The most important set of rules for collective bargaining is the National Industrial Relations Act (NLRA). It is also known as Wagner`s law. It explicitly grants workers the right to bargain collectively and to join trade unions. The NLRA was originally enacted by Congress in 1935 as part of its power to regulate interstate commerce under the trade clause of Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution. It applies to most private non-agricultural workers and employers engaged in one aspect of interstate trade. The decisions and regulations of the National Labour Relations Board (NLRB), established by the NLRA, significantly complement and define the provisions of the Act. The result of collective bargaining is a collective agreement. Collective bargaining is subject to federal and state laws, bylaws, and court decisions. Only one in three OECD workers has a wage agreed by collective bargaining.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, with its 36 members, has become a strong advocate for collective bargaining to ensure that falling unemployment also leads to higher wages. [17] In the United States, about three-quarters of private sector workers and two-thirds of public sector workers have the right to bargain collectively. This right came to American workers through a series of laws. The Railway Labour Act granted collective bargaining to railway workers in 1926 and now applies to many transportation workers, such as in airlines. In 1935, the National Labour Relations Act clarified the bargaining rights of most other private sector workers and established collective bargaining as « U.S. policy. » The right to collective bargaining is also recognized by international human rights conventions. For more information on collective bargaining, check out this Florida State Law Review article, this Nova Southeastern University Law Review article, and this Boston College Law Review article. In Finland, collective agreements are universally valid. This means that a collective agreement in an industry becomes a universally applicable legal minimum for a person`s employment contract, whether unionized or not. For this condition to apply, half of the workforce in this sector must be unionized, which supports the agreement. Collective agreements in Germany are legally binding, which is accepted by the population and does not give rise to any concern. [2] [Review failure] Although there has been (and probably still is) a « she and us » attitude in industrial relations in the UK, the situation in post-war Germany and some other Northern European countries is quite different.
In Germany, the spirit of cooperation between the social partners is much stronger. For more than 50 years, German employees have been represented by law on company boards. [3] Management and employees are considered together as « social partners ». [4] State laws continue to regulate collective bargaining and make collective agreements enforceable under state law. They can also provide guidelines for employers and employees who are not covered by the NLRA, such as.B agricultural workers. In the United States, the National Labor Relations Act (1935) covers most collective agreements in the private sector. The Act prohibits employers from discriminating, spying, harassing, dismissing or taking revenge on workers on the basis of their trade union membership when they participate in campaigns or other « concerted activities », form company unions or refuse to bargain collectively with the union representing their workers. It is also illegal to require a worker to join a union as a condition of employment. [12] Trade unions are also able to ensure safe working conditions and fair remuneration for their work.
Collective agreements contain sectoral terms and conditions of employment which are agreed between the employer and the workers` organisation. Collective agreements shall contain, inter alia, provisions on remuneration, working hours, annual leave and other benefits and conditions applied in the sector concerned. During the term of collective agreements, both parties have a duty to maintain industrial peace. This means that strikes, lockouts, etc. are prohibited against the collective agreement. However, the obligation to maintain industrial peace does not apply, for example, to political strikes or subsidy strikes. .