The Process of Enterprise Bargaining in a Manufacturing Organisation

Among the reforms to Australian industrial relations since the 1980s has been a shift in emphasis away from the traditional centralised system to enterprise-based bargaining. The rhetoric of a decentralised approach to bargaining has focused on negotiated agreements, which result in ‘win-win’ outcomes for the parties involved. However, there is some debate about whether such outcomes are mutually advantageous. In a case study within the manufacturing industry, bargaining processes and outcomes were examined. The bargaining process appeared to follow four distinct stages in which management adopted a flexible approach, enabling the company to adjust strategies as the bargaining proceeded. On examination of the outcomes, a number of problems and issues were revealed in addition to the benefits perceived by management. A major issue related to the fact that management orchestrated the bargaining process so that genuine negotiations could not be said to have occurred. Rather, the process could be best described as pseudo bargaining. © 2001, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.