Search
Close this search box.

Negotiating skills and collective conciliation key in today’s climate

 

 

Negotiating skills and collective conciliation key in today’s climate

Acas has published its latest Policy Discussion Paper on the role collective conciliation and negotiating skills play in resolving large-scale disputes. The paper highlights the need for HR managers to be trained in the skills needed to manage collective relations as they face uncertain situations that are new and challenging.

The new Acas paper, The alchemy of dispute resolution: the role of collective conciliation, highlights the importance of these processes in settling disputes at a crucial time. It states that while collective conciliation has been part of the industrial relations landscape for over 100 years, its application in settling disputes between groups of employees and employers has changed and evolved over that time, as has the incidence of its use. 

More recently, a complex set of factors including the growth in the statutory individual employment rights framework, the aims of trade unions and the dwindling experience of HR and employee representatives – the key players in collective conciliation – have all played a role in influencing the extent to which collective conciliation remains a firm fixture of workplace collective relations.

Acas argues that the recent unofficial action at the Lindsey oil refinery that sparked sympathy protests across the country highlighted just how fragile collective employment relations can be when the economy is in crisis. And it brings to the fore the very important role of collective conciliation, even in areas of illegal action, in dealing swiftly with the potential economic damage that industrial disputes can give rise to. And yet, as Acas points out, collective conciliation is not simply a tool to deal with conflict when relations have reached this level of deadlock, it is most effective and indeed most common when relations are difficult but have not yet broken down entirely.

Read more

Latest News

Read More

Rise in recruitment fraud must urgently be checked

28 March 2024

Newsletter

Receive the latest HR news and strategic content

Please note, as per the GDPR Legislation, we need to ensure you are ‘Opted In’ to receive updates from ‘theHRDIRECTOR’. We will NEVER sell, rent, share or give away your data to third parties. We only use it to send information about our products and updates within the HR space To see our Privacy Policy – click here

Latest HR Jobs

University of Warwick – WMGSalary: £23,144 to £25,138 per annum This provides summary information and comment on the subject areas covered. Where employment tribunal and

The Open University – People ServicesSalary: £57,696 to £64,914 + up to £8,000 per annum MRP supplement* This provides summary information and comment on the

Cardiff UniversitySalary: Competitive This provides summary information and comment on the subject areas covered. Where employment tribunal and appellate court cases are reported, the information

University of Oxford – Oxford Department of International DevelopmentSalary: £28,759 to £33,966 (Grade 5) This provides summary information and comment on the subject areas covered.

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE