Context Of Collective Bargaining Research Articles

REFORMA TRABALHISTA: UM OLHAR SOB A ÓTICA DA NEGOCIAÇÃO COLETIVA

The concept of labor reform has long been intertwined with the dynamics of collective bargaining, a process by which workers, organized in unions, negotiate with their employers to secure better employment conditions. Over the decades, collective bargaining has evolved from a nascent concept to a cornerstone of labor rights, shaping the landscape of working conditions, fair wages, and employee benefits. This article explores the historical context of collective bargaining in labor reform, the critical role it plays in improving working conditions, and its broader impact on economic stability. By examining the evolution of labor rights, the bargaining outcomes that improve the workplace, and the economic ramifications of collective bargaining, we can gain a comprehensive understanding of its importance in contemporary discussions of labor reform. The role of collective bargaining in improving working conditions cannot be overstated. Through negotiations, unions have been instrumental in securing fair wages and comprehensive benefits for workers, which are crucial to promoting economic well-being and job satisfaction.

JUDICIAL SCRUTINY OF DERIVATIVE MISCONDUCT IN SOUTH AFRICAN EMPLOYMENT LAW: A CAREFUL APPROACH TO THE DUTY TO SPEAK

The concept of derivative misconduct has in the past come to the aid of employers in disciplining employees who are reticent about disclosing information that would support the prosecution of an offence. Though dismissal based on derivative misconduct is designed to target the perpetrators of the original misconduct, the justification is wide enough to encompass those innocent of it, but who through their silence make themselves guilty of a derivative violation of trust and confidence. In applying the concept of derivative misconduct, South African labour courts have placed too much emphasis on the unilateral duty of good faith owed by the employee to the employer rather than the reciprocal nature of the duty and the true realities of South African industrial relations. The ground-breaking judgment of the Constitutional Court in National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) obo Nganezi v Dunlop Mixing and Technical Services (Pty) Limited (2019) 40 ILJ 1957 (CC) crafted significant principles in relation to the application of derivative misconduct within the context of collective bargaining. This article seeks a critical unpacking of the legal quagmire, which has not been fully addressed by the Constitutional Court, and to provide a way forward that may be adopted by employers to promote a spirit of fairness in the employment relationship.

What sort of collective bargaining is emerging in Nigeria?

PurposeNigeria is experiencing an expanding variety of what is termed collective bargaining, which is being propelled by socio-economic challenges and the emerging political dispensation that had long eluded the country, albeit the numerous contours needing some pragmatic approaches from the state, employers of labour and the trade unions at the local and national levels. Therefore, this study represents an attempt to illustrate the rising collective bargaining pattern in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approach This study drew on employee and employer sectoral associations examples together with labour union structures of the state to assess what underlined collective bargaining developments from the broad context of collective bargaining and the industrial relations implications. Content analysis was employed to analyse the secondary data (found in relevant company handbooks, policies, collective agreements, etc.) and primary data obtained through unstructured interviews.FindingsA form of collective bargaining is emerging where the trade unions are embracing symbiotic agreements at plant levels to improve conditions of employment and thus weakening the hold of the national union from collective bargaining – a move that may challenge the conceptual framework of collective bargaining as conceived by many states in developing economies.Originality/valueThis is an investigative paper, carefully trailing the framework of collective bargaining from direct contacts with all stakeholders in the labour corridors of Nigeria – such as the Nigeria Labour Congress, Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, Chemical and Non-Metallic Products Employer's Federation, Metal Products Workers Union of Nigeria and Personnel Practitioners, cutting across all the segments of the political and economic development of the country.

DISMISSALS WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

Competitive forces in the market force employers to change the way they operate their businesses. The changes that employers have to make often demand an alteration of the employees’ terms and conditions of employment. By law employers are not permitted to effect changes to the employees’ terms and conditions of employment unilaterally. They have to obtain the consent of the affected employees. This is where collective bargaining fits in. The employer has to negotiate with the employees. One way in which, through the process of collective bargaining, an employer can exert pressure on the employees to accept the changes is to effect a lock-out.Under the Labour Relations Act 28 of 1956 within the context of a lock-out, an employer was permitted to use conditional dismissal as a bargaining weapon. This conditional dismissal had to be coupled with an offer of re-employment should the employees accept an employer’s demand. In essence, the lock-out had a bite in the form of the conditional dismissal. This made the lock-out quite effective.The 1995 Labour Relations Act prohibits in no uncertain terms the use of a dismissal as a means of compelling employees to accept an employer’s demand in any matter of mutual interest. Within the collective bargaining context, dismissal is not a legitimate option. The employer only has the lock-out as a tool of compulsion. The definition of a lock-out in terms of this Act does not accommodate the use of dismissal. This makes the lock-out option to be less potent than it was under the 1956 Labour Relations Act. However, employers are permitted to dismiss on operational grounds, provided that they follow a fair procedure. Terms and conditions of employment greatly feature in the operational requirements of a business. If the employees’ terms and conditions of employment are not responsive to the operational requirements of the business and they are unwilling to accept changes to those terms, the employer has the right todismiss them. The employer will not be dismissing the employees as a way of inducing them to accept the changes. He will instead be dismissing them on the basis of operational requirements. The question that then arises is how should a dismissal that is intended to compel employees to accept an employers demand (falling within section 187(1)(c) of the 1995 Labour Relations Act) be distinguished from a dismissal that is genuinely based on operational requirements as contemplated by section 188(1)(a)(ii). The question arises whether the fact that section 187(1)(c) explicitly prohibits the use of dismissal within the context of collective bargaining gives rise to some tension with section 188(1)(a)(ii) which categorically gives employers the right to dismiss on operational grounds.

Do Higher Corporate Taxes Reduce Wages? Micro Evidence from Germany

Because of endogeneity problems very few studies have been able to identify the incidence of corporate taxes on wages. We circumvent these problems by using an 11-year panel of data on 11,441 German municipalities' tax rates, 8 percent of which change each year, linked to administrative matched employer-employee data. Consistent with our theoretical model, we find a negative effect of corporate taxation on wages: a 1 euro increase in tax liabilities yields a 77 cent decrease in the wage bill. The direct wage effect, arising in a collective bargaining context, dominates, while the conventional indirect wage effect through reduced investment is empirically small due to regional labor mobility. High and medium-skilled workers, who arguably extract higher rents in collective agreements, bear a larger share of the corporate tax burden.

Protected Action Ballots and Protected Industrial Action Under the Fair Work Act: The Impact of Ballot Procedures on Enterprise Bargaining Processes Methodological Approach

Federal workplace relations in Australia and requirements relating to the use of industrial action within the context of collective bargaining are governed by the Fair Work Act 2009 (CTH) (FW Act). Protected industrial action by employees and their bargaining representatives is restricted to support for negotiations for a single-enterprise agreement, subject to the Fair Work Commission authorising an independent secret ballot of employees to approve the taking of protected industrial action through a protected action ballot order and subsequent approval of the proposed action in the ballot. While there is a relatively large body of industrial relations research exploring both the frequency, and the impact of strike action, there is significantly less research on the impact of the regulation of strike action on the decision-making processes of workers and their trade unions. In order to address this gap in the literature, we designed a study to provide the first Australian empirical account of the protected industrial action ballot order process and analyse its effect on enterprise bargaining behaviour. In this paper, we present out methodological statement for the Project - Protected Action Ballots and Protected Industrial Action under the Fair Work Act: The Impact of Ballot Procedures on Enterprise Bargaining Processes.

Austerity as an opportunity for union revival: Québec public school teachers

AbstractThis article proposes an account of how two teachers’ labour federations have been reacting to austerity measures in public education. Current austerity measures have coincided with the renewal of collective agreements, thus allowing the study of how unions link bargaining stances to wider issues of service quality and accessibility. Union responses are the result of at least three influences: the institutional framework for public sector collective bargaining and worker representation, the previous orientation of members and their organisations towards social and work relations, and ongoing innovations for renewal and member engagement. We posit that union responses can contribute to renewal if they are guided by concerns to redefine union purpose, union organisation and building capacities. Under these conditions, unions are able to engage members and push forward an alternative agenda to that of the government. In doing so, they may be able to forge temporary alliances with outside stakeholders, namely parents. Analysis of union responses should consider the dialectic between union renewal effort and the opportunities and constraints of the institutional framework for public sector collective bargaining. The challenge for these two labour federations is in sustaining member engagement and activism beyond the current context of collective bargaining.

Do Higher Corporate Taxes Reduce Wages? Micro Evidence from Germany

Because of endogeneity problems very few studies have been able to identify the incidence of corporate taxes on wages. We circumvent these problems by using an 11-year panel of data on 11,441 German municipalities' tax rates, 8 percent of which change each year, linked to administrative matched employer-employee data. Consistent with our theoretical model, we find a negative effect of corporate taxation on wages: a 1 euro increase in tax liabilities yields a 77 cent decrease in the wage bill. The direct wage effect, arising in a collective bargaining context, dominates, while the conventional indirect wage effect through reduced investment is empirically small due to regional labor mobility. High and medium-skilled workers, who arguably extract higher rents in collective agreements, bear a larger share of the corporate tax burden.

Exploring the Role of Representation in Employment Mediation at the USPS

This study uses participant exit surveys in a national mediation program for mediation of employment discrimination complaints at the United States Postal Service to compare the role that different categories of representatives (lawyers, union representatives, co-workers, other, or no representation) play in perceptions of procedural justice, settlement rates, and duration of mediation. We conclude that representation makes a valuable contribution to the mediation process, and that union representation specifically can play a constructive role in an employment mediation program outside the collective bargaining context. We also conclude that there is evidence that union representatives, lawyers, complainant representatives, and respondent representatives play different roles in the mediation process, and that these differences are consistent with what principal-agency theory would predict.

Collective Bargaining Context and Worker Attitudes: Comparing Team and Traditional Work Systems

Although research on teams often focuses on firm performance, how these initiatives affect workers and their work-related attitudes has received limited attention. This field study examines seniority, off-line problem-solving, and union participation as institutional arrangements within a collective bargaining context that moderate the relationship between work systems and work-related attitudes. Results indicate a negative relationship between team membership and work-related attitudes for those with greater seniority. A positive relationship between team membership and work-related attitudes exists for those who are more active in their union. Higher organizational commitment occurs in team settings when workers had experience in off-line problem-solving programs.

Vision d'une révision du Code du travail

Would a codification of labour law — in the Continental meaning of the word, and not a mere consolidation of existing statutes — enhance the development of this field of law ? Would the resulting instrument be likely to generate more appropriate ways of dealing with labour situations, whether or not they pertain to a collective bargaining context ? Adjective as well as substantive law would have to be involved in such an exercise. The latter aspect raises the fundamental issue of the proper relationship between the general law — civil law essentially — and labour law. What degree of autonomy is necessary to the integrity of the specialized law ? Conversely, to what extent is the general law to be relied upon to provide the necessary second-line set of legal provisions ? For instance, the two sets of legal rules entertain different views as to the termination of the employment relationship and as to the effect of a collective agreement. A well-integrated body of labour law should, in the author's opinion, govern comprehensively labour situation. The codifying process would also aim at eliminating internal discrepancies and a simpler, more accessible legal subsystem would emerge. As to the adjective aspects of labour law, the identification of desirable forms of third-party intervention relating to both collective bargaining and labour standards legislation could lead to appropriate jurisdictional arrangements. In the case of industrial conflicts, of particular interest are the flexible powers of intervention with which the Canada and British Columbia labour boards are endowed. Consideration should also be paid to certain European models — namely the Conseil de prud'hommes — which allow both conciliation and adjudication to take place in the solving of normative law conflicts of application. A full-fledged Labour Code would indeed invite the setting up of a more authentic Labour Court.

Privacy, technology, and conflict: Emerging issues and action in workplace privacy

IV. Conclusion Growing employee awareness of the degree to which their personal privacy is compromised in the workplace, particularly with regards to information/telecommunicatton-system use and work monitoring, has created an organizational and political climate that may yield significant restrictions on employee monitoring and on how employers maintain and distribute employees’ personal information. While both federal and state governments have generally deferred to the right of the employer-as-owner to set conditions of employment that may include intrusions into employee privacy (Grodin, 1991), a number of statutory restrictions have been promulgated or proposed that will significantly expand employee privacy rights in the workplace. Additionally, it is probable that unions will aggressively assert employee privacy rights within the context of collective bargaining, potentially using employee dissatisfaction with privacy intrusions as a basis for organizing nonunion firms.

Finding Common Ground: How Public Health Can Work with Organized Labor to Protect Workers from Environmental Tobacco Smoke: National Association for Public Health Policy

Tobacco is not and does not have to be a high priority for all segments of organized labor, but public health advocates should continue to promote the issue and find segments which are open to collaborative efforts to protect workers' health. Even in those unions representing workers for whom smoking and ETS pose a lower health risk relative to other workplace toxins, smoking policy remains a strategic issue for at least two reasons. First, supporting efforts to control ETS exposure sure is an issue of service to non-smoking union members, and like-wise, bargaining for smoking cessation programs is a service to members who smoke. Second, it is in the union's interest to engage with management through collective bargaining to develop smoking policies, rather than to allow management to unilaterally propose and/or implement policies. To remain a strong voice in the worksite, labor needs to defend its unions and members from misdirected and overzealous actions. Within the context of the diversity of opinions from within labor and public health, this policy statement aims to identify our common ground and recommend ways to collaborate in protecting worker health. Specifically, we recommend that the public health community take the following actions: I) assist unions with smoking cessation services that meet the needs of labor, 2) support labor's efforts to negotiate smoking policies within the context of collective bargaining, 3) include labor in tobacco control coalitions, 4) advocate for regulatory initiatives that include ETS as part of an overall indoor air quality strategy, 5) focus attention on preventing smoking among children of union members, and 6) develop strategies with labor to benefit from savings that employers achieve under smoking restrictions or bans. Smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke represent a threat to the health of workers. Given that the public health and labor movements have a mutual interest in protecting worker health, it makes sense for these two groups to join together on tobacco control policy-making in the worksite.

Reorganizing the Faculty Workforce for Flexibility

Part-time Professional Labor In the United States the rise of the profession in the last quarter of the nineteenth century was marked by the establishment of faculty as full-time employees of colleges and universities with career tracks in their fields [18, 32]. Subsequently the profession struggled to establish autonomy vis-a-vis managers and boards, as the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) successfully inscribed tenure and freedom in institutional policy and in case law [36].(1) In the post-World War II era, many faculty gained such autonomy from the organization that analysts contrasted local and cosmopolitan faculty [7] and spoke of an academic revolution [12] in which faculty's power within and beyond the university increased by virtue of their research and grants activity. However, the last quarter of the twentieth century has seen challenges to faculty autonomy and job security. The AAUP censure list [33, 35] and case law reveal ongoing violations of freedom and tenure. Amidst criticism of faculty as self-interested careerists, demands for more accountability and the reform or elimination of tenure emerged in the 1970s and 1990s. Many faculty have been retrenched [29]. Moreover, there is a twenty-five-year trend of increased numbers and percentage of part-time relative to full-time faculty [1, 21]. Managers in higher education have hired more part-time workers to minimize costs and maximize managerial control in providing educational services. The professional position of faculty is being renegotiated, with an increased emphasis on managerial flexibility in relation to the workforce. In this article I address several professional workforce issues as they relate to part-time faculty, concentrating on unionized institutions. I look at unionized institutions because most part-time faculty are found in the type of institution most likely to be unionized - community colleges, comprehensive state colleges, and universities. Also, the professional status of such part-timers and the political battle surrounding their use are clear in the formalized context of collective bargaining. I focus on part-timers because their growing numbers represent a challenge to the profession's definition of faculty lines as full-time, with a secure future. The use of part-time faculty also represents an explicit challenge to tenure as the professional structure that defines faculty's terms of employment. Most of the higher education literature on part-timers is taxonomic and/or functionalist [6, 39]. It offers insights into the previously unmapped terrain of part-time faculty by classifying types of part-timers. In addition to providing an overview of employment conditions and use of part-timers, this literature focuses on issues such as motivation (of employers and part-timers) and quality [6, 16]. It recommends planned, rational use of part-time faculty, incorporating them into the organization, improving their practice, and enhancing educational/institutional performance [5]. In short, the literature promotes effective policies and practices [20]. Generally sympathetic to part-time faculty [3, 6] the literature accepts managers' stated need for increasing numbers of such faculty. Many problems experienced by part-timers are attributed to full-time faculty more interested in protecting their professional privileges than in educational quality or employment equity [15]. That critique has been extended to the tenure system, portrayed as inhibiting necessary managerial flexibility and causing the exploitation of part-timers: Are [full-time faculty] willing to preserve tenure and the associated privileges at the expense of exploited nontenure-track workers? . . . We question . . . the viability of the existing tenure system because it requires that tenured faculty be subsidized with a work force that carries heavy loads at low pay [6, pp. …

EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION; THE CASE OF COMPARABLE WORTH IN SAN JOSE

This study examines the effective implementation of a 1981 decision by the San Jose City Council to pay its AFSCME‐represented workers $1.45 million iri comparable worth adjustments over the two years. Following a description of expected obstacles, seven reasons for effective implementation are discussed: four beyond the control of implementors–economic health, political climate, collective bargaining context, and scale of the decision–and three within the control of implementors–realism and clarity of policy directive, agency resources and support, and leadership skills.

Conjoint Analysis of Negotiator Preferences

Negotiator preferences are a universal element of conflict resolution theories, but have posed problems of operationalization which have hampered empirical verification and development of the theories. Conjoint analysis is proposed as a method for assessing the preferences of negotiators and their constituencies generally, and union, management, and employee preferences in a collective bargaining context, specifically. The technique is useful to researchers and practitioners in that it is easier to apply than Von Neumann-Morgenstern (1947) utility theory, and provides more information than simple issueprioritizing techniques. Conjoint analysis is used to analyze a simulated contract negotiation and shown to be both practical and valid. The technique is described and assessed; research and practical application are suggested in the areas of contract negotiation and third party intervention. An application of the technique for testing the Nash (1953) model of bargaining is included as an illustration of the technique's usefulness.

Accounting Information, Employees and Collective Bargaining

Social and political opinion in the United Kingdom has been moving in the direction of greater disclosure by companies of financial and economic information of interest to employees and trade union negotiators. This article examines the arguments which surround the issue. In particular, the role of information in the collective bargaining context is investigated in the light of a fairly simple bargaining model, The tactical and strategic impact of greater disclosure is indicated with the aid of the model. Finally the article highlights some implications for companies, trade unions and accountants.

Who gets Market Supplements? Gender Differences within a Large Canadian University

This study examines the gender pay gap among university faculty by analyzing gender differences in one component of faculty members’ salaries – “market premiums.” The data were collected during the Fall of 2002 using a survey of faculty at a single Canadian research university. Correspondence analysis and logistic regression analysis were performed in order to identify the characteristics related to the award of market premiums and whether these characteristics account for gender differences. The correspondence analysis produces a two-factor solution in which the second axis clearly opposes faculty who receive market premiums to those who do not. Gender is strongly related to this factor, with the female category on the side of the axis associated with the absence of market premiums. The results of the logistic regression confirm that field of specialization, frequency of external research contracts, faculty members’ values and attitudes towards remuneration and seniority within rank are all related to the award of market premiums, as hypothesized. However, women were still almost three times less likely than men to have been awarded market premiums after controlling for these relationships. Overall, the results suggest that within a collective bargaining context, reindividualization of the pay determination process — notably, the payment of market premiums to faculty — may reopen pay differences by gender.