Page 208 - DMGT516_LABOUR_LEGISLATIONS

Unit 8: Collective Bargaining

3. Managerial Concept: The industrial relations or managerial concept collective bargaining Notes
views the institution as a participative decision-making between the employees and
employers, on matters in which both parties have vital interest.

Did u know? Industrial bargaining has three approaches:
1. Unilateral
2. Bilateral
3. Tripartite
In Unilateral approach the employer alone decides the terms and conditions of
employment. This is known as Individual Bargaining. In Bilateral Approach, the Employer
and Worker negotiate with each other. When workmen/their association and their
representatives, negotiate with one another, it is known as Bipartite collective bargaining.
In Tripartite Approach, besides the two main parties, a third party also intervenes to
facilitate settlement.

8.2 Characteristics of Collective Bargaining

Collective Bargaining has been characterised as a form of industrial democracy and industrial
government. Some of the important features of Collective Bargaining as stressed by Edward T.
Cheystiz and others are as follows:

The main characteristics of collective bargaining are:
1. It is a group action as opposed to individual action and is initiated through the
representatives of workers: On the management side are its delegates at the bargaining
table; on the side of workers is their trade union, which may represent the local plant, the
city membership or nation-wide member ship.

2. It is flexible and mobile, and not fixed or static: It has fluidity and scope for compromise,
for a mutual give-and-take before the final agreement is reached or the final settlement is
arrived at. Bakke and Kerr observe, "Essentially a successful Collective Bargaining is an
exercise in graceful retreat without seeming to retreat. The parties normally ask for more
or offer less than they ultimately accept or give. The "take-it-or-leave it" proposition is not
viewed as being within the rules of the game. One of the most damaging criticisms is that
a party is adamant in holding to its original position. Before retreating with as much
elegance as circumstances permit, each party seeks to withdraw as little as possible. This
involves ascertaining the maximum concession of the opposing negotiator without
disclosing one's own ultimate concession. In this sense, all negotiations are exploratory
until the agreement is consummated."
3. It is a two-party process: It is a mutual give-and-take rather than take-it-or-leave-it method
of arriving at the settlement of a dispute. Both the parties are involved in it. In this
connection, Clark Kerr observes, "Collective Bargaining can work only with the acceptance
by labour and management of their appropriate responsibilities." It can succeed only
when both labour and management wants it to succeed. It can flourish only in an
atmosphere which is free from animosity and reprisal. There must be mutual eagerness to
develop the Collective Bargaining procedure and there must be attitudes which will
result in harmony and progress.

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