Why is it necessary to update collective bargaining agreements?

Few unions have taken advantage of the opportunity offered by the joint discussion to analyze the regulations and adapt them to current times, limiting themselves in most cases to discussing only the salary aspects, which are the ones that are most visible from the employees’ point of view.

However, collective bargaining agreements have become anachronistic in many of their articles, providing for additional concepts to the basic salary that today make no sense, and other additional concepts could be established in their place to motivate the employee to make an effort and to be able not only to increase the profitability of the work as a result, but also to generate a personal improvement that allows him/her to grow at work, and therefore economically, not only within the company but also in a career outside of it. That was the objective of those who negotiated the collective bargaining agreements in force today more than 45 years ago.

For this reason, it is the right time to update them, within the framework of the changes that are being proposed from different spheres, not only by the National Executive Power, but also by some sectors, including the trade unions themselves. Often it is the internal commissions that come up with ideas to improve on those currently in force, but they come up against a barrier at the time of negotiating, since it is the authorities of the trade union in charge of the activity that carry out the discussion with the business sector.

It would be positive for the improvement of the country’s economic activity if, within the framework of the openness to dialogue that is so much proclaimed from different spaces as a way to achieve consensus, the renegotiation of collective bargaining agreements is incorporated into the debate of ideas.