Collective Bargaining

Collective bargaining has been known to differ from one country, e.g. the USA and others mainly due to different philosophical and political leanings for the collective bargaining system.

Collective bargaining can be defined as the process whereby representatives of management and workers negotiate over such items as wages, working hours, and conditions of employment. Collective Agreement is intended as a mutual benefit of both. There exists though the threat of conflict which is necessary to maintain the relationship. The most important aspect of collective bargaining, however, is that it is an on going concern. It is not a relationship that will end immediately after an agreement is reached.

Collective bargaining can be said to be a private process of negotiation between unions and management aimed at settling disputes before they turn into conflicts and industrial and labour unrest. Negotiations here are supposed to result into a solution. But when solutions are not found management and trade unions are supposed to submit disputes to mediation or arbitration. Mediation is an attempt to settle disputes through a neutral third party, where a mediator may be a professional acceptable by both the unions and management.

An arbitrator for the negotiation is different from a mediator in that an arbitrator has the power to make binding decisions. Arbitration is therefore the process by which a grievance or dispute is resolved by an important third party.Arbitration takes two kinds i.e. conciliatory, where both the management and the union agree to call the third party and compulsory where the law provides for a third party to intervene.