Negotiating or Bargaining?

We define negotiation as the process by which two or more people work through their various needs and wants for their employment agreement until they have reached an outcome. If the negotiation has worked well, the outcome will be mutually acceptable.

In employment relations, negotiating is referred to as bargaining.

The entire negotiation process is included in the concept of bargaining as defined by the Employment Relations Act 2000. This includes correspondence, emails, and phone calls before, during, and after negotiations.

Bargaining for collective employment agreements means all the interactions between the bargaining parties and includes negotiations that relate to the bargaining, as well as communications or correspondence between or on behalf of the parties before, during or after negotiations.

It is important that the parties to collective bargaining deal with each other in good faith.