by Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers’ compensation and rights for workers. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.
Levels
At the National Level:
At the national level the bargaining is mutual and agreements usually take the form of ‘bipartite agreements’ entered into between labour union and managements in the presence of the government representatives. The agreement entered into between Indian Tea Association, Indian Tea Planters Association and Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) and INTUC is an example of collective bargaining at the national level.
At the Industry Level:
Here all unions of an industry enter into an agreement with the employers in general. In India, collective bargaining of this type is very popular in textile industry where agreements are reached between labour unions and the various management bodies.
At Plant Level:
Such a bargaining is limited to a particular unit or undertaking enterprise only.
