When was the first time you ever bargained? Most of us have first bargained in our childhood. The bargain must have been for an extra piece of candy or the ice cream you wanted. Yes, it may come across as strange, but it is where it all started for many. I think it is one of the beauties of our brain that it teaches itself the art of negotiation and bargaining at such an early age.
The fundamentals of bargaining lie in acquiring something at a cheaper cost. From childhood to huge organizations, you can notice the impact of bargaining everywhere. Especially, people bargain in negotiation such as negotiating better deals with the customer. Likewise, in today's time, if you want to succeed in a job or run a business successfully, you must know why bargaining is important.
Importance of Bargaining at Workplace
Bargaining has a significant role in negotiation. With workplace bargaining and negotiation, you can form a strong local union. You can use claims and agreements to recruit new members for the union. Furthermore, you can add more members to it from time to time. By doing so, you can ensure that more people get the benefit from the power of effective bargaining. Also, helps with negotiating in tough situations.
Impact of Effective Bargaining
The impact of effective bargaining is massive. From employees to employers, everyone benefits significantly from bargaining. Say, for example, your employer continuously forces you to work extra hours or threatens to terminate you from the workplace. And you have been in a tight spot, so you don't have any option but to do as the employer requests as effective bargaining can lead to renegotiation.
In such a case, bargaining is the tool that safeguards you and your work. We can tell that employee unions result from such frequent incidents in the past. Here when you find yourself helpless, you can take the help of the union who on your behalf will bargain to defend your right to work or quit.
Similarly, employers face cases where employees refuse to work over an incident. Here, the presence of the union will ensure that such things won't take place as the union representative will deal with both parties and act as negotiator. For better understanding, you can look at the major advantages of effective bargaining.
It is Pro-employee
One advantage of bargaining is that it will make things easier for employees to fight for their rights as dedicated workers. As members of trade unions, they will have a voice through union representatives whose objective is to work to better its recruited members. The betterments can include things such as higher wages, shorter working hours, workplace safety, and better health care.
Prevents Managers from Power Abuse
Some employees normally do not have the means and the confidence to defend their rights if they are not part of a union. They can have individuals who will challenge the employers or the manager who constantly takes advantage of its employees. Thus, employees can have a better chance of being compensated accordingly. Furthermore, they can even quit their jobs if they feel under-compensated without worry.
Provides Safety and Security
Good bargaining will help provide employees with safety as they will not have to worry about being unlawfully terminated. And in case any such terminations occur, the employee will have a system of support and representatives to defend their rights as employees and secure compensation for the trouble.
Prevents Employee Strike
As mentioned in the example above, when there are major issues between employees and employers that are unresolved, employees often take up the strike route. Such actions can immensely hamper business and even cripple it with losses. Moreover, consumers end up suffering the most. Here proper bargaining can prevent employees from working as they have a representative to deal with such situations. Also, just like it contains employees' interests, acceptable bargaining can even protect employers' interests. In fact, bargaining can lead to an agreement where both parties involved can resolve things conveniently.
Protects Employees
People support bargaining through unions, where the contracts get signed between employers and union representatives. A major stipulation of such agreements states that the deal will benefit both employers and employees. Furthermore, it ensures the employees reserve the right to question any unjustified company policy.
Drawbacks of Bargaining
While there are several benefits or advantages of bargaining, it does have some drawbacks, as mentioned above. For example, the process of recruiting and forming a union is time-consuming. Also, if the bargaining gets not done right, it can lead to a huge wage gap between the employer and the employees, which can become a sign of worry. Furthermore, weak representatives can end up being partial to either the employee or the employer side.
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