Collective Bargaining Research Articles

Shifting National Holiday Times In the Context of the Labor Law System

In the world of labor today, companies often shift national holiday time for power efficiency, but the rule that working on official holidays must be counted as overtime creates two different perceptions of the shift. The company applies national holidays to weekdays so that the company considers it normal work, but workers see it as a shift. Normative research analyzes laws and regulations. This research inventories and analyzes legislation on adjusting national holiday time in Indonesia's labor law system to determine workers' rights and obligations on government-set holidays and the legal basis for doing so. The study found that employers can order workers to work on government-set public holidays if they meet certain conditions and obligations based on statutory provisions, employment agreements, or collective labor agreements, which are supervised by the government, in this case the Ministry of Manpower, by imposing administrative and criminal penalties. provided that it meets the law and its implementing rules and work agreements or collective bargaining agreements pertaining to the nature and type of labor and the responsibility for Employers to pay overtime compensation for work on public holidays to Laborers.

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.

The adoption of digital technologies: Investment, skills, work organisation

New digital technologies are shaping the transformation of production activities. This process of change is characterised by growing digitization, inter-connectivity and automation. The diffusion of new technologies is, however, very uneven, and firms display different adoption behaviours. By using data on a representative sample of Italian firms, we explore the patterns and determinants of new digital technology adoption. We build our theoretical framework on the nexus between technology, skills and the organisation of work. We then provide novel econometric evidence on the positive effects of education and training. Among the notable results of the paper, labour flexibility does not seem to favour new technology adoption, whereas second-level collective bargaining plays a positive role in the process. Results also show heterogeneous effects between large vs. small and medium-size firms, and between manufacturing and service sectors.

Labour-Management Relations and Industrial Conflict in Calabar and Port-Harcourt Sea Ports: A Theoritical Exposition

The study is an assessment of the effect of the inter-relationship of labour-management relationship and industrial conflict in Nigeria Port Authority, Calabar and Port-Harcourt in a general scale. To effectively determine the interrelationship, four null hypotheses were formulated based on the identified major independent variable namely; leadership behavior, communication behavior, collective bargaining and implementation of employees-management agreement. A 30 items research questions were developed and used on 300 randomly selected employees of two ports (males and females). The sample will be made up of 190(63%) workers from Port-Harcourt and 110(37%) from Calabar Port. Multi-stage sampling techniwue will be employed, this will consist of the stratified, cluster, proportional and simple random sampling procedures respectively. Foremost, the stratified sampling procedure will be employed in dividing the entire study area into two major strata on the abses of two states (Cross Rivers and River State). Data will be collected by the researcher in company of two research assistants (who will be adequately trained). To evaluate labour-management relations and industrial conflicts, data collected during fieldwork will be subjected to editing, scoring and analysis. Descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage and frequencies will be reported. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) test will be the statistical test for the hypotheses. Out of the four null hypotheses that were tested, three were rejected while one was accepted. The three rejected hypotheses were leadership behavior, collective bargaining and implementation of labour-management agreement while communication behavior was accepted. The research therefore recommend that mutual relationships are very critical in enhancing cordiality, trust building and engenders industrial harmony and peaceful coexistence in an organization. The study contributes to the body of knowledge in the sense that authoritative leadership breeds conflicts while democratic leadership engenders industrial harmony.

The legal meaning of the concept of social dialogue

The article deals with the theoretical legal and legislative characteristics of the concept of social dialogue from the point of view of their compliance with modern trends in the development of labour law doctrine. The legal content of the concept of social dialogue is determined through the essence of the concept of “dialogue” as a type of collective contractual relations in the social area regarding the resolution of labour and related social and economic issues between legally defined subjects, the list of which is expanding in modern conditions. The sociality criteria of dialogue are substantiated. The subject of the issues that can be considered between the parties of the social dialogue is determined. It is stated that environmental problems can be the subject of discussion in the field of social dialogue, if they relate to ensuring a person’s right to work. The article investigates and supports the norms of the draft Law of Ukraine “On Collective and Bargaining Agreements”, which provide for the expansion of the subject structure of social dialogue relations in cases defined by legislation due to the possibility of involving newly created non-representative representatives of employees and employers, as well as public associations, the aim (goals) and areas of statutory activity of which comply with the subject of consultations within the framework of social dialogue. The involvement of civil society organizations in social dialogue is emphasized to be require a clear legislative definition of their legal status. The author supports the thesis that organizational and legal forms of social dialogue are information exchanges, consultations, collective bargaining, conciliation and arbitration procedures and mediation. Relevant changes to the legislation are proposed. Scientific discussions regarding the relationship between the concepts of “social dialogue” and “social partnership” are critically analyzed. It is substantiated that social dialogue is only one form of social partnerships between representatives of the state, employers (business) and employees. Public and private partnership as a reflection of social responsibility and corporate social responsibility are other forms of such interaction. The paper proposes to develop a national strategy of social partnership, where different forms and areas of interaction of stakeholders are foreseen.

The contested terrain of global production: collective versus private labor governance on Guatemalan banana plantations

Scholars have shown how the labor governance of global production transforms over time as a result of shifts in economic governance and the often contentious interactions among capital, labor, and state actors. This article adds to this research through an analysis of banana global supply chains in Guatemala in which labor governance has been shaped by an antagonistic 125-year history of predatory global production expansion and transformation, state authoritarianism and reform, and worker resistance and engagement. The article argues that, as a result of these contested processes, two dramatically distinct forms of labor governance evolved in the same country and sector with significantly different impacts on workers. On the northern Atlantic coast, a collective labor governance model developed where workers are unionized and enjoy the benefits of collective bargaining. In contrast, on the southern Pacific coast a private labor governance model based on social audits and certifications reigns that is devoid of collective and protected representation and labor conditions remain harsh. To explore this argument, this article draws on field research, an original worker survey, trade and corporate finance data analysis, and secondary historical sources.

Regulating for gender equality in the Australian Public Service: Extending Dickens’ tripod of regulation

Western governments have used regulation to progress gender equality for workforces in both the private and public sectors, yet gender equality has not yet been achieved. While governments have used various regulatory forms, Dickens (1999) argued that a tripod of collective bargaining, legislation and human resource policy would progress gender equality. Little consideration has been given to how these elements of the tripod fit together. We apply Dickens’ tripod to examine the regulation of gender equality in one Australian public sector. We use institutional analysis, drawing on historical and current documents, legislation, collective bargaining frameworks and human resource policy to examine how the regulatory tripod interlocks, and whether renewed commitments to public sector gender equality can be achieved in the current regulatory environment. We identify regulatory incongruence within the Australian public service and argue for improved congruence to progress gender equality, although we also note that congruence on its own does not lead to better outcomes. We identify that the legs of the tripod are not mutually reinforcing and that all legs need to be supported by better implementation. We extend Dicken's tripod to provide a new path to progress public sector workplace gender equality, enriching both theory and practice.

Collective bargaining in a shrinking group game: The role of information and communication

Majority decisions often resolve situations that involve strategic considerations of several individuals. Although these individuals often have identical voting power, their strategic position may be different. We utilize the pirate game in which a pre-existing minimum winning coalition emerges from the subgame perfect Nash equilibrium. This opens the possibility of investigating how equilibrium information about being pivotal and communication in different group constellations affect the size of proposals of the different players. Our results provide evidence that equilibrium information considerably increases the pivotal players' position at the expense of the non-pivotal players. This effect goes far beyond mere coordination of a pivotal triplet if this group has no information about the equilibrium. Communication leads more towards an equal distribution amongst the communication participants in both the subgroup and the large group. Whole group communication, directly following communication within informed subgroups, diminishes the pivotal players’ advantage, although not completely.

A Blessing or a Curse? An Analysis of Menstrual Health Promotion in the Workplace from a Human Rights Perspective

ABSTRACT More than 1.8 billion people menstruate every month. Yet menstruation is still a taboo, including in the workplace, where the multiple challenges of menstruating workers remain largely unaddressed from exclusion from certain branches to inadequate facilities, inflexible workloads, and period jokes. To address this issue, the Swedish organisation MENSEN has developed Period Works!, a unique ‘menstrual certification' involving employers, employees, and trade unions ‘to create a more period friendly work life'. The initiative reveals menstruators' challenges at work, particularly in terms of their rights to health, privacy, non-discrimination, and collective bargaining. Yet so far the legal literature and policies on the issue are scarce. To fill this gap, inspired by Period Works!, this article conceptualises a comprehensive human rights framework to promote menstrual health at work. It analyses whether states and employers, who mostly ignore menstruators' needs, are in breach of their existing legal obligations to promote menstruating workers' rights. The article also critically examines whether recognising menstruators’ rights at work would truly be a blessing, or if menstrual mainstreaming at work could increase discrimination and be a curse. The article argues that only a carefully crafted comprehensive human rights framework for menstrual health at work can address this paradox.

Legalism in the Marikana Commission of Inquiry Report: Veiling “Sociological Causes” of the Massacre

ABSTRACT This article examines the Farlam Commission of Inquiry’s official discourse on violence within the context of the Marikana mine massacre. The commission was established in 2012 to investigate the killing of 34 mine workers during a wage strike at the Lonmin platinum mine in South Africa. The commission was tasked with scrutinising the actions of the police, mine management and labour unions involved in the incident. By employing the concept of legalism, this paper analyses the commission’s report and argues that it adopted a legalist perspective on violence, which served to legitimise the prevailing legal framework for collective bargaining while delegitimising the strike action itself. The study highlights Phase Two of the commission’s investigation, which was aimed at examining the underlying sociological causes of the conflict within the mining sector. This phase provided an opportunity to delve into the structural factors that fuelled the dispute. However, despite the potential for a more nuanced exploration of structural violence, the final report of the Farlam Commission ultimately embraced a narrative form and simulacrum of legality that reflected implicit moral and political biases concerning specific forms of violence and social action. The commission struggled to assimilate critiques of the collective bargaining framework into its report, instead maintaining a fidelity to legalism, with practical implications for the type of “truth” and “justice” the commission could promote. The paper contributes to a broader understanding of the complex dynamics between legal frameworks, violence and social justice in contexts of labour disputes and collective action.

Wage bargaining and employment revisited: separability and efficiency in collective bargaining*

AbstractWe analyse the two‐dimensional Nash bargaining solution (NBS) by deploying the standard labour market negotiations model of McDonald and Solow. We show that the two‐dimensional bargaining problem can be decomposed into two one‐dimensional problems, such that the two solutions together replicate the solution of the two‐dimensional problem if the NBS is applied. The axiom of “independence of irrelevant alternatives” is shown to be crucial for this type of decomposability. This result has significant implications for actual negotiations because it allows for the decomposition of a multi‐dimensional bargaining problem into one‐dimensional problems – and thus helps to facilitate real‐world negotiations.

What Ails Dalit Movement: Lessons Learnt from Farmer Movement

The demand for equality and a ‘better’ share is always there for any ‘authoritative allocation of values’ and India is no exception. Farmers and Dalit movements present such demands with an aim to seek transformation in the existing power structure for better in political, social and economic spaces. However, one seems to be more organized and successful despite the existence of a multi-layered class structure, while the other remained fragmented and sporadic. It is, therefore, very pertinent to analyse why a considerable chunk of the citizenry is not able to get their due share and what ails their collective bargaining capacity. The present article is an attempt to draw certain commonalities between the ‘Farmer’ and ‘Dalit’ movements in India and identify the gaps—that the Dalit movement can fill by taking a cue from the farmer movement. Also, it attempts to analyse how with time all the farmers’ organizations collectively mobilized together on the pan-India level on a single platform to bargain for their common interest but why such consciousness is not being developed among Dalits even after 75 years of independence.

자영업자 단결권과 단체교섭권에 대한 유럽(연합)의 규율

In general, the self-employed (or self-employed workers) in most European countries enjoy freedom of association, while less the case for the right to collective bargaining. The presence and application of EU competition law is considered to be its root cause. The 2014 FNV Kunsten ruling by the EU Court of Justice in particular has clarified that the right to collective bargaining is not to be granted to the self-employed unless they are deemed

Postdoc Identity, Jurisdictional Issues, Ideologies, and Unions: Considerations in Organizing Professionals

This study of U.S. postdocs and unions analyzes the public discourse of national entities, a national postdoc advocacy group, and of local postdoc unions and their collective bargaining agreements. The analytical focus and findings address: (a) postdocs’ identity as “professors-in-training” or exploited employees; (b) the professional jurisdictional issues and due process rights identified as problematic and on which postdocs’ bargaining is focused; and (c) broader ideologies and social justice issues that characterize postdocs’ working conditions and that inform their mobilizing. The findings offer insights into organizing professionals in a time when their status/work is being degraded.

What Teachers’ Unions Do for Teachers When Collective Bargaining is Prohibited

Our research examines the relationship between teachers’ unions, teacher compensation, employment conditions, and turnover in Southern US states that prohibit the collective bargaining of public school teachers. We assess union strength by meet-and-confer status and the teacher union density of districts and estimate union impact using propensity score matching. We find that teachers’ unions are positively associated with teacher compensation and employment conditions, even in the absence of collective bargaining. Districts with strong unions have higher dismissals of nontenured teachers for poor performance and a lower attrition rate of qualified teachers, compared to districts with weak unions. This study shows that teachers’ unions in the United States still organize without formal labor-management institutions and make a significant impact on teachers’ work lives, even in a hostile legal environment toward unions.

Collective Bargaining and Technology

Originally published by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Proceedings, Twenty-Second Annual Conference, April, 1994, Higher Education Collective Bargaining During a Period of Change, Frank R. Annunziato, Director, Beth H. Johnson, Conference Organizer

This Much I Know is True: The Five Intangible Influences on Collective Bargaining

Originally published by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Proceedings, Forty-Second Annual Conference, April, 2015, Thinking about Tomorrow: Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations in Higher Education

In the Beginning, Long Time Ago: A Brief History of the National Center’s Origin and Evolution

This article presents a brief overview of events leading to the creation of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions (National Center) in 1972 at the City University of New York (CUNY) and then summarizes the National Center’s evolving leadership, programming, research, and publications over the past half-century. The article is tied with the theme of the National Center’s 50th anniversary conference in March 2023: Collective Bargaining in Higher Education: Looking Back, Looking Forward: 1973-2023. It demonstrates the uniqueness of the National Center’s origin as a higher education labor-management research center, distinct in character, and structure from labor education and labor studies programs at other institutions. While the National Center’s priorities and methods have evolved over the decades, it remains an interdisciplinary research center that organizes national and regional conferences, hosts webinars, collects data, and produces scholarship on unionization and collective bargaining in higher education.

The History Of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education: The Case of HBCUs

Originally published by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Proceedings, Forty-Second Annual Conference, April, 2015, Thinking about Tomorrow: Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations in Higher Education

The Current Status of Graduate Student Unions: An Employer's Perspective

Originally published by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Proceedings, Twenty-Seventh Annual Conference, April, 1999, Collective Bargaining and Accountability in Higher Education: A Report Card, Caesar J. Naples, Editor