essay plan

ESSAY PLAN: Argue whether collective bargaining and a strong role for unions are constructive to organisations in today’s economic conditions.

This essay is based on collective bargaining and strong role for unions in today’s economic conditions. The essay begins by explaining what collective bargaining and trade unions are, providing relevant examples within the context. The essay also highlights the importance of collective bargaining in today’s organisation. An argument has been made providing particular evidence. In short, the main objective of this essay is to show how trade unions collectively bargain for the benefit of workers. Furthermore, recommendation and conclusion have been discussed.
Over the past 30 years, the role of trade unions has been changed significantly. Today, we live in a world where workers have assumed great importance. The employers have started to realize the importance of workers. The employers too have started to form trade unions to protect their interests. This is one of the reasons why trade unions have become so important today. Sidney and Beatrice Webb (1920) described trade union as “a continuous association of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the condition of their working lives.” On the other hand “collective bargaining is defined as the continuous relationship between an employer and a designated labor organization representing a specific unit of employees for the purpose of negotiating written terms of employment” (Somers, 1980, p.553-556). A recent example of collective bargaining is the announcement by Mr. Brian Angus of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA) that they had agreed to six month’s maternity leave bring paid to female employees.
Collective bargaining is essential to organisations in today’s economic conditions because it encourages negotiation and forces the labour parties to face their problems and resolve as quickly as possible to ensure

References: Webb, S. and Webb, B. (1920) Industrial Democracy, London: Longmans. South Africa Foundation (SAF). 1996. Growth for all: An economic strategy for South Africa (Johannesburg) Tustin, C., Geldenhuys, D. 2000. Labour Relations. The psychology of conflict and negotiation. 2nd ed. Cape Town: Oxford . Collective bargaining has served as a cornerstone institution for democracy, a mechanism for increasing workers’ incomes, improving working conditions and reducing inequality, a means for ensuring fair employment relations and a source of workplace innovation. However, the number of workers belonging to trade unions has declined in many countries and global economic integration has tipped bargaining power in favour of employers. This paper reviews recent trends and developments in respect of collective bargaining. It examines the evolution of collective bargaining institutions in different regions of the world. It highlights the manner in which collective bargaining structures have adapted to competitive pressures and the increasing coordination of bargaining practices both within and across borders. In a survey of collective bargaining agendas, the authors note the increasing diversity of issues on the bargaining agenda. They highlight particularly innovative practices in respect of theapplication of collective agreements to non-standard workers and the role that collective bargaining played in mitigating the effects of the recent economic crisis on workers and enterprises. They argue that the support of public policy is essential to promote and sustain collective bargaining. These developments and the ongoing challenges facing collective bargaining present a number of issues for future research. There are two approaches of collective bargaining which plays an important role in maintaining the employment relationship. First approach, distributive bargaining. In this type one party enjoys the benefit, profits, and gains with the expenses of the other party. Here the opposite parties can use the power to achieve their tasks. So, it becomes a problem when one side refuses to accept the compromise or the benefits given to them. The second approach, integrative bargaining. It seeks in mutual gains in areas of the common interest with the problem solving approach. For the success of integrative bargaining both the parties should share the information between each other and they should trust each other. So, compromise and problem solving plays an important role in maintaining employment relationship. Collective bargaining is useful in many ways in the organization. It helps in the downward communication where the communication takes place from the managers to employees. It takes place in formal written reports such as employee reports, house journals etc. It helps in the upward problem solving where the greater opportunities are given to the employee to contribute to the discussions relating to their work. It also helps in task participation and team working where the employees are expected to extend their tasks at their work. It also helps in financial involvement where the success of the enterprise is linked to the individual rewards.