps the pace of a nations efforts towards economic and social development since the obstacles to such a development can be reduced considerably.

3.

The discrimination and exploitation of workers is constantly being checked.

4.

It provides a method or the regulation of the conditions of employment of those who

are directly concerned about them.

Characterstics
It is a group process, wherein one group, representing the employers, and the other, representing the employees, sit together to negotiate terms of employment. Negotiations form an important aspect of the process of collective bargaining i.e., there is considerable scope for discussion, compromise or mutual give and take in collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is a formalized process by which employers and independent trade unions negotiate terms and conditions of employment and the ways in which certain employment-related issues are to be regulated at national, organizational and workplace levels. Collective bargaining is a process in the sense that it consists of a number of steps. It begins with the presentation of the charter of demands and ends with reaching an agreement, which would serve as the basic law governing labor management relations over a period of time in an enterprise. Moreover, it is flexible process and not fixed or static. Mutual trust and understanding serve as the by products of harmonious relations between the two parties.

It a bipartite process. This means there are always two parties involved in the process of collective bargaining. The negotiations generally take place between the employees and the management. It is a form of participation.

Collective bargaining is a complementary process i.e. each party needs something that the other party has; labor can increase productivity and management can pay better for their efforts.

Collective bargaining tends to improve the relations between workers and the union on the one hand and the employer on the other.

Collective Bargaining is continuous process. It enables industrial democracy to be effective. It uses cooperation and consensus for settling disputes rather than conflict and confrontation.

Collective bargaining takes into account day to day changes, policies, potentialities, capacities and interests.

It is a political activity frequently undertaken by professional negotiators.

Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions. Collective agreements usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety,overtime, grievance mechanisms and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.[1] The union may negotiate with a single employer (who is typically representing a company's shareholders) or may negotiate with a group of businesses, depending on the country, to reach an industry wide agreement. A collective agreement functions as a labor contract between anemployer and one or more unions. Collective bargaining consists of the process of negotiation between representatives of a union andemployers (generally represented by management, in some countries[which?] by an employers' organization) in respect of the terms and conditions of employment of employees, such as wages, hours of work, working conditions and grievanceprocedures, and about the rights and responsibilities of trade unions. The parties often refer to the result of the negotiation as a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) or as acollective employment agreement (CEA).
Contents
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1 History 2 International protection 3 Economic theory 4 As applied to public or government employees 5 United States 6 See also

7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

[edit]History

The term "collective bargaining" was first used in 1891 by economic theorist Sidney Webb.[2] However, collective negotiations and agreements had existed since the rise of trade unions during the nineteenth century.
[edit]International

protection

...where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.[1] Ronald Reagan, Labor Day Speech at Liberty State Park, 1980

The right to collectively bargain is recognized through international human rights conventions. Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights identifies the ability to organize trade unions as a fundamental human right.[3] Item 2(a) of the International Labour Organization'sDeclaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work defines the "freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining" as an essential right of workers.[4] In June 2007 the Supreme Court of Canada extensively reviewed the rationale for regarding collective bargaining as a human right. In the case of Facilities Subsector Bargaining Association v. British Columbia, the Court made the following observations: The right to bargain collectively with an employer enhances the human dignity, liberty and autonomy of workers by giving them the opportunity to influence the establishment of workplace rules and thereby gain some control over a major aspect of their lives, namely their work... Collective bargaining is not simply an instrument for pursuing external endsrather [it] is intrinsically valuable as an experience in self-government... Collective bargaining permits workers to achieve a form of workplace democracyand to ensure the rule of law in the workplace. Workers gain a voice to influence the establishment of rules that control a major aspect of their lives.[5]

[edit]Economic

theory

Different economic theories provide a number of models intended to explain some aspects of collective bargaining:
1.

The so-called Monopoly Union Model (Dunlop, 1944) states that the monopoly union has the power to maximize the wage rate; the firm then chooses the level of employment. (Recent literature has started to abandon this model.)[citation needed] The Right-to-Manage model, developed by the British school during the 1980s (Nickell), views the labour union and the firm bargaining over the wage rate according to a typical Nash Bargaining Maximin (written as = U1-, where U is the utility function of the labour union, the profit of the firm and represents the bargaining power of the labour unions).

2.

The efficient bargaining model (McDonald and Solow, 1981) sees the union and the firm bargaining over both wages and employment (or, more realistically, hours of work).[citation needed] [edit]As applied to public or government employees
3.
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The controversy over submitting public governments to collective bargaining agreements dates back to the 1930s.[6] In the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a supporter of collective bargaining rights for employees in the private sector, indicated his opposition to such agreements for government or public employee unions in a 1937 letter to the National Federation of Federal Employees: "All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak

by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters."[6] The laws governing local, regional, and national governments may allow government employees to form unions, yet prohibit them from engaging in collective bargaining over one or more rights or benefits such as pay, personnel rights, health insurance, or pension contributions, as well as preventing them from going on strike against the government. Both the federal government and some state and local governments in the United States have such rules.[7][8] Public employee unions are usually prohibited from bargaining collectively with respect to pay or other benefits and/or rights on the grounds that their employer, the general public, is not represented in such collective bargaining agreements but rather by administrative officials who cannot fully represent nor bind the voters to rules or procedures that may conflict with existing or subsequently executed laws and regulations.[6] Thus, a collective agreement providing for fixed rights such as salary rates and pension contributions could not be revised by subsequent legislatures elected by the public at large, even if such measures were required to prevent fiscal insolvency.[6] Another reason cited for not granting collective bargaining rights to public employees is the advantage held by public employee in rights granted under existing civil service or personnel rules.[9] In countries such as the United States, the courts have repeatedly held that public employees possess a property interest in their jobs, which interest triggers constitutional protections to the employee including due process of law.[9] In fact, public employees without collective bargaining rights frequently have more protection against arbitrary and unjust employer action than do private employees with such rights.[9] The reality of collective bargaining is that it is essentially a bilateral process, whereas public policymaking is a multilateral process accessible to all taxpayers on equal terms.[10] This conflict raises the possibility that over time, public employee unions could wield an insurmountable advantage in political power when negotiating government wage and personnel policies with

public administrators and elected officials, to the detriment of taxpayers and other competing groups and interests in the democratic process. [10] This advantage in bargaining power is magnified with respect to certain monopolistic services provided only by the government and which are critical to the welfare and safety of the public at large, such as police and fire protection.[10] Collective bargaining agreements with public employee unions also affect taxpayer rights to due process of law, that is, the right to contest deprivations of property or rights without the right of individual appeal. [11] In the private sector, constitutional collective bargaining and binding arbitration agreements may deprive shareholders of stock or dividend value.[11] Shareholders, however, always have the option to liquidate their interests in a particular private company if bargaining or arbitration with unions affects the value of their property (stock).[11] In contrast, negotiated increases in the cost of pay, pensions, health insurance and other benefits for public employees deprive both existing and subsequent taxpayers of their property through reduction of their income via increased taxation, without due process and right of redress through administrative or judicial appeal.[11]
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