Negotiating Between the Management of Westleigh Hotel Services and the Union

There eight simulation participants, that is, the management from Weastligh Hotel Services Limited is made up of three members while the union members representing the Hospitality and Services is made up of five members. Weastligh Hotel Services Limited management team is led by Loveleen, the human resource manager, and Front Desk Manager. Loveleen has been chosen to be the chief negotiator of the simulation because of her long term experience in negotiating with unions and most significantly is knowledge regarding the collective agreement. According to Lieberman (2012), an effective management team should often include a general manager this is because general managers are responsible for organizations financial outcomes, budgets, structure, and strategy, therefore, they have a distinct understanding of what they want in the collective agreements. Moreover, they ensure the development of effective programs to enable companies to pursue targeted objectives. This shows that it is crucial to have a general manager in the team since he understands what the company wants. The other member of the management team is the Front desk manager who had also represented the organization in the previous collective agreement. Furthermore, the front desk manager had also met with the two union representatives from hospitality and trade union. Therefore the team has a good association with the union and most importantly the relevant information to contribute when determining strategies and proposals (Lieberman, 2012).

In this case, the union team is made up of two groups that are two union representatives from hospitality and trade union (group 1) and two shop stewards of Local 261 (group 2). The two representatives from hospitality and trade union are labor relations expert and the union president. The Union team is led by the union president who handles all the collective agreements for the process, and he is accompanied by a labor relation expert who has extensive knowledge of the matters that are imperative to the union members. The other individuals in the union team are two shops stewards of local 261 who are among the union members of staff. Their inclusion into the process is fundamental since they have realistic views on how proposed contract terms will affect their daily operations.

Simulation Issues

The issues surrounding simulation are working conditions, salary, working hours, compensation and performance management. The hospitality and trade union used several priorities while negotiating the current collective agreement with Weastligh Hotel Services. The most significant issues that came up during the simulation was the need to maintain the terms and conditions of employment and also to establish and maintain mutually satisfactory working conditions. However, both management and the union came with different priorities, and they listed them according to their importance. The most important priorities were listed first followed by the less important and the list continued in that manner. The management listed their priorities as follows: working conditions, terms of negotiations, insurance. In the working conditions part, the management explained that it would offer its full time and part time employees average of 25 hours or more in any 6 of 10 weeks. They added that disciplinary records should be removed from employees file after nine months from the date of the incident to allow the employee to start a new chapter of maintaining discipline. Moreover, the management also explained that their employees would be given the rights to ask for special leave in case of special commitments. However, they complained about the terms of negotiations citing that it was not appropriate to allow more than two employees for negotiations. Therefore, they requested that the next time they are negotiating a collective agreement not more than two union representatives should visit. Finally, in the managements priority list was the issue of insurance they stated that the company should be responsible for the monthly premiums of the group insurance plans.

On the other hand, the union also listed their priorities starting from the important ones to the least important. They were as follows: working hours, working conditions and wages. First, the union stated that the management would have to extend the number of hours per shift from six to eight hours. Second, in the working conditions part the union explained that an employee would not be entitled to weekly indemnity while on vacation. Third, the union proposed the wages of employees be increased by 1 percent in every six months together with their tour baggage and crib premiums.

After debating and negotiating their priorities, the management of Westleigh Hotel Services and the union agreed that the union shall have carriage over all formal written grievances and that neither the union nor the employee shall file a formal grievance until the department head had been given an opportunity of resolving the complaint. They added that in such events, a response should deliver within 48 hours in writing and five days after that the union office will submit a response in writing to the general manager and a joint meeting will be held within the next five days. They also agreed that approximately ten days should be allowed to request for arbitration, in which both parties will share costs of the arbitrator, and most importantly the decisions from arbitration should be released within thirty days in writing. Finally, both parties agreed that hearings would be done at the hotel premises otherwise the cost of holding these hearings elsewhere will be jointly shared.

References

Lieberman, E. (2012). The Collective Labor Agreement. Harvard Law Review, 53(8), 1411. doi:10.2307/1333828

Mckersie, R. B., & Hunter, L. C. (2011). Negotiating the Agreement. Pay, Productivity and Collective Bargaining, 160-198. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-00372-3_6