Argyll and Bute Council supports the system of collective bargaining and believes in the principle of solving industrial relations problems by discussion and agreement.
For practical purposes, this can only be conducted by representatives of the employers and of the employees. If collective bargaining of this kind is to continue and improve the benefit of both, it is essential that the employees’ organisations should be fully representative.
Argyll and Bute Council is associated with other Local Authorities represented on the national councils dealing with Local Authorities’ services.
It is equally sensible for employees to be in membership of a trade union representing them on the appropriate negotiating body and employees are encouraged to do so. Employees have the right to join a trade union and to take part in its activities.
Details of the specified trade unions on the appropriate negotiating body are shown in the Trade Unions Contact section on the Hub.
What is Collective Bargaining?
This is a formal process and means that once an agreement has been reached by the employer and the trade unions that are working together to represent the views of their members during the negotiation, the agreement comes into force.
What if I am not a member of a Trade Union?
The agreement applies to all employees within the organisation whether they are union members or not
How does this work?
Once a proposal has been made, the trade unions will consult members, on significant proposals trade unions may choose to ballot their members to ask if they agree with the proposal or not.
This can be a postal ballot or a work place ballot. Only trade union members are able to vote in the ballot.
The outcome of the ballot will decide whether an agreement has been reached, allowing the proposal to be introduced on a collective basis, or rejected meaning that the members do not agree with the proposal.
What happens if a proposal is rejected by a ballot?
This depends on what the ballot was about but would usually mean that there was further discussion about what to do next.