The Links between Collective Bargaining and Equality
Professors Blackett and Sheppard were commissioned by the ILO to write this Working Paper, as an input for preparing the ILO Director-General's Global Report to the 2003 session of the International Labour Conference 2. Their paper explores a complex and wide-ranging subject, i.e. the interface between collective bargaining and equality under current conditions of work. It argues that these two fundamental principles and rights are mutually reinforcing and can together promote workplace governance which reconciles economic with social goals. The paper draws upon a number of concrete examples of how the negotiation process has contributed to the promotion of equality of opportunities and treatment on grounds such as gender, disability, and religion, and shows how an equality agenda can enhance the scope, effectiveness and legitimacy of collective bargaining.