Joint Committees, Negotiation and Agreements

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Joint Committees

Joint Committees bring together elected employees’ representatives and management to discuss a variety of workplace issues at the corporate level.

Any establishment with thirty or more employees working can form a joint committee.

A joint committee constitutes representatives of the employer and employees. A joint committee shall consist of four members if there are 200 or less than 200 workers at the organization. Six members if there are more than 200 but fewer than 500 workers at the organisation, and eight members if more than 500 workers.

The employer will be represented by half of the members and the employees by the other half. The employer shall choose his representatives in the committee from among the employees who shall legally represent him or to whom he assigned some of his management functions.

The following people shall be nominated as the joint committee’s workers’ representatives:

If the organization has a Workers’ Committee, it will be in charge of selecting the workers’ representatives for the joint committee from among its members.
In the absence of a Workers’ Committee, the employees shall nominate their representatives directly to the joint committee.

The conditions and methods of the election shall be governed by a decision made by the Minister. The Minister shall make a decision that controls the terms and procedures of the election.

The joint committee is responsible for examining and discussing all issues about work in the organization, particularly:

Workplace regulations
Methods for increasing output and productivity
The workers’ training programs
The methods for avoiding risks and raising the standard for observing safety and occupational health regulations.
The development of the workers’ culture.
The development of the social services
Investigating and attempting to resolve individual and group conflicts inside the organization.

The employer will receive the committee’s recommendations on these issues and decide whether to apply them or not.

Negotiation and Agreements

The employers and employees have the right to engage in collective bargaining and come to mutual agreements on all issues in the workplace.

The regulations governing joint agreements as to conclusion, contents, scope, duration, and interpretation, as well as the conflicts that may emerge from their implementation, should be governed by the decision made by the Minister.