Chapter 7 The Collective Agreement Flashcards
What is a collective agreement?
A written agreement between employer and union
- Sets out terms of employment
- contains both voluntary terms and mandatory terms
What is the minimum period of a collective agreement
1 year
What is the perspective of the union on the CBA?
- mini-workplace constitution
- provides some self-government for employees
What is the perspective of management on the CBA?
- may create inefficiency
- a limitation on management rights
What were old collective agreements like?
- short
- covered only the basics like wages, hours of work and overtime
What are new collective agreements like compare to old?
- long
- complex
- legalistic
- cover wide range of issues
What are the reasons for the greater complexity of C. A.s?
- growth in larger and more bureaucratic workplaces
- greater workforce diversity (women, minorities, professionals)
- incorporation of health and safety, employment standards & human rights law
- legalistic grievance arbitration require CA language that is more detailed
What are management rights?
- those rights not bargained away during negotiations
- even if no manager rights clause is in the agreement, arbitrators often apply the rule that issues not dealt with fall within managerial prerogative
What are the 4 types of unions?
- Closed shop
- Union shop
- Rand formula
- Open shop
What is a closed shop union?
Bargaining unit employees must be members of the union BEFORE being hired, hiring is done through the union.
ex) film industry, long shoremen
What is a union shop?
Bargaining unit employees must become members of the union AFTER they are hired (often within 30 days)
What is rand formula?
Employees not required to join union BUT they must pay union dues
*union still represents everyone’s rights
What is open shop?
Employees not required to join union
What are 2 uses of seniority?
- Benefits status
- determines entitlements ex) length of vacation - Competitive status
- when choosing between employees ex) promotions
What are the 4 types of seniority provisions?
- Full seniority
- Sufficient ability
- Relatively equal ability
- Full ability
What is full seniority used for?
Benefit status and vacation
What is sufficient ability often used for?
- seniority is the primary factor
- first consider seniority, if senior employee has sufficient ability to do the required work, he/she gets the promotion
What does relatively equal ability mean?
Seniority is a tie-breaker or secondary factor.
-first consider ability. If two or more employees have equal ability to do the required work, then the more senior one gets the promotion
What does full ability mean?
Seniority is not considered at all
-uncommon in unionized firms
What are some criticisms of seniority(4)?
- It reduces workplace efficiency (can’t take into account ability and past performance)
- It discourages employees from continuing to work hard once they learn good performance is not rewarded
- It protects poor performers from being laid off when layoffs occur
- It discriminates against women & minorities (because they often have less seniority)
What are 5 arguments in support of seniority?
- Employee morale increases bc decisions are made objectively and w/o manager biases
- The use of seniority helps reduce competition/rivalry
- More senior employees tend to have greater ability due to more experience and better knowledge of firm’s operations
- Employees can look forward to advancing to better jobs and more protection from layoffs (lower turnover rate)
- Seniority may harm minorities in the short run but will protect them from discrimination from managers in the long run
What does a grievance procedure look like?
The union representative states what was allegedly done improperly (collective agreement violation) & asks for a remedy.
What are possible outcomes of the grievance procedure?
- Union withdraws grievance
- Employer concedes grievance
- Compromise resolution
- No resolution, goes to arbitration
