Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Collective Bargaining
By Shalu Pal
Grievances: It is a feeling pf
dissatisfaction among workers regarding
anything concerned with their work.
Grievance Arise:
Difference of opinion or thought
Position of trade union in the organisation
Demand for labour welfare facilities.
Doubts and fear
Any social injustice
Policies and procedure are not followed strictly
Importance of Grievances Handling :
Management comes to know the workers think about
policies, practices and procedure of the company
The management also comes to know the behavior and
attitude of the supervisor
It also reveals the dissatisfaction, frustration or the state of
satisfaction in the worker mind.
It gives an opportunity to the worker to express their feeling
It heightens the moral of the people
Few complaints need systematic handling procedure.
DEFINITION
Grievance procedure is a formal communication
between an employee and the management
designed for the settlement of a grievance. The
grievance procedures differ from organization to
organization.
2. Step-ladder policy
Open door policy
Under this policy, the aggrieved employee is free
to meet the top executives of the organization and
get his grievances redressed. Such a policy works
well only in small organizations.
However, in bigger organizations, top
management executives are usually busy with
other concerned matters of the company.
Moreover, it is believed that open door policy is
suitable for executives; operational employees
may feel shy to go to top management.
Step ladder policy
Under this policy, the aggrieved employee has to follow a step
by step procedure for getting his grievance redressed.
In this procedure, whenever an employee is confronted with a
grievance, he presents his problem to his immediate
supervisor.
If the employee is not satisfied with superior’s decision, then
he discusses his grievance with the departmental head. The
departmental head discusses the problem with joint grievance
committees to find a solution.
However, if the committee also fails to redress the grievance,
then it may be referred to chief executive.
If the chief executive also fails to redress the grievance, then
such a grievance is referred to voluntary arbitration where the
award of arbitrator is binding on both the parties.
DIAGRAMMATICAL
REPRESENTATION
Collective Bargaining
Importance to employees
Collective bargaining develops a sense of self respect and responsibility among the
employees.
It increases the strength of the workforce, thereby, increasing their bargaining capacity as
a group.
It restricts management’s freedom for arbitrary action against the employees. Moreover,
unilateral actions by the employer are also discouraged.
The workers feel motivated as they can approach the management on various matters and
bargain for higher benefits.
It helps in securing a prompt and fair settlement of grievances. It provides a flexible means
for the adjustment of wages and employment conditions to economic and technological
changes in the industry, as a result of which the chances for conflicts are reduced.
Importance of Collective Bargaining
Importance to employers
II. Since most of the trade unions are having political affiliations, they continue to be
dominated by politicians, who use the unions and their members to meet their
political ends.
IV. In India, the law provides an easy access to adjudication. Under the Industrial
Disputes Act, the parties to the dispute may request the Government to refer the
matter to adjudication and the Government will constitute the adjudication machinery,
i.e., labour court or industrial tribunal. Thus, the faith in the collective bargaining
process is discouraged.
V. There has been very close association between the trade unions and political
parties. As a result, trade union movement has leaned towards political orientations
rather than collective bargaining.