Collective labor agreement: concept, sample 2021, types

Last modified: February 2021

The excessive specificity of the individual contract and the vagueness of legislative acts served as the foundation for the creation of a document regulating the legal relationship between the employer and hired personnel. A collective labor agreement is an optional internal local document created in the interests of the parties in order to resolve issues related to labor relations within an enterprise or regional unit.

The concept of a collective agreement

What is a collective agreement and what is its essence? This is a question that interests many workers. If we turn to the norms of the current Labor Code, then a collective labor agreement is a local legal act within one organization, which is concluded between the parties to social and labor relations, that is, the employee and the employer through assistance from official representatives. This is stated in the current Labor Code of the Russian Federation, namely, Article 40.

The content of a collective agreement may vary and transform depending on the specifics and focus of the organization. But at the same time, the Labor Code of the Russian Federation establishes recommendatory lists of issues, which are fixed by the draft (sample) of the collective agreement, and then its original variation. In particular, the issues that a collective agreement should and may include include:

method, form and amount of the team’s salary;
additional compensation and payments for fulfilling excess standards, working on official weekends and night shifts, etc.;
regulation of the level of wages depending on what plan will be fulfilled by the employees of the enterprise, the level of inflation and rising prices;
work schedule, including vacation and additional days off depending on employee needs;
measures of responsibility of the parties, etc.

The listed list of issues is advisory in nature, but some of them must be established within the framework of agreements. This is due to the fact that the new procedure for concluding agreements implies liability that the employer and employee may bear if the general requirements for concluding contracts are not met.

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Regulatory provisions of the collective agreement

The collective agreement of any organization must necessarily include three components:

regulatory rules;
mandatory terms of the agreement, including the liability of the parties;
information rules.

This rule applies to all collective agreements, without exception, signed by the employer on the one hand and the employees of the organization on the other. Despite the fact that each of these points is a fairly important component, more attention is still paid to regulatory rules, as well as the responsibilities of the parties to the labor relationship.

Regulatory conditions (rules), which include a draft collective agreement of an organization, imply local regulatory rules that are established by the two parties to legal relations, but within their competence.

These regulatory conditions, which contain collective bargaining agreements and agreements, apply exclusively to workers (employees) and management of the organization within which the act was adopted.

Regulatory conditions, which include an individual collective agreement within the organization, concluded between the employee and the employer, make it possible to solve three main problems within the framework of labor relations, in particular if:

the legislation establishes the procedure for the fact that a collective agreement is aimed at resolving numerous legal issues within a particular organization, in particular, regarding liability measures;
there is an obvious gap or conflict in the legislation, but the validity of the collective agreement will not contradict the basic legal norms and rules;
a collective agreement allows you to specify legislation in relation to one organization.

Model of a single collective agreement

An equally interesting topic that requires a separate discussion is the model of a unified collective agreement. This rule of law is enshrined in the Labor Code, so the employer must ensure compliance with this rule. What is the meaning of this model of collective agreement?

A single, rather than individual, collective agreement allows the interests and rights of all employees of the organization to be respected without exception. This form of agreement has a unified concept and applies to all employees of the company, without exception, where the employer can be represented by either a large company or an individual entrepreneur.

In addition, the approval of the model of a single collective agreement is fully consistent with international law.

In other words, a collective agreement makes it possible to comply with labor law standards, regardless of the number of employee representatives or membership in the primary trade union organization. Thus, it is possible to achieve complete equality of rights for employees who have signed a collective agreement, including in matters that relate to the responsibilities of the parties.

Unresolved differences

Collective agreements and agreements are the “fruit” of joint efforts of both the employer and employees. The conclusion of a collective agreement takes place within the framework of a general meeting, where everyone (both employer and employee) can express their own thoughts on the content of the local act. This is a full guarantee of respecting the interests of each party to the legal relationship.

However, in practice, there are common cases when it is impossible to achieve complete mutual understanding between subjects. This is how unresolved disagreements arise. If we turn to the full version of the Labor Code, then this normative act establishes that the registration of a collective agreement must be made after 3 months from the moment when negotiations began during the meeting, where the parties are the employer, the labor collective and representatives from both sides

At the same time, the draft collective agreement contains all the rules and conditions on which full agreement was reached within the framework of the meeting.

But it should also be noted that during the meeting, additional agreements are adopted, which spell out unresolved disagreements. In this case, an official protocol (report) of disagreements is drawn up. The protocol is necessary in order not to delay the signing of the agreement and the entry into force of the collective agreement.

Registration: general description

To resolve the issue, it is allowed to contact different authorities. Here are just some of the recipient options:

Local executive power.
Ministry of Labor.
Labour Inspectorate.

Registration of collective agreements through the MFC is a service that has become in demand. In such a procedure, the procedure is described as follows:

An application drawn up in a certain form is sent to the selected body. The application is accompanied by a contract in triplicate along with other confirmations. If errors or violations of standards are identified, the process is stopped until the shortcomings are eliminated.
The documents and application are carefully studied and sent for further verification. A telephone call to the regulatory authority is enough for the employer.
Completion of registration. After this, the employer is given two copies of the contracts. One of them is sewn into the accounting book for the enterprise. The second is stored until the standard time has passed.

In such circumstances, complaints are most often caused by the following reasons:

The regulatory authorities made a mistake, but refused to correct it.
This service is free, but the other party demanded payment.
They refused to accept the application with papers, without good reason.
There were demands to present documents that were in no way related to the case.
The frequency of registration has been violated.

This list is far from complete.

The maximum period of time for completing registration is a month from the moment all documents with the application are transferred to the second party.

Parties to the collective agreement

The parties to a collective agreement are stipulated in the Federal Law “On Collective Agreements and Agreements”. Thus, according to this regulatory act, one party to the relationship is the organization’s workforce in the form of its representatives, the other party is the employer. In addition, the employer can also elect its legal representatives, who will represent it during the meeting. This rule applies to all companies without exception.

It should be noted that the adoption of agreements and amendments to the collective agreement can be carried out by official representatives from both sides.

The employer can appoint the head of his branch, a member of the board, a deputy director, etc., to perform such a task within the framework of the meeting. On the part of the employees, the official representative is the primary trade union organization or other representatives.

All changes to the collective agreement included in the act within the meeting are entered into the official minutes. The form of the protocol is standard, but can be transformed depending on internal regulatory rules.

Validity

A collective agreement is concluded for a certain period, which begins from the day the document is signed or from the date indicated in it.
It is usually concluded for one year, but a longer period of up to three years is also allowed. Also, after this period, the parties have the opportunity to extend its validity for another three years. It is still more advisable to draw up a new agreement and make the necessary changes to it in accordance with the economic situation in the country and the financial capabilities of the organization.

To extend the contract, it is necessary to follow the same procedure as for its conclusion with the creation of a commission, collective bargaining and registration of the signed document.

Types of collective agreement

Today there are several main types of collective agreements. Classification occurs on various grounds, in particular, contracts can be:

two-sided or three-sided. This form of agreement depends on the number of participants covered by the agreement.
Federal, regional, local, industry. In this case we are talking about the sphere of regulation of labor relations.
Industry, tariff, socio-economic, etc.
Urgent and unlimited.

Depending on the type, the validity of the collective agreement signed by the employer and employees of the company is determined. All information is entered into the official protocol or its draft until the local act is approved.

If we talk about the time when the collective agreement is in effect, then the period is also discussed jointly at an organized meeting. In most cases, a collective agreement is concluded for a period of 1 to 3 years. If necessary, the validity of the collective agreement may be extended for the same period. For this purpose, additional agreements are adopted between employees.

Contents of documents and their types

Types of agreements that reflect the level and “coverage” of the scale of social and labor relations are characterized by the legislator as follows: a general agreement regulates issues of labor and payment at the federal level, interregional - on the scale of 2 (or more) regions of the Russian Federation, regional - this is the level of one subject of the Russian Federation, territorial regulation regulates working conditions, guarantees, benefits, compensation - on the territory of a separate municipal entity.

Industry and inter-industry agreements relate to the working conditions of the industry(s). It can be adopted at all of these levels, from the federal to the level of municipalities and territories.

All of these agreements can be concluded once in a tripartite manner. The tripartite procedure means the following: agreements that contain obligations involving the expenditure of budget funds are adopted with the participation of state authorities and local self-government. They are one of the parties to the agreement.

As an example, we can refer to the current General Agreement, adopted jointly by associations of trade unions, employers and the Government of the Russian Federation.

Labor legislation allows the conclusion of any other agreements between the parties at different levels of social interaction, if there is a need to resolve specific problems in the field of labor and employment.

Collective agreements are not divided by type, however, their content can be influenced by various factors: the direction and specifics of the business, the size of the enterprise, the applied remuneration system and the structural features of the company.

If we are talking about concluding a separate collective agreement in a separate unit, the manager instructs the head of the unit or another person to represent the interests of the administration in negotiations instead of himself (Article 33-1 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). The interests of the labor collective of this structure are protected by representatives (according to the general rules of Article 37, Part 2-5 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

The content and structure of the collective agreement can be determined by the topic:

forms and level of remuneration;
compensation payments, benefits;
dependence of the level of labor payments on the level of inflation and production indicators;
distribution of work and rest time;
other significant issues.

The agreements are basically similar to a collective agreement in content and structure. The document may stipulate:

labor payments, primarily minimum wages and salaries, the procedure for increasing their level;
compensation payments, guarantees;
work and rest schedules;
labor protection problems;
conditions of employment and release of workers;
other issues requiring consideration, in the opinion of interested parties.