Enterprise Bargaining in Sear Corporation

Enterprise Bargaining in Sear Corporation 1
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
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Enterprise Bargaining in Sear Corporation 2
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Australia Enterprise Bargaining......................................................................................................4
Industrial Disputes in Sear Holding Corporations...........................................................................5
Strategies used by Sear Company to address the Industrial Disputes.............................................6
Conciliations....................................................................................................................................7
Trade Union and Management Views.............................................................................................8
Recommendations............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
List of References..........................................................................................................................11

Enterprise Bargaining in Sear Corporation 3
Introduction
Conflicts and disputes are common things in every industrial organization; these conflicts
and misunderstandings tend to arise among the employees and between the employees and the
employers. According to Borland (2012), the frequency of these conflicts hinders the
performance and productivity of the employees and the organization as a whole, therefore, each
organization should always have a strategic plan for solving such disputes whenever arise. The
individual level conflicts are always easy to handle however, those disputes that occur between a
group of employees and the employers are always the most difficult to solve (McDonald &
Graham 2011, p. 51). These conflicts have led to formation of unions among the staffs across the
world to spearhead their interest on various aspects such as the working conditions, employee
relations, payments, and welfare of the staffs. The paper examines the dispute between Sear
Corporation and the organization’s workers union over poor payments and terrible working
conditions established by the management. The article also discusses various strategies adopted
by the administration towards settling the dispute and the views of both the trade union and the
management of the strategy. The paper further provides recommendations that can be used to
improve on the methodology adopted.
Workers unions are unity of workers formed to handle the grievances between the
workers and the employers (Hassan & Seraji 2013, p.92). These unions ensures that both
employees and employers respect the terms and conditions signed, privileges and freedoms, and
addresses misunderstandings through various strategies such as strikes, go-slow, legal changes,
collective bargaining, and public address among others. The industrial disputes have several

Enterprise Bargaining in Sear Corporation 4
methods of addressing, such as conciliation and arbitration, negotiation, mediation and among
others.
Australia Enterprise Bargaining
Enterprise bargaining agreement refers to an understanding either between organization’s
management, national system or the employer and the employees. The Australian enterprise
agreement formed after the push by the Australian union and the Australian Labor Party to help
press on the workers’ rights in the 1890s (Faia & Rossi 2013, p.410). Both Howard’s
government and employers who all reasoned and felt that each employee was a single entity
initially thus the interests could not be generalized, objected the development of workers union
(Carabetta 2014, p.280). The government further objected the formations of those unions on the
basis that most of the unions were inclined to conciliation and arbitration.
These resulted in more employers’ attack on employees over work period, working
conditions and payment that saw frequent strikes and lock-outs in Australia’s organizations.
However, during the reign of Rudd Labor government, weakness of The Work Choices Act was
pointed out and the act replaced by the Fair Work Act (2009) therefore, unions were formed
resulting into fewer strikes and workplaces conditions improvement (Pagura 2011, p.161). The
enterprise bargaining method in Australia formed to protect the workers’ rights, under the
Industrial Relations Commission. The IRC states that workers have the freedom to bargain in
good faith provided that workers are a negotiation to arrive at least amount of entitlements.