Labour and Industrial

Relations Law
COLLECTIVE LABOUR RELATIONS
 Collective bargaining

• Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between

employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at
reaching agreements which regulate working conditions.
• Collective agreements usually set out wage scales, working hours,
training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms and
rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.
 Collective bargaining

• There are four broad objectives or functions of collective

bargaining which are:
• 1. Democracy in the workplace – it enables workers to acquire
some bargaining power,
• 2. Redistribution of power - workers improve their conditions at
the expense of the employer’s profits through redistribution from
the employer’s profits to the employees’ higher wages.
 Collective bargaining

• 3. Settlement of trade disputes-Collective bargaining is also

credited for reducing inequalities by creating pay policies that
limit managerial discretion and finally,
• 4. The maintenance of efficiency - it helps to promote economic
efficiency by limiting industrial conflict in the workplace.
Negotiations

• The union may negotiate with a single employer (who is typically

representing a company's shareholders) or may negotiate with a
group of businesses, to reach an industry wide agreement.
• A collective agreement functions as a labor contract between an
employer and one or more unions.
• Collective bargaining consists of the process of negotiation
between representatives of a union and employers (generally
represented by management, in some countries by an employers'
organization) in agreement.
Desires of employees

• general employees also have input on it, through their union

officers. Thus, the agreement reflects the combined desires of all
the employees, along with limitations that the employer wishes to
see put in place.
• The result is a powerful document which usually reflects
cooperative effort.
• In some cases, however, the union or the employer may resort to
antagonistic tactics such as striking or creating a lockout, in order
to push the agreement through.
 Legal Support for Collective Bargaining

• The right to collectively bargain is recognized through

international human rights conventions.
• Item 2(a) of the International Labour Organization's Declaration on
Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work defines the "freedom of
association and the effective recognition of the right to collective
bargaining" as an essential right of workers.
Enhancement of human dignity

• The right to bargain collectively with an employer enhances the

human dignity, liberty and autonomy of workers by giving them
the opportunity to influence the establishment of workplace rules
and thereby gain some control over a major aspect of their lives,
namely their work.
 Wage Setting and Collective Bargaining

• Wage setting in Zambia is conducted largely through the process of

collective bargaining under the auspices of the Industrial and
Labour Relations Act.
• Every employer employing not less than twenty five (25)
employees and the trade union to which his employees belong are
required to enter into a recognition agreement.
Recognition agreement

• Under this agreement, the employer does not simply acknowledge

the existence of such trade union, but more importantly
undertakes to accept the Union as a bargaining partner.
• The agreement is a pre-requisite for regulating the collective
relationship of the employer and the trade union.
Levels of collective bargaining

• It can be safely estimated that over 50% of the workforce in the

formal sector are covered or affected by collective bargaining
processes either directly or indirectly.
• Collective bargaining takes place at both enterprise and industry
levels.
State intervention

• Inspite of the bias for collective bargaining enshrined in the Act, it

is recognized that State intervention in the regulation of wages
and other conditions of employment is necessary and inevitable in
those areas or sectors where collective bargaining is not possible
or is ineffective.
• To this effect, the Minimum Wages and Conditions of Employment
Act enacted in 1982 provides the State with residual power to
determine minimum wages and other conditions of employment.
Labour commissioner involved

• The Labour Commissioner directly or through his field staff

maintains close and continuous touch with both trade union
leaders and employers on an informal basis to lend support and
counsel to the negotiation process and assure satisfactory
conclusion.
Dispute Resolution and the Right to Strike

• The legal provisions dealing with dispute resolution are largely

contained in Part IX of the Industrial and Labour Relations Act
• These provisions are in addition to the internal grievance
procedures required to be contained in the Recognition Agreement
for each undertaking
Appointment of conciliator

• In respect of collective disputes, the Act requires that such

disputes, provided they are not in an essential service, to be
referred to a conciliator or a board of conciliation jointly
appointed by the parties to the dispute or appointed by the
Minister from a panel of conciliators established in consultation
with employers and trade unions.
Appointment of conciliator

• If conciliation fails, the dispute must be referred to the Court for

arbitration as in the case of essential service or the aggrieved
party may conduct a strike or lockout ballot which may then
commence ten days thereafter.
• It is important to note that industrial action is particularly
proscribed in essential services
 Bargaining Procedure

• Collective bargaining is an exclusive function of a trade union and

the employer or employers’ organization .Together they form a
bargaining unit.
• A joint council was a bargaining unit at industry level. At
enterprise level, a bargaining unit was simply known as a
bargaining unit. Where the collective bargaining took place by
joint council, whatever was agreed upon would bind everyone in
that industry
Enterprise level

• At the level of an enterprise, the bargaining unit consisted of

representatives on the union’s side and the individual employer on
the other side. The collective agreements reached between those
two parties were not gazettable and the law only required that
the bargaining unit submit five copies of the agreement to the
Commissioner
Mandatory clauses

• In order to be valid, every collective agreement must contain the

following mandatory clauses referred to as statutory clauses,
namely, the date on which the agreement is to come into effect
and the period for which it is to remain in force ; and the methods
, procedures and rules for reviewing, amending or replacing or
terminating the collective agreements.
Five copies to be lodged

• The parties to a collective agreement are required to lodge five

signed copies to the Commissioner who in turn submits the copies
to the Minister within fourteen days of receipt of the copies.
• The Minister may, after considering the collective agreement,
decline to direct registration of the agreement and direct that a
copy of the collective agreement be returned to the parties
together with his reason for his decision and give instructions to
the Commissioner or direct the Commissioner to register the
collective agreement.
Minister orders registration of CA

• The Minister will not direct the registration of a collective

agreement until he is satisfied that the agreement contains the
mandatory statutory clauses and that the clauses do not contain
anything that is contrary to any written law.71Parties to a
collective agreement are at liberty to vary provisions of the
collective agreement as long as the provisions for lodgment of
collective agreements with the Commissioner for approval by the
Minister are followe
Incorporation of Collective Term

• There are two theories regarding incorporation of collective terms

into individual contracts of employment .The first one is known as
the concept of automatic incorporation. Under this concept, it is
assumed that the collective terms are incorporated automatically
into individual contracts of employees in the enterprise or industry
in which the collective agreement is in effect as soon as the
agreement becomes legally binding..
Incorporation of Collective Term

• The other theory is that there is no automatic incorporation of

collective terms but that parties to the contract of employment
must consciously incorporate the said terms in their contracts of
employment.
• The legal status of collective agreements in Zambia is that if the
agreement is procedurally correct and approved by the Minister, it
constitutes a legally binding contract between the parties
Incorporation of Collective Term

• In the case of Kamayoyo v. Contract Haulage the Supreme Court

held that a collective agreement is a legally binding contract
between the parties and that anything done outside these
contractual agreements are of no legal effect.
• In the case of Pamodzi Hotel V. Godwin Mbewe a collective
agreement was incorporated into the terms of the employment
that bound both parties.
Illegal strike leads to termination of contract

• An employee who goes on an illegal strike necessarily terminates

his contract of employment. under the common law which
happens, when the employer has the following remedies open to
him. He may treat the employee as having repudiated the contract
of employment and hence terminated it, or he may sue the
employee for damages for breach of and retain him employment.
He may also withhold payment for the number of days that the
employee was absent.