Sound industrial relations in Kenya

The promotion of collective bargaining at all levels is key to productive, equitable and stable employment relations. While an enabling regulatory framework and other measures to promote collective bargaining are essential, the effectiveness of collective bargaining is often hampered by the poor negotiating skills of the bargaining parties. They may adopt a negotiation style that does not allow them to reach satisfactory outcomes. More often than not, the negotiation skills of the parties are confrontational and undermine trust which is the foundation of sound labour relations. The Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) lay the basis for democratic and stable labour relations. The importance of promoting collective bargaining is enshrined in the Collective Bargaining Convention, 1981 (No. 154) and its accompanying Recommendation (No. 163). The skills, knowledge and capacity of those representing employers and workers’ organizations are critical in preventing labour disputes and achieving outcomes and agreements that meet the interests of all parties. Effective negotiation skills are not merely ‘common sense’. They can be acquired through a combination of training and experience. This course has provided those involved in negotiations a firsthand knowledge and practice of negotiation skills and techniques. The course aims to develop participants’ capacities to improve their negotiation skills and therefore to reach satisfactory outcomes for their organizations. OBJECTIVES • Provide participants with the skills necessary to understand the conflict dynamic and effective approaches to dispute resolution; • Get equipped with the skills and tools to apply consensus-based methods of dispute resolution; • Create a mutual understanding of how to relate to each other and lay the basis for sound industrial relations in their sector. CONTENT • "Getting to Know each other" • “The regulatory framework for industrial relations in the health sector in Kenya” • “Approaches to Conflict Management” • “Outcomes of negotiation/What is positional bargaining” • “Needs-based bargaining/Allowing mutual gains” • “Best alternatives to a negotiated agreement/Reality testing” • “Establishing an agreed road map for sound industrial relations in the health sector in Kenya" ACHIEVEMENT A Certificate of participation is awarded after satisfactory completion of the required number of learning hours (40 hours).