Industrial disputes

Effective negotiating

In most small disputes you or your managers will want to negotiate with your employees face-to-face. In most cases this will be the quickest, cheapest and easiest way. You and your employees will know what the issues are and can look for solutions that fit your needs.

In larger, more complex disputes it may be better to enlist trained people to do the negotiations. These are especially helpful where there are emotive issues involved that could lead to angry exchanges.

Trade unions can supply negotiators for their members. Employers' organisations and some firms of solicitors or other professional advisers can supply negotiators to employers.

Negotiating style

There are two main ways that negotiations can be approached, which can affect how fast a dispute is resolved.

The first is the adversarial approach. Each negotiator will start by making demands, then each will try to trade-off demands against concessions at the best rate they can. The advantage is that all possibilities will be considered as each side will put all their demands as early as possible to get them into the bargain. This can be acrimonious and lead to long negotiations as each demand is discussed in detail.

The second, and most effective style that negotiators will employ is the win-win approach. The two sides will try to compare their overall objectives to find common areas of benefit that can be agreed. Often this can be achieved by looking beyond the initial demands to discover the underlying ones.

For instance, do you really want to cut your wages bill or are you actually trying to find a way to increase profitability? Do your workers really want shorter hours or are they looking for more family-friendly and flexible working patterns? The win-win approach is less argumentative but risks being seen as a compromise which may not be the best result for anyone.

Negotiating training

Special training in negotiating skills will be worth the time and cost when dealing with disputes with your employees. You may find training providers who specialise in your industry through specialist trade press.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Avoiding industrial disputes
• Dealing with industrial disputes
• Effective negotiating
• Before industrial action takes place - legal issues
• During industrial action - legal issues
• Following industrial action - legal issues
• Trade union recognition
• Collective bargaining

Warning: main(http://www.encorepersonnel.co.uk/inc/php/page_functions.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: Connection refused in /home/sites/encorepersonnel.co.uk/public_html/hrportal/disciplinary/disputes/effective.php on line 211

Warning: main(http://www.encorepersonnel.co.uk/inc/php/page_functions.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: Connection refused in /home/sites/encorepersonnel.co.uk/public_html/hrportal/disciplinary/disputes/effective.php on line 211

Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://www.encorepersonnel.co.uk/inc/php/page_functions.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/pear') in /home/sites/encorepersonnel.co.uk/public_html/hrportal/disciplinary/disputes/effective.php on line 211