Collective Bargaining Meaning, Characteristics

Industrial disputes between the employee and employer can also be settled by discussion and negotiation between these two parties in order to arrive at a decision.

This is also commonly known as collective bargaining as both the parties eventually agree to follow a decision that they arrive at after a lot of negotiation and discussion.

According to Beach, “Collective Bargaining is concerned with the relations between unions reporting employees and employers (or their representatives).

It involves the process of union organization of employees, negotiations administration and interpretation of collective agreements concerning wages, hours of work and other conditions of employees arguing in concerted economic actions dispute settlement procedures”.

According to Flippo, “Collective Bargaining is a process in which the representatives of a labor organization and the representatives of business organization meet and attempt to negotiate a contract or agreement, which specifies the nature of employee-employer union relationship”.

“Collective Bargaining is a mode of fixing the terms of employment by means of bargaining between organized body of employees and an employer or association of employees acting usually through authorized agents. The essence of Collective Bargaining is bargaining between interested parties and not from outside parties”.

According to an ILO Manual in 1960, the Collective Bargaining is defined as:

“Negotiations about working conditions and terms of employment between an employer, a group of employees or one or more employers organization on the other, with a view to reaching an agreement.”

It is also asserted that “the terms of agreement serve as a code defining the rights and obligations of each party in their employment relations with one another, if fixes large number of detailed conditions of employees and during its validity none of the matters it deals with, internal circumstances give grounds for a dispute counseling and individual workers”.

Collective Bargaining Involves:

(i) Negotiations

(ii) Drafting

(iii) Administration

(iv) Interpretation of documents written by employers, employees and the union representatives

(v) Organizational Trade Unions with 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. This form prevails in the United States as well as in India.

Secondly, the bargaining may be between a single firm having several plants and workers employed in all those plants. This form is called multiple plants bargaining where workers bargain with the common employer through different unions.

Thirdly, instead of a separate union bargaining with separate employer, 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. Instances in India of this industry wide bargaining are found in the textile industry.

The common malady of union rivalry, small firms and existence of several political parties has given rise to a small unit of collective bargaining. It has produced higher labour cost, lack of appreciation, absence of sympathy and economic inefficiency in the realm of industrial relationships. An industry-wide bargaining can be favourable to the economic and social interests of both the employers and employees.

Essential Pre-Requisites for Collective Bargaining:

Effective collective bargaining requires the following pre­requisites:

(i) Existence of a strong representative trade union in the industry that believes in constitutional means for settling the disputes.

(ii) Existence of a fact-finding approach and willingness to use new methods and tools for the solution of industrial problems. The negotiation should be based on facts and figures and both the parties should adopt constructive approach.

(iii) Existence of strong and enlightened management which can integrate the different parties, i.e., employees, owners, consumers and society or Government.

(iv) Agreement on basic objectives of the organisation between the employer and the employees and on mutual rights and liabilities should be there.

(v) In order that collective bargaining functions properly, unfair labour practices must be avoided by both the parties.

(vi) Proper records for the problem should be maintained.

(vii) Collective bargaining should be best conducted at plant level. It means if there are more than one plant of the firm, the local management should be delegated proper authority to negotiate with the local trade union.

(viii) There must be change in the attitude of employers and employees. They should realise that differences can be resolved peacefully on negotiating table without the assistance of third party.

(ix) No party should take rigid attitude. They should enter into negotiation with a view to reaching an agreement.

(x) When agreement is reached after negotiations, it must be in writing incorporating all term of the contract.

Main characterstics of Collective Bargaining:

1. It is a Group Action:

Collective bargaining is a group action as opposed to individual action. Both the parties of settlement are represented by their groups. Employer is represented by its delegates and, on the other side; employees are represented by their trade union.

2. It is a Continuous Process:

Collective bargaining is a continuous process and does not end with one agreement. It provides a mechanism for continuing and organised relationship between management and trade union. It is a process that goes on for 365 days of the year.

3. It is a Bipartite Process:

Collective bargaining is a two-party process. Both the party’s employers and employees collectively take some action. There is no intervention of any third party. It is mutual given-and-take rather than take-it-or-leave-it method of arriving at the settlement of a dispute.

4. It is a Process:

Collective bargaining is a process in the sense that it consists of a number of steps. The starting point is the presentation of charter of demands by the workers and the last step is the reaching of an agreement, or a contract which would serve as the basic law governing labour-management relations over a period of time in an enterprise.

5. It is Flexible and Mobile and not Fixed or Static:

It has fluidity. There is no hard and fast rule for reaching an agreement. There is ample scope for compromise. A spirit of give-and-take works unless final agreement acceptable to both the parties is reached.

6. It is Industrial Democracy at Work:

Collective bargaining is based on the principle of industrial democracy where the labour union represents the workers in negotiations with the employer or employers. Industrial democracy is the government of labour with the consent of the governed the workers. The principle of arbitrary unilateralism has given way to that of self-government in industry. Actually, collective bargaining is not a mere signing of an agreement granting seniority, vacations and wage increase, by sitting around a table.

7. It is Dynamic:

It is relatively a new concept, and is growing, expanding and changing. In the past, it used to be emotional, turbulent and sentimental, but now it is scientific, factual and systematic.

8. It is a Complementary and not a Competitive Process:

Collective bargaining is not a competitive process i.e., labour and management do not coopt while negotiating for the same object. It is essentially a complementary process i.e., each party needs something which the other party has, namely, labour can put greater productive effort and management has the capacity to pay for that effort and to organise and guide it for achieving the enterprise’s objectives.

The behavioural scientists have made a good distinction between “distributive bargaining” and “integrative bargaining”. The former is the process of dividing up the cake which represents what has been produced by the joint efforts of management and labour.

In this process, if one party wins something, the other party, to continue the metaphor of the cake, has a relatively smaller size of the cake. So it is a win-lose’ relationship. The integrative bargaining, on the other hand, is the process where both the parties can win each party contributing something for the benefit of the other party.

9. It is an Art:

Collective bargaining is an art, an advanced form of human relations.