Collective Bargaining and Its Gains

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NAME: SYLVIA WANJIRU ADM. NO. : LAW/M/0288/5/10 UNIT: LABOUR LAW QUESTION: Discuss on collective bargaining and rights inferred on a person on the same (15mks) Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions. In Kenya, the process of collective bargaining is not specifically provided for in law, but there are prerequisite conditions, which must be fulfilled before parties may proceed with bargaining process. Such conditions are contained in the Labour Relations Act. In section 54 of the Labour Relations Act, there is a requirement that the trade union must have legal recognition in law that is duly registered by having a constitutional jurisdiction. Both the employer and the employee representative are required to bargain over "wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment." This has been defined over the years to include wages and fringe benefits, grievance procedures, arbitration, health and safety, nondiscrimination clauses, no-strike clauses, length of contract, management rights, discipline, seniority, and union security. Therefore, the persons who are parties under a collective bargaining agreement are the union as the workers’ representative and the management as the employer’s representative. The workers covered under trade unions however are regular employees, casual laborers, contractual workers and probationary employees. However, there are several essential features of collective bargaining, all of which cannot be reflected in a single definition or description of the process: i) It is not equivalent to collective agreements because collective bargaining refers to the process or means, and collective agreements to the possible result, of bargaining. Collective bargaining may not always lead to a

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