Summary
The employer and the Union agree on the following in the CBA:
- The employer agrees to provide employees with work equipment recommended by OSHA to function effectively during dangerous conditions, including inclement weather.
- Employer agrees to provide each employee with an annual $500 to cater to work gear purchasing. In addition, the employees should have the chance to order needed work gear once per year from an organization provided by the vendor catalog; that is, OSHA must approve all items ordered by the employees.
- The employer agrees that the employees can order any items they prefer but strictly on the $500 budget. Exceeding the $500 budget would be at the employee’s cost.
- On the other hand, the Union agrees that the Company has no liability of negligence from the employees of getting injured by not using the work gear.
- The Union agrees that the employees will be liable to pay any lost equipment or incur the full cost of the equipment using the Company provided in the vendor catalog.
- The Union agrees that the ownership of any working gear purchased within the $500 budget remains with the employer. Upon termination, the employee must turn in the work gear to the employer.
- The Union agrees that there will be no permission for the employees to leave their work gear in the employer’s location after their shift gets over.
- The Union agrees that the employer is responsible for designing lockers for any employee wishing to leave their work gear after ending the shift assigned to by the employer. But the liability lies on the employees of any working gear that gets lost or stolen while in the lockers.
Personal Account of the Negotiating Process
Amongst the significant challenge was agreeing on how much allowance to be availed to the employees to buy work gear. From the employer’s point of view, the allowance given to the employees had to be reasonable to enable them to purchase quality work gear and factor in the financial distress the allowance will have on the Company. Employees most times prioritize their safety, and not every demand can be accommodated. Also, an additional concern is having the employees buy the expensive work gear they want, but on the $500 budget, any extra cost is on their side (Jeong, 2018). The other challenge was the issue of the vendor. Multiple vendors were the best choice to allow the Company to make sound decisions based on different vendors’ prices. Storage of work gear was a point of fiction as the employees had to store them in lockers provided by the employer but bore liability for any loss or theft.
Similarly, great points were displayed by employees demanding a reasonable allowance and specifying the kind of work gear they needed. Again, because summer and winter seasons have different requirements, the employees had a great point to demand work gear for both seasons. However, the other positions required improvement and needed more details to understand their points and come to an agreement. Equally, Interest-based bargaining refers to an approach that concentrates on looking for a situation where both parties benefit from a negotiation (a win-win situation). On the other hand, distributive bargaining benefits one party in a negotiation (win-lose situation) (Jeong, 2018). I believe that in this situation, interest-based bargaining works best.
Moreover, the instructor assuming the role of a mediator or arbitrator, helped in this situation. It is a great thing to have someone to assist in the negotiation and look for agreeable terms. A mediator is essential as he happens to have the general knowledge of what is being negotiated and ensures everything argued is legally and ethically correct. In conclusion, the outcome was reasonable, and it favored both sides.
Reference
Jeong, H. W. (2018). Research on conflict resolution. In Conflict Resolution: Dynamics, process and structure (pp. 3-34). Routledge. Web.