The wage bargain - Lecture notes 4 PDF

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The wage/work bargain: Lecture 4 Rights as an employee You have a right to be paid for the work you have done, and in most cases, you should also be paid if you are prepared to work but your employer has not made any work available to you. Almost everyone is entitled to receive pay at the National Minimum Wage rate at the very least. There are some types of worker who do not have the right to be paid the minimum wage. These include:            

Self-employed people; Workers who are younger than school leaving age (usually 16); Voluntary workers; Company directors and other office holders; Members of the armed forces; Share fishermen; Workers (such as nannies) living in their employer’s family home who do not contribute to the cost of their accommodation or meals; Trainees on some government schemes or European Community Schemes; Workers on government employment or pre-apprenticeship schemes; Higher and further education students on work placements lasting up to a year; Members of religious communities who live and work there; Prisoners

Mutuality of obligation, this is based and used in two scenarios by the courts. The first scenario generally links with the contract law requirement of consideration, there should be contract of some sort concerning the parties before the question of employment status even arises, ‘an irreducible minimum of obligation’ on both sides. The second scenario refers to a ‘additional something’ that makes a distinction between a basic wage-work exchange from a contract of employment and a worker from an employee. What is the wage/ work bargain? When entering a contract of employment, the bargaining power of the potential employee is much less than that of the employer. The worker needs the job more than the employer needs the particular individual. Trade unions is used to redress this balance by harnessing the collective power of all the employees. However, this does not mean that trade union fixes everything, why? Because some employers will always have the upper hand, this maybe because work in their industries is so desirable that it is to find the replacements for a recalcitrant workforce, perhaps because of high unemployment.

The prevailing orthodoxy was that voluntary collective bargaining was the appropriate method of regulating employment relations. Under the Fair Wages Resolution of 1946 government contractors were required to implement terms and conditions no less favourable no than those resulting from collective bargaining in their industry in their region. The scheme was then taken further under Section 11 of the Employment Protection Act 1975 which allowed unions or employers’ associations to refer a case to Acas where a particular employer was alleged to be providing terms and conditions less good than those recognised within the trade or industry. Where collective bargaining has lead to an agreement, for example pay increase, these agreements are called collective agreements. Collective agreements within the workplace can cover both union and non-union staff as trade unions often negotiates on behalf of the staff employed in a specific group. This group is known as the bargaining unit. Collective bargaining is an important element in industrial relations. It helps to make the relationship between employees and employers smooth. A strong bond between the employers and employees contribute to the successful working of the company.

ACAS Publications:  Code of Practice - Disclosure of information to trade unions pdf [346kb]

This code aims to give practical guidance on the information to be disclosed by employers to trade union representatives in accordance with sections 181 and 182 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.

Legal enforceability of collective agreements Union and employer A collective agreement is assumed to be voluntary unless it is in writing and contains a statement that the parties intend it to be legal effect. Collective agreements may be implied or expressly incorporated into individual employment contracts.

Enforceability between union and employer A collective agreement will be conclusively presumed not to have been intended by the union and the employer to be a legally enforceable contract unless it is in writing and contains a provision (indicating) that the parties intend to it to be legally enforceable. An exception to these requirements is where the Central Arbitration Committee issues a statutory declaration that a union is recognised as entitled to conduct collective bargaining on behalf of a particular bargaining unit of workers, see para 31 of Schedule A1 of TULRCA 1992. Single union deals Single-union agreements are also known as ‘new style’ and ‘strike free’ agreements and involve the granting of recognition to a single trade union in return for guarantees on the avoidance of conflict and the promotion of cooperation between management and employees within the workplace. Union as agent Union business agents represents the interests of the members of their labour union. They are elected by members and paid by the union to speak on its behalf to both management and the public. Business agents work at the level of the union local. Express incorporations Express terms are the terms of the agreement which are expressly agreed between the parties. Ideally, they will be written down in a contract between the parties but where the contract is agreed verbally, they will be the terms discussed and agreed between the parties. The law states that certain express terms must be put in writing and handed to the employee in the form of a written statement of particulars on or before their work start date. Implied incorporations

Implied terms are terms of the employment contract that are not necessarily set out in writing or were agreed orally but nevertheless form part of the agreement between the employer and employee. The implied terms compliment the express terms of the contract, and if no term is implied into the contract, the contract is interpreted using its express terms only....