Collective bargaining: The worker's hope for deliverance? A study and comparison of the Philippine and Canadian collective bargaining laws

Today's worker finds himself within an employment relationship which affords his employer unimpeded business control and relegates him to the role of a mere wage earner and subordinate, bereft of participatory rights in the running of the business and in the determination of work conditions.;It has been said that collective bargaining is the answer to the described worker's dilemma. It is said to enable the creation of aggregations of economic power on the side of the workers to countervail the power of employers. It is said to afford the worker the opportunity to participate through their representatives in governing all matters affecting their conditions of work. It is said to compel the employer to look upon labour as an equal partner in the enterprise.;This thesis examines the collective bargaining systems of Canada and the Philippines, both based on the 1935 U.S. Wagner Act. It identifies the systems' common values and assumptions, rooted in the logic and methods of free enterprise and impelled by the age-old impulse for business. It analyzes the law and jurisprudence in both systems and reveals the inability of the collective bargaining regime to redress the imbalance of power between worker and employer and to transform the workplace into an arena of democracy where the worker can participate in the decision-making process affecting all the terms and conditions of his employment. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).