Collective Bargaining for collective employment agreement refers to agreement between registered unions and the employers that protect employees’ interest in the workplace. In many employments, the bargaining authority between the employer and the employee is not the same; therefore, it is mended through the way of collective bargaining (Villanueva, 2015). Unions make sure to negotiate their way to represent the interest of the employees more expressly in front of the employers (Bailey et al., 2015).
Collective bargaining leads to the official ratification of the collective employment agreement and gives it a shape of formal employment agreement (“Collective agreements » Employment New Zealand”, 2018). The report strive to discuss about the current situation of the qualified and unqualified staff and try to put their best interest forward keeping the interest of the employer company in mind. A strong negotiation for the betterment of the poor wage situation of the qualified staffs is what this report wish to throw light on along with the qualification issue of the unqualified staffs. Certain recommendations are suggested to improve the situation as well.
Discussion
Interest of the Qualified and Unqualified Staffs
Members of the New Zealand Early Childhood Education Union (NZECEU) working at Happy Tots, a childcare centre in Central Auckland owned by Kiddie Care Corp, an Australian childcare chain, has several issues since their previous employer was owing the childcare centre. The members and their grievances are divided as per qualified and unqualified staffs. The qualified staffs have been getting a poor pay package for a long time in comparison to the Kindergarten teachers, some of them even having a three or four year of degrees and experience in management responsibilities. The amount they receive is even less than what is needed to live in Auckland.
Therefore, the qualified staffs look for an improvement in the quality of the sector as well as raise of the wages. Additionally they feel that people in general have no idea about the tough effort they put into their jobs, hence have no respect for the work they do. They requests for dissemination of awareness and recognition of their responsibilities of identifying signs of abuse or neglect at home, being aware about different cultures, writing reports, working with various agencies and community services along with meeting the regular curriculum and making sure that the children are in a safe and healthy environment (Bredekamp, 2014).
Similarly, the unqualified staff receive a little more than the bare minimum wage with a little or no incentives. They are being pushed to pursue degree courses and get qualified to continue the job. They find this unfair and unjust given the fact they would have to do the same job with a little pay hike even after pursuing the degree which would cost them $30,000.
Therefore, it is clear that the qualified staffs want recruitment of more qualified staff, an equal pay for all early childhood care workers across the sector including kindergartens and recognition of their effort as well. While, the unqualified staffs expect the government to remove any such regulation that would require them to pursue degree course for no use. Their interest speaks against the fact that the government strives to engage 100% qualified staff in the sector.
Interest of Kiddie Care Corp
Kiddie Care Corp (KCC) is a large Australian chain of childcare centre, which is extremely corporate in nature and profit driven in motive. It is not a union friendly business house and prefer to handle things on its own. It has its plan of expanding its wings across New Zealand and so it cannot indulge in entering into any adverse binding agreement that might affect its growth and development in the country. The company is concerned about the large number of unqualified staff whose part-time work pattern is refraining the company from bringing in new policies and systems in the organization. The company wants to improve the rostering system however, the last minute changes in shift timings acts as an obstacle to such changes. The company faces difficulty when it does not even find 50% of the qualified staff strength present.
The interest of the company speaks for certainty and stability in the organization, strives to remove the employment disputes. They look forward to receiving grants for licenses and funding pertaining to the new infant centre that it aspires to build over the next one year (Zealand, 2018). Therefore, it does not want to deal with employment issues and pay related disputes now.
The Changes and the Need for Negotiation:
There has been legal, political, social and economic changes in the past decade in Auckland. Political parties have adopted agendas to change policies regarding the pay scale of workers, hiring more employees that are qualified and diminishing the number of unqualified employees; for example the Labour Party intends to recruit 100% qualified members. Hence, campaigns like ‘Equity for ECE’ is run by NZECEU to get a better pay package for the ECE workers across and within the sector.
The immediate priority would most definitely include the salary raise of the qualified staffs, as they need to run their livelihood as per the economic standard of Auckland (Foulds, Wells & Mulder, 2014). It violates the basic human rights. There should be equality of pay between the qualified working staff under ECE and kindergartens (May, 2014). Other than basic salary, an employee has the right to ask for recognition and respect in her employment. Teachers at early childhood care are often seen as babysitters more than teachers.
People has no idea about the hard work they put into childcare (Harwood & Tukonic, 2017). Thus, it should be negotiated with the employers to help spread awareness about the responsibility of the teachers. Logical negotiation is required for the benefit of the unqualified working force as it is unjust to direct them to pursue an expensive degree course that would yield no significant future economic gain for them. In addition to this, the need for a proper rostering system should be conveyed to the management as well so that the company and the employees does not face instability and inconvenience in the hour of need.
Recommendations for Action with reference to Law:
Keeping the socio-political and economic aspects in mind and by following the provisions of Employment Relations Act 2000 (“Employment Relations Act 2000 No 24 (as at 01 January 2018), Public Act – New Zealand Legislation”, 2018), few recommendations are suggested:
Ideal Term for the Collective Employment Agreement:
To frame the ideal terms for collective employment agreements, certain aspects need to be kept in mind. Aspects like the interest of the employees and employer as well as the government regulations needs to be taken into consideration. The terms of the agreement should include:
Strategy to Achieve Union Members’ Interest
Negotiation is the key in this situation and the union has the position to negotiate with the company to raise the salary of the qualified staff. The union needs to chalk out a plan comprising the difficulties faced by the qualified members due to low pay package, which is not sufficient to match the living standard of Auckland. As for the unqualified staff is concerned, the union should highlight the issue that would crop up if all the unqualified members are terminated. Overall, the union needs to throw light on the problems that would arise if the interest of the employees are not addressed.
Conclusion
To conclude, it is to be understood by the employees and the employer that one is indispensable for the other. Therefore, it is wise to act keeping each other’s interest in mind. Infringement of human rights should be checked. Right to minimum wages should be the fundamental criteria for any employment. Additionally, equal pay for equal work should be practiced in a democratic country. While, a sudden change in policy that could terminate unqualified staffs from the childcare sector in not welcomed as well. A balance of qualified and unqualified staffs should be maintained. However, the interest of the employer should also be kept in mind as the business cannot afford to run at a loss, as it is the ultimate source of income of the employees. Therefore, the collective bargaining should be done in good faith and not create a turmoil in the organization. The idea should always be to maintain peace and stability in the company and to help the company grown along with individual growth of the employees.
Bailey, J., Price, R., Pyman, A., & Parker, J. (2015). Union power in retail: Contrasting cases in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 40(1), 1.
Bredekamp, S. (2014). Effective practices in early childhood education: Building a foundation. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Collective agreements » Employment New Zealand. (2018).
Elango, S., García, J. L., Heckman, J. J., & Hojman, A. (2015). Early childhood education (No. w21766). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Employment Relations Act 2000
Employment Relations Act 2000 No 24 (as at 01 January 2018), Public Act – New Zealand Legislation. (2018).
Foulds, J., Wells, J. E., & Mulder, R. (2014). The association between material living standard and psychological distress: Results from a New Zealand population survey. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 60(8), 766-771.
Harwood, D., & Tukonic, S. (2017). Babysitter or professional? Perceptions of professionalism narrated by Ontario early childhood educators. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 8(4), 589-600.
May, H. (2014). New Zealand: A narrative of shifting policy directions for early childhood education and care. An Equal Start?: Providing Quality Early Education and Care for Disadvantaged Children, 147-170.
Villanueva, E. (2015). Employment and wage effects of extending collective bargaining agreements. IZA World of Labor.
Zealand, E. (2018). GMA7 Human resource management.
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