BARGAINING STRUCTURE

The more stable or permanent features that distinguish the bargaining process in any particular system. Usually bargaining structure is considered to have five major features: bargaining agent, bargaining form, bargaining level, bargaining scope, and bargaining unit . Bargaining Agent: The union or unions recognised by an employer for collective bargaining in respect of a particular bargaining unit (see below). Bargaining Form: Refers to whether agreements are formal or informal, written or unwritten. Informal, unwritten agreements are often referred to as custom and practice . Although there has been a move towards greater formality and written agreements in the area of terms and conditions in the last two decades, agreements over the pace and organisation of work are still often unwritten and informal. Bargaining Level: Refers to the points within a system t which bargaining between unions and employers or their representatives takes place. Within a single company, such bargaining may take place at one or more of the following levels: at shop floor level, covering groups of workers in that plant; at plant or factory level, covering all workers or certain categories of workers; and in multi- plant companies, at divisional or corporate level, again covering all workers or certain categories of workers. All these are collectively defined as forms of single-employer bargaining (see below). Above that, in the private sector, bargaining often also takes place at the level of the industry or industrial sector, so- called multi-employer bargaining (see below), between Employers' Associations and confederations of trade unions . This latter form is often conducted through bodies variously named National Joint Industrial Councils, Joint Industrial Councils, or National Joint Committees. While many workers in the private sector have their wages and conditions affected by two or more levels of bargaining, single-employer bargaining, most especially at the plant, division, or corporate level, has emerged in the last two decades as the most significant, with multi-employer bargaining correspondingly declining in importance. There is rarely any co-ordination between single- and multi-employer bargaining. In the public sector , most bargaining takes place at a national level for each of the major public enterprises, so this is a form of single-employer bargaining. In recent years most public enterprises have introduced some local bargaining, but in these cases it is usually still administered from the centre. Bargaining Scope: Refers to the range of issues over which bargaining takes place. Traditionally in Britain, bargaining scope has been restricted to issues of terms and conditions of employment and, in some cases, to the organisation and intensity of work. Broader strategic issues, sometimes the subject of a form of bargaining in other European countries, have rarely been covered by bargaining in Britain, although they sometimes are covered by forms of consultation . See single union agreement . Bargaining Unit: Refers to the group or category of workers covered by a particular agreement. Thus, for example, within one bargaining level, such as the company, there may be a number of units, such as craft workers, white-collar workers, etc, who may be the subject of different agreements. The bargaining unit may be as large as an entire company workforce, for example in discussions over pension arrangements, or as small as a group of skilled craft workers.

Ref http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/emire/UNITED %20KINGDOM/BARGAININGSTRUCTURE-EN.htm