Abstract
The emergence of collective labour and the changed nature of industrial relations greatly impacted on the employer’s unfettered powers in employment relations, particularly in the determination of terms and conditions of employment. Collective bargaining became the basis of conditions of employment but also the contractual foundation of the employer and union relations. Therefore, the primary purpose of a trade union is regulated in terms and conditions of employment of workers. Hence, by bargaining collectively with management, organized labour seeks to give great effects to its legitimate expectations than wages and other condition of work should be such as to guarantee a stable and adequate form of existence and as to be compatible with the physical integrity and moral dignity of the individual and also that jobs should be reasonably secure. The paper found that collective bargaining served as means of institutionalizing the enviable classes of interests that arises between capital and labour. The paper also found out that collective agreements performed two principal roles: firstly: regulates relations between employers and trade unions and secondly, regulation of the terms of individual contracts of employment, normative function through which issues related salaries and wages, working hours, holidays and leave, and other allowances and related matters are settled. These spelt out roles or functions are usually contained in the collective agreement.