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Stages and Strategies of Collective Bargaining

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The ILO Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention (No. 98), 1949 describes collective bargaining as: "Voluntary negotiation between employers or employers' organizations and workers organizations, with a view to the regulation of terms and conditions of employment by collective agreements." Collective bargaining could also be defined as negotiations relating to terms of employment and conditions of work between an employer, a group of employers or an employers' organization on the one hand, and representative workers' organizations on the other, with a view to reaching agreement. There are several essential features of collective bargaining, all of which cannot be reflected in a single definition or description of …show more content…

The subsequent arguments and counter arguments can become heated and even acrimonious. Negotiations can break down and resume and the matter remains inconclusive without any progress for many days. Stage 3: Signaling This collective bargaining model rests on the worker's representatives submitting proposals that they consider ideal, but willing to settle for less, and the management willing to concede more than they publicly acknowledge. Sending signals across to the other party, through subtle messages, change of tone, body language, and other cues reveal to the other side that the proposal under discussion will meet with little resistance, can be accepted with modifications, or have a low chance of acceptance. Signaling thereby reveals the resistance point to the other party without making it explicit. Failure to send signals leads to both sides sticking to their positions, causing impasse and a breakdown of negotiation and the dispute escalating to the next level of industrial action. Stage 4: Proposal One of the important stages of collective bargaining negotiations is one side making a proposal in a bid to end the argument and reach a settlement. Such proposals are reconciliation of arguments made by either side, based on the signals received. Stage 5: Packaging Good negotiators package proposals. Packaging involves making concessions, but placing items that remain too tempting to resist along with some

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