Deck 11: Collective Agreement-Making and Collective Bargaining: Structures and Processes

Question 1

Interest-based bargaining refers to:

A) a competing or position form of bargaining.
B) a mix of bargaining processes.
C) a more cooperative form of bargaining.
D) None of the options given here is correct

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following is a stage in the bargaining process?

A) Preparation
B) Bargaining
C) Implementation
D) All of the options given here are correct

Answer 2

D

Question 3

List and describe the legal status of collective agreements under the Fair Work Act in Australia.

Answer 3

The legal status of collective agreements under the Fair Work Act changed in several important ways. First, there is no distinction between union and non-union collective agreements. Second, all collective agreements are now between one or more employers and their employees-a trade union or other employee representative cannot be party to a collective agreement. Third, the procedures required for the tribunal to certify a collective agreement-thereby making it legally binding-were tightened. Finally, the Fair Work Act continued the primacy of enterprise agreements over awards, but the relationship between them became better regulated through the Better Off Overall Test. In other words, collective agreements would only be certified if they provided employees with wages and working conditions that were 'better off overall' than those they would have received under the relevant modern award.

Question 4

Identify the main issues subject to collective bargaining in Australia during the 1990s, as distinct from the traditional delegated regulation process before 1993.

Question 5

How did the new legal status of collective agreement-making after 1993 lead to changes in employee representation in Australia?

Question 6

Prior to the establishment of the conciliation and arbitration system in Australia, employers often used what type of law to thwart union activities?

A) Statute law
B) Both common law and statute law
C) Common law
D) None of the options given here is correct

Question 7

What are the key issues in the legal status of agreement making?

A) Industrial action
B) Recognition of employee representatives for bargaining purposes
C) All of the options given here are correct
D) The legal status of collective agreements

Question 8

How did the Howard government, between 1996 and 2007, change the reforms of the previous government?

Question 9

Within the realm of collective bargaining, 'hours of work' is an example of:

A) permitted agreement content.
B) mandatory agreement content.
C) unlawful agreement content.
D) All of the options given here are correct

Question 10

What are the main types of collective bargaining?

A) Union and non-union bargaining
B) Individual and collective bargaining
C) Traditional and interest-based bargaining
D) None of the options given here is correct

Question 11

Describe Australia's historic system of collective agreement-making before 1993, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s.

Question 12

What was the overwhelming assumption about collective bargaining before 1993 in Australia?

Question 13

List and define the five dimensions of bargaining.

Question 14

Define interest-based bargaining and explain the scepticism of its value to employment relations.

Question 15

Discuss how, after 1993, collective bargaining in Australia continued to be highly decentralised, but for quite different reasons. In your answer, identify the differing aspects of both the decentralised system before 1993 and the decentralised system after 1993.

Question 16

How did the Keating Labor gin 1993 move the national industrial relations system away from the traditional arbitral model established in 1904?

Question 17

Define 'traditional collective bargaining'.

Question 18

List the required behaviours of the parties during bargaining under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).

Question 19

Did the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) and the WorkChoices amendments widen the scope of collective bargaining in Australia? Discuss.

Question 20

Give an example of how employers were able to resist unions during the nineteenth century in Australia.

Question 21

Collective bargaining is central to which employment relations values?

A) Unitarist
B) Pluralist
C) Radical
D) None of the answers given here is correct

Question 22

In order for collective agreement-making to gain and maintain its legitimacy, there are a number of issues that must be agreed and supported in law. What are these?