Collective agreement: what does it need employees for?

To date, between many employers and employees employed by their company, in addition to the standard individual labor contract, the conclusion of which is mandatory in the event of labor relations, there is often a so-called collective agreement.

Most often, its drafting is initiated by the employer, but sometimes there are cases when employees or the union advocating for the protection of their interests, requests a similar document. But, unfortunately, so far not all employees understand what they need this document for, and whether it is necessary at all.

So, the collective agreement is an internal agreement, formalized legally, between employees of the firm or enterprise and their employer. It is concluded with the purpose, firstly, to clearly stipulate some rules of work, labor protection, additional payments in certain cases, and secondly, in order to alleviate the tax burden that the employer bears. How does this happen?

Collective agreement is beneficial for employees in that it is possible to specify in advance all sorts of conflict situations that may arise for one reason or another during work. So, it can include the following items:

- Additional benefits, leave or compensation for employees combining training and work.

- The sizes, forms, specificity of calculation of awards, additional payments or encouragements from the employer.

- Those or other categories of workers for whom, in the event of a situation when it will be necessary to resort to a reduction in staff, there will be a guarantee for the preservation of jobs.

- Regularity of indexation of wages and the formula by which it will be conducted.

- Working conditions, as well as their improvement, especially for privileged categories of employees.

For many enterprises, an important issue is the inclusion in the collective agreement of the order of recovery of employees, as well as members of their families.

This is not a complete list of items that can be specified in this document. Specificity of its content is determined by the features of production and the relationship between subordinates and enterprise managers. However, employees should bear in mind that the employer also has the right to include in the collective agreement at the enterprise points on the prohibition of all kinds of strikes, which will make any sabotage in the field unacceptable.

In some cases, employees of enterprises can specify in the document and such "delicate" moments, as the use by the leader of profanity, threats or other forms of psychological pressure. Inclusion of such conditions in the text of the treaty is legitimate and permissible, so in some cases its conclusion will help employees to call the negligent boss to order.

Contrary to popular belief that a collective agreement is more appropriate in large corporations and enterprises where the number of employees exceeds several hundred people, recent experience proves that even in small organizations it can significantly improve the microclimate and facilitate negotiations between employees and their management.

In this regard, the processing of such a document is appropriate in all cases when the emergence of labor disputes and conflict situations is inevitable, since, based on the agreement signed by the representatives of both parties, it will be much easier to resolve the dispute. And if we take into account the fact that the collective agreement can contribute to the development of some kind of corporate ethics, it becomes clear why more and more employers independently initiate its conclusion.