A Management Rights Clause - Essay Example

?Collective Agreements in Canada Collective agreements are legal contracts between a union and an employer typically setting out the rates of pay, the hours of work, vacations, benefits, grievance procedures and other conditions of employment and these agreements have a set expiry date typically lasting between one and three years. In this paper, we shall examine two such agreements from different unions and employers from the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The agreements to be considered in this discussion are the Agreement between the Treasury Board and the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada (Ontario) and the Collective Agreement for Construction and Maintenance in the Province of British Columbia made and entered into between Valard Construction LP and The Canadian Union of Skilled Workers. The following in these agreements shall be compared and contrasted: management rights; union security; seniority; contracting out, and finally grievance procedures. A management rights clause is an agreement between employers and unions about how much autonomy the employer has in running the daily operations of a business and the decisions that the employer makes should not violate the collective agreements that have been made nor should they violate provincial and federal laws. In the case of both agreements as shown especially by the Treasury Board Secretariat (Article 4,Section 4.01), it is stated that the functions, rights, powers and authority which the employers have not specifically edited, delegated or modified in the agreements are recognized by the respective unions as being retained by the employers. Both of these agreements are in line with the main conditions of the management rights clause because they clearly specify what the jurisdictions of the employers and the unions are in relation to the employees and they set out guidelines on how to handle them without any interference with the day-to-day functions of the respective organizations. The union security section entails that employees are required to pay monies to maintain the union, and gives the union the exclusive right to bargain with the employers. This is as seen in the Treasury Board of Canada’s (Article 7, Section 7.01) agreement with the General Workers Union, which declares that the employer should be aware that the union as the only negotiator and mediator for all workers. Moreover, it states that it has the right to appoint stewards whose jurisdiction he, jointly with the union, shall determine having regard to the plan of the organization, the disbursement of employees at the work place and the administrative structure implied in the grievance procedure. The agreement between the Valard Company and the Union of Skilled Workers (Section 2) on the other hand states that all employees falling under the scope of the agreement will apply for membership in the union and will maintain their membership within the union as a condition of employment. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the employer to co–operate with the union in all matters except for policing membership status. Both of these agreements require that the jurisdiction under which they fall have to be members of their respective union as a condition of employment. It can further be seen that the employees have no choice in the matter and that if they were not registered members of the unions, then they would lose their entitlement to employment, because the unions cannot provide the services that are required of them without the funding from its registered members. Security of employment is one of the foremost issues that occur between employers and employees and unions have attempted to deal with this problem by adding within the stipulations of collective agreements requirements for seniority whereby the employer is to promote, lay-off and re-employ his employees by considering the length of previous service. Although the two agreements that we are discussing in this paper have no seniority clauses, it is still very important to discuss it because it is increasingly becoming an important clause in many of the collective agreements of various industries. The Labor Gazette, (vol.78. 192) states that seniority clauses are of particular importance in those collective agreements that cover workers in mass production industries not only because a large proportion of those workers are unskilled or semi -skilled and may therefore be easily replaced, but also because seasonal fluctuations in production in those industries mean frequent layoffs. In many companies, for example, preference tends to be given to those employees who have rendered the longest service to the company by ensuring them the highest job security and rewarding them for their services. Grievance procedures are steps provided for in a collective agreement for the dealing with complaints made by or in the name of the employees. The agreement between Valard Construction and the General Workers Union (Section 14), states that an employee who feels that he has been treated with prejudice or considers himself to be aggrieved by an action may report the matter to his immediate supervisor. Furthermore, if the employee considers that nothing has been done about it by the employer in matters other than those that is dealt with within the definition of the grievance process, then is he entitled to present a grievance. An exception to this is in cases where there is another procedure provided to deal with this employee’s specific complaint. Therefore, in this case, it is determined that the employee is not allowed to present this grievance except if he has the approval of and is represented by the union. The employee must be represented by an authorized representative of the union while presenting a grievance at any step. This procedure is slightly different from the one stipulated by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (Article 9, Section 9.03) in the agreement with the Union of Skilled Workers where the grievance procedures are stipulated. This agreement states that the employer shall appoint employees beyond the jurisdiction of the union to act as contact supervisors whose main responsibility will be the giving and securing a decision on any grievance submitted to him by a union representative on behalf of an employee or a group of employees under his supervision (“Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat”). However, if the contact supervisor does not make a satisfactory decision, the union representative will within thirty days refer the grievance for arbitration. Although in both agreements, the employee with a grievance should first report it to his or her immediate supervisor, and only after he does not get a satisfactory decision should he take the matter to the union, there is a slight difference in the procedure. While in the second agreement, it is the responsibility of the employer to appoint a supervisor outside the union’s jurisdiction to act as a neutral contact supervisor, it is different from the first where the immediate supervisor should also be a member of the union. In the second agreement, the union is involved in almost every step of the grievance process and it clearly states that the aggrieved employee shall not present their grievance without a representative from the union being present. This is opposed to the first agreement where the union only gets involved almost as a last resort in the solution of the problem. In conclusion, it can be said that unions are very important in the protection of workers or employees in the different industries that are deeply involved in the development of the economy and the collective agreements that they make with the various employers are meant to ensure the smooth running of the particular industries involved. In this paper, we have discussed, compared and contrasted some of the important clauses in the two examples of collective agreements, and how they have been set to operate effectively. Herein, we have discussed the clauses dealing with matters concerning jurisdiction between employer and the union relating to how the employer should deal with the senior employees in his organization. Moreover, the responsibility of employees to their unions and the responsibility of the unions to the employees, and the systematic procedures that aggrieved employees should follow towards arbitration in order to get what they consider their rights. Works Cited Canada, Department of Labour. The Labour Gazette 78 (1978): 192. “Collective Agreement for Construction and Maintenance in the Province of British Columbia made and entered into between Valard Construction LP and The Canadian Union of Skilled Workers – BC.” n.d.Web 17 July, 2012 “Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.” Air Traffic Control (AI) 402. 2008. Web 17 July, 2012 < http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/coll_agre/ai/ai02-eng.asp> Read More