UNIVERSITY OF KASHMIR

THE BUSINESS SCHOOL

TOPIC: COLLECTIVE BARGAINING v/s WORKERS PARTICIPATION IN

MANAGEMENT

NAME: PEERZADA MOHAMMAD BASIM

ROLL NO: 36 (15037111036)
SUBJECT: INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
IMBA 8TH SEM
SUBMITTED TO: AQRA MAM
Collective Bargaining vs. Workers Participation In Management

Before differentiating between collective bargaining and worker’s participation in

management, we should first understand the true meaning of these terms. To begin
with “collective bargaining”- consists of negotiations between an employer and a
group of employees called the collective bargaining agreement (CBA). According to
ILO ‘collective bargaining’ is purely a “bipartite process” and defined it to be
“negotiations about working condition and terms of employment, between a
employer, a group of employers or one or more employers organization, on the one
hand, and one or more representative workers’ organizations on the other, with a
view to reaching an agreement”. The definition coined by ILO during1973 describes
the process of collective bargaining only without looking at its purpose. Probably
because of this, the ILO in the year1980 broadened definition as follows “ collective
bargaining as an intuitional procedure of joint determination of the rules to govern
the terms and conditions of employment of the workers concerned the terms and
conditions of employment of the workers concerned and the labour management
relations itself’. But a year later a new convention (no. 154) was adopted which
reverted to the earlier one with some modifications. This stated that collective
bargaining extended to all negotiation between employers and workers
organization, for (i) determining working conditions and terms of employment, and
(ii) regulating relations between employers and workers, and (iii) regulating relations
between employers, or their organizations, and workers organizations or between
workers organizations. This definition was an improvement over the earlier one
because the main purpose of collective bargaining was seen to be the regulation of
IR. Workers participation in management (WPM), on the other hand is crucial for
better results in an organization. The term WPM is understood differently by
involved parties. For management, it is a joint consultation prior to decision-making,
for workers it means codetermination, while for government it is an association of
labour with management without the final authority or responsibility in decision-
making. WPM in India can be linked with the Ahmedabad Textile industry during a
year 1920 when workers and employers required to settle disputes by mutual
discussion. Industrial disputes act was enacted in the year 1947 by the government
for the purpose of prevention and settlement of industrial disputes. Under the
provisions of the act works / committees were formed to look into the cause of
friction between the employer and the workmen in the day-to-day working of the
establishment and to promote measures of securing amity and good relations
between them.

Perceptions & understandings about Collective bargaining & CBA

Many leading PSUs namely SAIL, Hindustan Electro Graphics averred that the joint
negotiating committee, suggestion schemes are good examples of participative
management respectively. Fertilizer Corporation of India (FCI) cited that the
establishment of safety and vigilance committees as the examples of participative
management. It has been noticed that unions in general sought to promote
collective bargaining rather than participation. Collective bargaining, on the other
hand is essentially a confronting process. In this process management and unions sit
across each other and wrest advantages from each other, by sacrificing some issues
that depends on the relative strengths of each party. Collective decisions by
managements and unions must be arrived at through participative methods rather
than coercive methods or depending on the relative strengths of the parties. Hence
collective bargaining is not a form of participation. It is one method through which
workers are able to influence management decision, but it is essentially an
alternative method, where as, participation is by nature a different method
altogether in labour management relations and can be looked as an alternative to
bargaining. International experience supports this view, countries which had strong
collective systems like the USA, now have little participation. European countries
with heterogeneous policies and weaker bargaining, however, have stronger
participative systems. In Japan, participative culture is ingrained. Japanese
organizations believe in collective efforts i.e. teamwork. They do not believe in
individualistic approach. Participation is primarily a matter of attitude. The works
committee under the Industrial Dispute Act 1947, and the worker director under
Banking Regulation Act, both have legislative sanction, but in practice are shadowed
with little substance. International practices also indicates similar tendencies. The
only two countries which confirmed to practice workers participations in the from
which was created in the post-war situation were Germany and Yugoslavia which
had statutes on WPM but the substance gradually eroded. In India (Industrial
Resolution, 1956), the first real scheme where some kind of participation was
envisaged was the joint management council (JMC). The objectives of JMC were to
promote cordial relations between the management and labour, to build and trust
and understanding and also to increase productivity, secure effective welfare and
other facilities to train worker to understand and share responsibilities, and in
general to function as a consultative body. For banks, statutory amendments in 1973
to the State Bank of India Act 1959, and the Banks Regulation Act 1969, provided for
the appointment of one workman director and one nonworkman (officer) director in
each bank. The working of the scheme was delayed by both the management of
various banks and by the unions. The unions protested against the induction of
officer director, since they contended that officers were in any case represented. The
controversy continued for many years till the Supreme Court settled it in 1989. WPM
in India, still a weak area where lot of work needs to be done from managements’
and workers’ point of view. The mindsets need to be changed for promoting healthy
work culture.

************************THANK YOU*************************