Employment Relations:
Negotiating collective employment agreements

You will prepare for the negotiation of a collective employment agreement between the staff and employers of Naturally Baking Ltd. The issues might include conditions such as pay, overtime, or leave. You may need to revise the information from this section.

You need to work within your forum teams to research the resources, answer the task questions to prepare for the negotiation, and then collate and present your bargaining process with supporting documentation.

You need to organise your forum team. You can nominate yourself for positions or suggest other team members. Your forum team needs to:

• split into two groups: the ‘Russell, the union organiser’ group and the ‘Dave, the employer’ group
• choose a facilitator to direct discussion within the two groups
• choose a reporter to collate and write up the process documents for both groups.

Each group needs to:

• decide how the members will work together to research the task questions and deliver feedback
• answer all the questions, and then collaborate with the other group to form an agenda.

When researching the information, you need to answer these questions:

1. What do you need to do to prepare for the negotiation? Produce the negotiation process that you will follow.
2. Explain at least five ways that you will meet your responsibility to act in good faith. Include this in your process.
3. What are the limits of your authority? How far can you commit without seeking the endorsement of someone with more authority?
4. What structure do you want? Think about the order for your key points, and how you will use them to reinforce one another. Prepare your agenda. Present it to the other group and come up with an agreed agenda.
5. What questions do you want to ask? Prepare a list of questions in relation to your claims.
6. How can you make everyone feel they have something to gain?
7. What responses to conflicts will you use during the negotiation?
8. What will you do if things go wrong?

Present the findings and documents of the two groups, including processes, agendas, questions, and strategies. Follow your tutor’s instructions for the format and layout of these documents.