Business Management

[trudgedaddy]

Can someone please tell me the positives and negatives between industry wide awards, collective agreements and individual contracts. Thank you if you can. 

[leu0017]

Can someone please tell me the positives and negatives between industry wide awards, collective agreements and individual contracts. Thank you if you can.

Here's a simple** response between these industrial agreement:
Industrial wide awards is a centralized approach, where representatives from the industry and a union (eg. Fair Work Australia), discuss the terms and conditions of employment. Whereas, collective agreements and individual contracts are decentralized agreements where it is mainly the organization itself discussing the terms with their staff.(collective agreement is a group of worker, individual contract is with a single employee.)

Positives for industry wide awards is that it protects the majority of the workers in that field to receive a minimum level of rewards. (eg. minimum wage, annual leave, and superannuation etc.) The employees will feel protected under the guidelines of the union, which can also be a motivator and increase in productivity. Also, in the perspective of the organization, it is time efficient as they would not need to bargain with each or a group or their employees. However, this type of agreement won't have flexibility as the whole industry following these guidelines, the extra work that employees put in won't be recognized.

For collective agreements, it contains more freedom, in comparison to industrial wide awards as the terms and conditions are suited towards the organization's objectives. The organization will be able to reward the employees with their amount of effort and participation (eg. bonuses, travelling opportunities). The disadvantage is that some individuals in the group could feel disadvantaged from the agreement thus disputing it and argue that individual negotiation is more appropriate.

Individual contracts have the highest amount of freedom, where the terms and conditions discussed are directly negotiated between the employee and the company. The advantage is that it promotes hard work high return, which triggers comparative wages, where employees compare each others' wages and aiming to achieve the highest. Disadvantage is that it can possibly create employee conflicts which are disturbing and lowers staff morale.