law

2.  COLLECTIVE BARGANING
 Meaning
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group
of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working
conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for
workers. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by
representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective
agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working
hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to
participate in workplace or company affairs.
The union may negotiate with a single employer (who is typically representing a
company's shareholders) or may negotiate with a group of businesses, depending
on the country, to reach an industry-wide agreement. A collective agreement
functions as a labour contract between an employer and one or more unions.
Collective bargaining consists of the process of negotiation between
representatives of a union and employers (generally represented by management
or, in some countries such as Australia, Sweden and the Netherlands, by
an employers' organization ) in respect of the terms and conditions of
employment of employees, such as wages, hours of work, working conditions,
grievance procedures, and about the rights and responsibilities of trade unions.

3. According to Article 2 of the Collective Bargaining Convention, 1981 (No.
154) of the International Labour Organisation, “collective bargaining
extends to all negotiations which take place between an employer, a group
of employers or one or more employers’ organisations, on the one hand,
and one or more workers’ organisations, on the other, for
(a) determining working conditions and terms of employment; and/or
(b) regulating relations between employers and workers; and/or
(c) regulating relations between employers or their organisations and
workers or workers’ organisations”.

4. WHAT IS STRIKE
Strike became a popular phenomenon at the time of the Industrial Revolution
when mass workers became vital in factories and mines. In most nations, strike
actions were quickly made illegal, as employers comparatively had more
political power than the employees.
The right to strike by employees or workers is a well recognised tool that is
available to workers to negotiate with the employer and force the employer to
agree on their demand. In our daily lives, very frequently we see news
regarding workers going on strike so that their demands in regards to their
wages, benefits and working conditions are accepted by their employer
Causes of Strikes
A number of factors contribute to strikes and prevent parties from reaching
agreement in collective bargaining negotiations:
1. Overconfidence leads negotiators on both sides to believe their cases are
stronger than they really are, while underestimating the other side’s
willingness to stand firm. When one side doubts the other side’s claims, a
strike becomes even more tempting.
 STRIKES

5. 2. Fairness concerns cause negotiators to reject deals that would leave
both sides better off. We sometimes are even willing to pay good money to
punish those who treat us unfairly.
3. Agents at the bargaining table can have incentives that are misaligned
with the interests of those they represent in collective bargaining
negotiations. At times, elected union representatives may be more
concerned about appearing to “stand firm” than with working out a deal
with management, for example.
4. Viewing negotiation as a competition to be “won” keeps us focused
on distributive negotiation at the expense of integrative bargaining, and
stands in the way of an agreement that will satisfy everyone’s interests.
5. Incremental commitment to a strike can make it difficult to end one.
When the decision to “hold out for a few more days” is repeated, a strike
can last for months, even years. Economists have long advised us to ignore
our past investments of time, money, and other resources when making
decisions about the future. Yet such “sunk costs” weigh heavily on us. The
decision to cut our losses can be extremely difficult to make.

6. An International Labor Organization survey in 80 countries finds collective
bargaining agreements and practices are critical to improving working
conditions, closing the gender wage gap, and in reducing inequality and
discrimination in the work place. The ILO has just launched the first in a series
of reports on Social Dialogue.
The report finds one third or one in three workers around the world benefits
from collective bargaining agreements negotiated between trade unions and
employers. One of the more dramatic examples of that is the crucial role
collective bargaining has played in mitigating the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic on employment and earnings.
ILO Director-General Guy Ryder says the negotiating parties arrived at
solutions that proved critical in protecting workers on the front lines of the
COVID-19 pandemic. He says those solutions have proved crucial in
preserving essential health care, social care, and other services.
“Secondly, collective bargaining helped prevent the spread of COVID-19 in
the workplace through paid sick leave provision and the joint oversight of
workplace safety and health during successive lockdowns and workplace
returns.
 LOCKDOWN

7. And, thirdly, and as with previous crises, collective bargaining helped save
jobs, protect earnings, and safeguard business continuity.”
Much attention recently has been given to efforts to unionize corporate giants
Amazon and Starbucks in the United States. However, the ILO report
highlights the important role collective bargaining plays in developing, as well
as developed countries. Lead author of the ILO report Susan Hayter says 57 of
the agreements reviewed were in African countries. She says country studies
found that collective bargaining in those countries is as effective, if not in
some ways more effective, than in developed countries.
Authors of the ILO report say collective bargaining will be an essential tool to
face the fundamental changes that are shaking up the world of work. They call
the process a powerful problem-solving tool, which can be used for the benefit
of workers and employers alike.
Rather than being a controversial issue, they say collective bargaining should
be used as a public good.

8. 1. It is a Group Action:
Collective bargaining is a group action as opposed to individual action. Both
the parties of settlement are represented by their groups. Employer is represented
by its delegates and, on the other side; employees are represented by their trade
union.
2. It is a Continuous Process:
Collective bargaining is a continuous process and does not end with one
agreement. It provides a mechanism for continuing and organised relationship
between management and trade union. It is a process that goes on for 365 days of
the year.
3. It is a Bipartite Process:
Collective bargaining is a two party process. Both the parties—employers
and employees— collectively take some action. There is no intervention of any
third party.
4. It is a Process:
Collective bargaining is a process in the sense that it consists of a number of
steps. The starting point is the presentation of charter of demands by the workers
and the last step is the reaching of an agreement, or a contract which would serve
as the basic law governing labour-management relations over a period of time in
an enterprise.
 Main Features of Collective
Bargaining:

9. 5. It is Flexible and Mobile and not Fixed or Static:
It has fluidity. There is no hard and fast rule for reaching an agreement.
There is ample scope for compromise. A spirit of give-and-take works unless
final agreement acceptable to both the parties is reached.
6. It is Industrial Democracy at Work:
Collective bargaining is based on the principle of industrial democracy
where the labour union represents the workers in negotiations with the employer
or employers. Industrial democracy is the government of labour with the
consent of the governed—the workers. The principle of arbitrary unilateralism
has given way to that of self-government in industry. Actually, collective
bargaining is not a mere signing of an agreement granting seniority, vacations
and wage increase, by sitting around a table.
7. It is Dynamic:
It is relatively a new concept, and is growing, expanding and changing. In
the past, it used to be emotional, turbulent and sentimental, but now it is
scientific, factual and systematic.

10. 8.It is a Complementary and not a Competitive Process:
Collective bargaining is not a competitive process i.e., labour and management
do not coopt while negotiating for the same object. It is essentially a
complementary process i.e., each party needs something which the other party has,
namely, labour can put greater productive effort and management has the capacity
to pay for that effort and to organise and guide it for achieving the enterprise’s
objectives.
The behavioural scientists have made a good distinction between “distributive
bargaining” and “integrative bargaining”. The former is the process of dividing up
the cake which represents what has been produced by the joint efforts of
management and labour.
9. It is an Art:
Collective bargaining is an art, an advanced form of human relations.

11.  RETRENCHMENT
What is Retrenchment?
Retrenchment is one of the ways companies use to terminate employees when
the company is forced to downsize its number of employees. Subsidiary
companies of Multinational Corporations often resort to retrenchment to deal
with their expenditure on human resources. However, companies often fail to
consider the legal requirements to be carried out before retrenching their
employees.
Retrenchment meaning is terminating an employee due to the surplus of labor or
incapacity of employees to match the performance standards of the company.
The Industrial Dispute Act, 1947 deals with employment-related disputes in
India and Section 2(oo) of the Act states that ‘retrenchment means termination of
service of a workman by an employer for any reason whatsoever, otherwise than
as a punishment inflicted by way of disciplinary action. However, the following
are not covered within the meaning of employee retrenchment:
• Voluntary retirement of a workman
• Retirement of workmen on reaching the age of superannuation if the
employment agreement contains a provision regarding superannuation
• Termination of service of a workman due to the nonrenewal of employment
agreement
• Termination on grounds of continued ill-health

12. When may employees be retrenched?
An employer may retrench employees for “operational requirements”.
Operational requirements are requirements based on the economic,
technological, structural or similar needs of an employer, in other words, the
“business needs” of the employer:
• An example of economic needs would include a drop in sales or services
of the employer, or closure of business.
• An example of technological needs would include new technology
developed that can replace some employees.
• An example of structural needs would include restructuring the business.
When the court has to decide whether or not the employer’s decision to retrench
was fair, it looks at:
whether there was a real reason; and
whether it was unavoidable. This means that retrenchments must be considered
as a last resort.

13. WHAT IS STRIKE
A strike is a stoppage of work initiated by the refusal of most workers to perform
their work. A strike is usually a consequence that happens due to grievances that
are not addressed by the employer on a timely basis
TYPES OF STRIKE
1. A general strike is a type of strike where the workers join together for a
common reason or demand and keep themselves from work, depriving the
employer of their workers to carry on their business operations.
2. A token strike which is for a shorter period, for example for a few hours, and
its main aim is to draw the attention of the management by showing
cooperation among the worker and its generally before the general strike
WHAT HAPPENS DURING A STRIKE
A strike may consist of the workmen who refuse to come to work or march
outside the factory or officer premises to prohibit other workmen from working or
conducting ang business with the employer
 LOCKDOWN & STRIKE CASE STUDY

14. WHAT IS A LOCKDOWN
Strike is a tool in hands of the workmen to compel the management to agree to
their demands, similarly, is a tool in the hands of the management to force the
workmen to futher negotitate on their demands which are related to the terms and
conditions of the workers employement.
This defenition of the following three components of a lockdown
1. Temporary closing of a place of employement
2. Suspension of work
3. Refusal to continue to employ any number of persons employed by the
employer
When a lockdown take place, the workers asked by the management to stay away
from work, and therefore, they are not obliged to attend work.