Page 215 - DMGT406_HUMAN_RESOURCE_MANAGEMENT

Human Resource Management

Notes bargaining is to arrive at an agreement on wages and other conditions of employment. Both the
employer and the employees may begin the process with divergent views but ultimately try to
reach a compromise, making some sacrifices. As soon as a compromise is reached, the terms of
agreement are put into operation.
The underlying idea of collective bargaining is that the employer and employee relations
should not be decided unilaterally or with the intervention of any third party. Both parties must
reconcile their differences voluntarily through negotiations, yielding some concessions and
making sacrifices in the process. Both should bargain from a position of strength; there should
be no attempt to exploit the weaknesses or vulnerability of one party. With the growth of union
movement all over the globe and the emergence of employers' associations, the collective
bargaining process has undergone significant changes. Both parties have, more or less, realised
the importance of peaceful co-existence for their mutual benefit and continued progress.

13.3.1 Features

Some of the important features of collective bargaining may be listed thus:
1. Collective: It is collective in two ways. One is that all the workers collectively bargain for
their common interests and benefits. The other is that workers and management jointly
arrive at an amicable solution through negotiations.
2. Strength: Across the table, both parties bargain from a position of equal strength. In
collective bargaining, the bargaining strength of both parties is equal. It is industrial
democracy at work.
3. Flexible: It is a group action where representatives of workers and management expend
energies in order to arrive at a consensus. It has sufficient flexibility, since no party can
afford to be inflexible and rigid in such situations. The unique feature of collective
bargaining is that usually the parties concerned start negotiations with entirely divergent
views but finally reach a middle point acceptable to both. It is therefore not a one-way
street but a give and take process.

4. Voluntary: Both workers and management come to the negotiating table voluntarily in
order to have a meaningful dialogue on various troubling issues. They try to probe each
other's views thoroughly before arriving at an acceptable solution. The implementation
of the agreement reached is also a voluntary process.
5. Continuous: Collective bargaining is a continuous process. It does not commence with
negotiations and end with an agreement. The agreement is only a beginning of collective
bargaining. It is a continuous process which includes implementation of the agreement
and also further negotiations.
6. Dynamic: Collective bargaining is a dynamic process because the way agreements are
arrived at, the way they are implemented, the mental make-up of parties involved keeps
changing. As a result, the concept itself changes, grows and expands over time.
7. Power Relationship: Workers want to gain the maximum from management, and
management wants to extract the maximum from workers by offering as little as possible.
To reach a consensus, both have to retreat from such positions and accept less than what is
asked for and give more than what is on offer. By doing so management tries to retain its
control on workplace matters and unions attempt to strengthen their hold over workers
without any serious dilution of their powers.
8. Representation: The chief participants in collective bargaining do not act for themselves.
They represent the claims of labour and management while trying to reach an agreement.
In collective bargaining the employer does not deal directly with workers. He carries out

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