: Good Faith Negotiations - Case Study Example

I believe that the company was bound to sign the agreement. The reason for this is that no where did the negotiators nor the company management communicates to the union the time that would take for J. Lee to approve and sign the agreement. Even though that the negotiators were not authorized to bind the company, they should have been informed about J. Lee’s availability and the agreement should have been made effective only after it being studied or approved by J. Lee. Irrespective of the agreement being a tentative one, it was clearly stated that it would be affective from July 1 and any differences should have been raised before this date.

It is the fault of J. Lee to not have looked into the agreement before the effective date and this led to the union to believe that the agreement was agreed upon and signed. 2. It might be an unfair labor practice for the company to rescind the pay rise without first meeting with the union because it was not just an error as the company argued. The rise in wages was not a bookkeeping error but payroll office was of the belief that those were benefits. They acted as per the agreement and not increased.

Therefore both payroll office and the employees were of the belief that it was benefits. The change in the wage increase can not be considered as an error. Therefore the company had to first meet with the union before it rescinded the pay rise. 3. It is a bad idea for an employer to send the negotiators to the bargaining table without the authority to give final approval to the negotiated terms. This is because it does not serve the whole purpose of negotiation. Negotiator’s role will be more of a mediator than a negotiator.

And there would be many issues like time delay, communication gap that would arise if the negotiator is not authorized to give the final approval. Both parties will be at loss.