BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
MBABANE – Business Eswatini is doubling down on its efforts to ensure that economic growth results from employers and employees are winning together.
To capacitate businesses on this, Business Eswatini is hosting a Collective Bargaining and Joint Negotiation Skills Workshop from of November 9, 2022 to November 11, 2022. At the conclusion of this workshop participants will be able to negotiate effectively and achieve mutual gains outcomes, according to a statement from Business Eswatini.
Speaking to the media about the workshop, Business Eswatini Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nathi Dlamini noted that it is very important for organisations and personnel to consider that the times have changed as they negotiate how they work together going forward.
“We have just come out of tough times from the effects of COVID-19, where the economy was very hurt. However, we are grateful that we now see the economy rebounding. We will be hosting the workshop against this economic background,” said Dlamini.
“The workshop is actually open to anyone – even though it is primarily geared towards employers, we encourage employees to also come and learn how to bargain and negotiate in these times. What approach should we have, and what should we look into before we go into the negotiation because times have changed now,” added Dlamini.
The Business Eswatini CEO further highlighted that the workshop will help participants understand how to align their economic conditions and goals during a negotiation.
“What is also important is to make sure that as we do the work, no one loses when someone wins. We are very strict in that regard because we know that it does not build the nation,” said the CEO.
According to a statement from Business Eswatini about the workshop, negotiations between management and unions have always been characterised by positional bargaining. This means one party (unions) wanted to get as much as they could and the other (employer) to give as little as they could. This kind of negotiation produced sub-optimal results, resulting in one party ‘winning’ and the other ‘losing’.
At the conclusion of positional bargaining, relationships between the parties were strained and at worst, unworkable. In this type of bargaining the resort to power-play (strikes by employees) and (lock outs by employers) carries the day, said the statement.
The Business Eswatini workshop is based on Mutual Gains Negotiations, which emphasises on the parties’ mutual interest rather than positions. In this type of bargaining or negotiations, the either party seeks to understand the needs and interest of the other party and of the organisation as a whole.
The results obtained are “win-win” solutions and most fundamentally the parties’ relationship is intact and in fact strengthened at the conclusion of the bargaining process.
Online registrations for the workshop are already open: https://t.co/WcIbOJZAlV
