Collective labor disputes are conflicts that the employer and workers could not resolve among themselves through negotiations. They are more general than those that affect the interests of an individual employee.
Collective labor disputes are classified according to different criteria. In the subject they are divided into:
- those that are not related to the regulation of collective agreements ;
- those that arise regarding the implementation or conclusion of agreements.
Collective labor disputes erupt due to changes or the establishment by the employer of working conditions. And also when he refuses to take into account the opinion of the body representing the interests of subordinates, at the time of adoption of some normative act. Such disputes can “erupt” in any organization. The requirements of subordinates in this case are the main subject of disagreement. The employer and the body representing the workers are parties to this type of dispute. It cannot appear at the sectoral, territorial or regional level.
Collective labor disputes of this kind are conflicts of interest (that is, economic), as there is a clash of different views of the employer and workers. Both sides seek to establish such conditions of activity that would be most beneficial to them. Moreover, they also want to consolidate them by creating a normative act with the appropriate content. But neither one nor the second has a legal right to such actions.
In practice, the second group of disputes is more common. This is due to the functioning of the mechanism of social partnership. These disputes, although they arise in connection with the process of concluding collective agreements, are still heterogeneous. Therefore, they, in turn, are divided into two categories:
- those that arise as a result of a change or the conclusion of collective agreements;
- those that arise as a result of compliance or non-compliance with the obligations stipulated in the collective labor act.
The first category is related to negotiations. The subject of this dispute is a condition or conditions of a normative act. They may concern, for example, the composition of the commission that will negotiate, or the definition of their procedure.
These are conflicts of interest. Any stage of negotiations can be stopped by them. Who will be parties to the dispute depends on the level at which it takes place. This may be the employer and the body representing the interests of subordinates. And at the regional, federal level, one side is the association of employers, and the other - trade unions.
Disputes arising from the performance of collective agreements are conflicts of law (i.e. legal). They appear when the employer does not fulfill previously accepted obligations. They can also arise due to a far-fetched or real violation of the rights of subordinates that emerges from the interpretation of a collective normative act. Accordingly, their parties are the following: a body representing subordinates, and an employer who has not fulfilled or improperly fulfilled the conditions stipulated in the collective agreement.
Conflicts of this kind arise only at the level of a specific organization.
Russian legislation (unlike models adopted abroad) establishes one procedure for resolving disputes of any category. In countries with market economies, a completely different approach. There, conciliation procedures are applied only when resolving “conflicts of interest”. If labor rights were initially provided for by a signed collective agreement, then they cannot be restored in a judicial proceeding.
In our country, everything happens differently. Although a single procedure for resolving labor disputes of all kinds is the next step on the path to change. Perhaps a lot will change the completion of judicial reform. It is hoped that then the consideration of labor disputes of interests and law will be carried out using different procedures.