Thesis (doctoral)--Universiẗat Göttingen, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-283).

The Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA) was formulated by consensus from Government, Labour and Business. The advent of the new democratic dispensation brought with it the need to bring reforms to the country’s repressive labour laws, which were the hallmarks of the former apartheid regime. The new democratic dispensation’s priority was to ensure that the laws governing the employment relationship were again in line, with the International Labour Organization’s requirements (ILO). The consolidation of the country’s labour laws became critical for the new democratic dispensation because it became imperative that labour laws, once and for all became inclusive of all South Africa’s working force. During this post democratic period South Africa has been able to bring this consolidation to our regulatory framework through democratizing labour relations. This has meant that all organized workers for the first time after 1995, could have access to collective bargaining. South Africa has also enjoyed a period of relative labour stability during this period but only until recently, has the institution of collective bargaining been under the severest attack. This contestation in this labour regime is about the constitutional right to engage in collective bargaining. It has become of paramount importance to understand the meaning of this right to engage in collective bargaining, how far does this right extend to organized employees and most importantly what are now the impediments to the realization of this right? This is a broad and a very important topic in our labour law jurisprudence. The rationale for this treatise is to articulate the right to engage in collective bargaining, amid recent developments. At the same time to probe whether or not a justiciable duty to bargain in good faith (legally enforceable duty), should be reintroduced in our collective bargaining framework. This would be an option in reestablishing this institution in the face of insurmountable challenges, particularly as far as managing the conduct of bargaining parties during the collective bargaining process. The LRA does not envision such a legally enforceable duty to bargain in our labour relations framework, preferring rather apolicy based on voluntarism. The LRA has instead created a legally recognized framework were bargaining parties, determine their own collective process, without undue interference from the state and the courts. This has been the position since the inception of the new democratic order.Times have changed constitutional challenges have been mounting against provisions of the LRA, which have been deemed by some as unconstitutional. This is reference to the inaccessibility of the collective bargaining process; relating directly to the right to engage in collective bargaining.The disjuncture between the Constitution and the enabling legislation the LRA will also be scrutinized, as the result has been confusion regarding the meaning and the application of this constitutional right to engage in collective bargaining.

A central concern of this thesis is the expansion, distribution and control of 'non-standard' employment in Namibia since independence. The employment relationship has assumed various historical forms under capitalism, each of which corresponds to a specific mode of regulation with distinct structural dynamics. An attempt is made to extend the regulation approach 'downwards' to account for the problem of order in the workplace and to place the employment relationship within its own regulatory framework. The point of departure in this study of the dynamics of labour regulation is the contradictory nature of labour's incorporation, allocation, control and reproduction within the labour market. The employment relationship is never only an economic exchange, but is also mediated through an institutional framework that connects the processes of production and social reproduction, and regulates conflicting interests inside and outside the workplace. This relationship, as critical realists have pointed out, is a product of the indeterminate intersection of several generative structures. The roots of these generative structures can be traced to three sets of social processes: the processes of production and the structuring of labour demand; the processes of social reproduction and the structuring of labour supply; and the forces of regulation. Non-standard employment is viewed as a particular social and spatio-temporal 'fix' for the various regulatory dilemmas generated by the standard employment relationship. This conception underscores the fact that a national system of labour regulation decisively shapes the conditions under which employers are able to casualise a part of their workforce. The differential experience across national boundaries suggests that analytical space needs to be provided for systems of labour market regulation which may either accentuate or moderate pressures for casualisation. Segmentation on the demand side of the labour market is explored through an analysis of the types of non-standard jobs created in different economic sectors. The various forms of employment 'flexibility' tend to vary in importance according to the specific manner in which a firm chooses to compete. Consequently, non-standard employees are distributed in a complex and uneven manner across industrial sectors and the occupational hierarchy, and face a diverse range of possibilities and liabilities that shape their levels and forms of participation in the labour market. By counteracting the homogenisation effects of labour law and collective bargaining, the mobilisation of cheap and disposable labour through non-standard employment contracts allows employers much greater discretion in constructing the wage-effort bargain. With non-standard employment, social and statutory regulation is weak or underdeveloped and hence managerial control is autocratic, with a significant contractual component. Although the changing social composition of the workforce associated with employment 'flexibility' poses serious challenges to the modes of organisation that have long served the labour movement, trade unions in Namibia and elsewhere have been slow to respond to the threats of casualisation. Of concern here, is the extent to which attempts to promote the security of existing union members is compatible with attempts to organise non-standard employees. This thesis shows that the unions have developed a complex amalgam of strategies in their efforts to regulate non-standard employment relationships.

Na tradição da teoria de relações de trabalho, os salários monetários são determinados em um sistema de relações de trabalho. Um dos modos de regulação do sistema de relações de trabalho é a negociação coletiva. O Plano Real inaugurou um novo paradigma para as negociações salariais no país quando acabou com os reajustes automáticos após 30 anos de indexação de preços e salários, o que significou uma nova dinâmica dos salários nominais, que passaram a depender, principalmente, dos resultados de negociações coletivas e de decisões unilaterais dos empregadores. O presente trabalho buscou analisar os salários monetários determinados por negociação coletiva em um cenário de baixa inflação e desindexação salarial. Foram analisados os determinantes dos resultados das negociações salariais em 16 unidades selecionadas da indústria do Rio Grande do Sul entre 1996 e 2011. Os resultados da análise de regressão indicaram que, entre 1996 e 2011, os resultados dos reajustes salariais negociados foram influenciados (i) pela taxa de desemprego, (ii) pelo nível de emprego, (iii) pela variação no produto da indústria, (iv) pela razão entre os custos do trabalho e os custos totais de produção, (v) pela variação no salário mínimo oficial, e (vi) pela presença do Partido dos Trabalhadores no governo federal. Quanto aos resultados para os pisos salariais negociados, estes dependeram (i) da variação no produto da indústria, (ii) da inflação, e (iii) da variação no piso regional oficial. / Collective bargaining is a method of regulating the employer relationship, including the setting of nominal wages, whose study is deeply rooted in the tradition of Industrial Relations. In Brazil, collective bargaining has been carried out since 1994 under an economic context characterized by low inflation and no legal guarantee for wage adjustments. A stabilization plan called Plano Real after the new currency suppressed the formal machinery of wage indexation, with the exception of minimum wages, as well as brought about a period of lower inflation. The revocation of the wage indexation laws caused nominal wages increase to depend either on collective agreements or on employers´ unilateral decisions. This essay aims at analysing wage determination under collective bargaining in Brazil by taking account of the context of low inflation and no legal indexation of wages. The outcomes of wage bargaining related to 16 units in manufacturing in the state of Rio Grande do Sul between 1996 and 2011 provide the set for the empirical study. A regression analysis suggests that the bargaining of nominal wages adjustments has been affected by (i) the rate of unemployment, (ii) the level of employment in manufacturing, (iii) change in the manufacturing product, (iv) the ratio of labour costs to total costs of production, (v) change in the official minimum wage, and (vi) the presence of the Workers Party in office beginning in 2003. As for negotiated minimum wages, outcomes has been influenced by (i) change in the manufacturing product, (ii) the rate of inflation, and (iii) change in the official minimum wage.

No description available.

The general purpose of this study was to determine the impact that the match of mentor and mentee had on the success of the mentoring relationship. The leadership style of the mentor and the reporting style of the mentee were determined and effectiveness of the match was determined. This was done in order to determine the impact of the match between mentor and mantee on the quality of the mentoring relationship. The study was conducted within a local government milieu with a sample of 34 mentors and 40 mentees, thus a total of 40 mentoring pairs. These participants were all part of a formal mentorship programme within the organisation. The findings indicated that when leadership and reporting styles of mentoring pairs are complementary it will not have a significant effect on the success of the mentoring relationship. It furthermore suggests that careful consideration should be given in selecting participants before initiating mentorship programmes. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial Psychology)

Esta tese estabelece uma abordagem evolucionária de sistemas de relações de trabalho (SRT- e), a qual consiste em propor uma ferramenta analítica que possibilite estudar as mudanças em sistemas de relações de trabalho ao longo do tempo como um processo evolutivo movido pelos avanços tecnológicos. Para esse intuito, o modelo de SRT desenvolvido por John Dunlop foi tomado como base, sendo modificado para compatibilizá-lo com as contribuições da Teoria Evolucionária. A alteração foi feita no sentido de tornar endógena ao modelo as fontes de geração de variedade no SRT desenvolvido por Dunlop, através de uma maior centralidade da firma, como aquela que desenvolve e introduz novas tecnologias na economia para obter vantagem competitiva em seu processo de concorrência no mercado, e da alteração na concepção do contexto do sistema de relações de trabalho. Desse modo, a mudança proposta permite que o nexo entre tecnologias físicas, rotinas organizacionais (tecnologia social), formas de regulação das relações de trabalho constantes nas regras (tecnologia social) e a teia de regras do SRT-e (instituições) seja estabelecido, consistindo no uso da “ponte” entre tecnologias e instituições, conforme sugerida por Richard Nelson. Com base na ferramenta de análise de SRT-e, o esforço teórico da tese foi, também, o de identificar como ocorre o alinhamento entre as inovações tecnológicas de um novo paradigma tecno- econômico e as instituições das relações de trabalho. Para tanto, foi explorada a ideia da “ponte” proposta por Richard Nelson, identificando do ponto de vista teórico, como ocorre a compatibilização entre as tecnologias e as instituições das relações de trabalho, que se constitui em um dos principais alinhamentos ao pleno estabelecimento de um novo paradigma tecno-econômico, ao permitir a efetividade de exploração do potencial de desenvolvimento econômico de um dado país. A proposta da tese está centrada em quatro áreas de pesquisa: relações de trabalho, teoria institucional, organização industrial e economia da tecnologia. Nessas áreas, o embasamento teórico é dado pelos campos de Industrial Relations e pela Economia Evolucionária: Neoschumpeteriana e Neoinstitucionalista. Em relação ao primeiro, é feita uma descrição desse campo de estudo e a apresentação do modelo de análise de relações de trabalho de John T. Dunlop, tal como proposto originalmente na sua obra Industrial Relations Systems, publicada em 1958. Indicam-se as suas propriedades e também as suas limitações para tratar com a mudança em relações de trabalho em sentido evolutivo. É sobre esse modelo que se aplica os construtos teóricos daquelas outras duas correntes que compõem a Teoria Evolucionária para torná-lo, então, um Sistema de Relações de Trabalho evolutivo (SRT-e). O esforço teórico consiste em modificar o modelo de SRT dunlopiano para assimilar e adaptar os princípios da teoria da evolução de Darwin. Os princípios darwinianos de uma abordagem evolucionária são a ocorrência endógena ao modelo de: variedade, seleção e herança. Da Teoria Neoschumpeteriana se toma emprestado a concepção de concorrência schumpeteriana, da tecnologia como um determinante básico da dinâmica da economia capitalista, da firma como a instituição que introduz as novidades tecnológicas no sistema, bem como o conceito de paradigma tecno-econômico, para explicar como os avanços tecnológicos modificam o SRT-e. A Teoria Neoinstitucionalista contribui com o conceito de instituição, na sua influência na vida econômica e para dar efetividade às inovações que são lançadas na economia. É feita, então, uma junção de conceitos dessas duas correntes de modo a mostrar como é feita a co-evolução entre as tecnologias e as instituições das relações de trabalho. / This thesis provides an evolutionary industrial relations systems approach (SRT-e), which consists in proposing an analytical tool that allows to study the changes in industrial relations systems over time as an evolutionary process driven by technological advances. For this purpose, the SRT model developed by John Dunlop was taken as a base and modified to bring them into line with the contribution of the Evolutionary Theory. The change occurs towards making endogenous to the model the sources that generates variety in the SRT developed by Dunlop, through greater centrality of the firm, as the one that develops and introduces new technologies into the economy to gain competitive advantage in the process of market competition, and by changing the conception of the context of the industrial relations system. Therefore, the proposed change allows that the link between physical technologies, organizational routines (social technology), forms of regulation of labor relations contained in the rules (social technology) and the web of rules of the SRT (institutions) is established, consisting in the use of the "bridge" between technologies and institutions suggested by Richard Nelson. Based on the analysis tool of SRT-e, the theoretical effort of the thesis was also aimed to identify how the alignment between technological innovations of a new techno- economic paradigm, and labor relations institutions occurs. It was explored the idea of the “bridge”, as suggested by Richard Nelson, identifying from a theoretical point of view, how the match between technologies and the institutions of industrial relations occurs, which is one of the main alignments necessary to the full establishment of a new techno-economic paradigm, allowing to the full deployment of the economic development potential of a given country to be achieved. The thesis proposal is centered on four areas of research: industrial relations, institutional theory, industrial organization theory, and technological economy. In these areas, the theoretical basis comes from the fields of Industrial Relations and Evolutionary Theory: Neoschumpeterian and Neo-institutionalist theories. Regarding to the first one, it is made a description of this field of study and a presentation of the model of analysis of IRS, as originally proposed by John T. Dunlop in his book Industrial Relations Systems, published in 1958. It will be indicated its proprieties and limitations in dealing with change in an evolutionary sense. It is on this model that will be applied the theoretical constructs from the other two stream of economic thought (Neoschumpeterian and Neo- institutionalist) to make it, then, an evolutionary industrial relations systems (SRT-e). The theoretical effort consists in modifying the dunlopian SRT model to assimilate and to adapt the principles of Darwin's theory of evolution. The darwinian principles of an evolutionary approach are the occurrence of variety, selection and inheritance as being endogenous to the model. From Neoschumpeterian Theory, it borrows the concept of Schumpeterian competition, and technology as a basic determinant of the dynamics of the capitalist economy, and the firm as the institution that introduces technological innovations in the system. Another relevant concept used from that theory is the techno-economic paradigm, which is used to explain how the technological advances modify the SRT-e. The Neo-Institutionalist Theory contributes with the concept of institution, its influence on the economic life, and the way that it gave effectiveness to the innovations that are introduced into the economy. Then, it will be make a junction of concepts of these two currents of economic thoughts so as to show that there is a co-evolution between technologies and the institutions of industrial relations.

Na tradição da teoria de relações de trabalho, os salários monetários são determinados em um sistema de relações de trabalho. Um dos modos de regulação do sistema de relações de trabalho é a negociação coletiva. O Plano Real inaugurou um novo paradigma para as negociações salariais no país quando acabou com os reajustes automáticos após 30 anos de indexação de preços e salários, o que significou uma nova dinâmica dos salários nominais, que passaram a depender, principalmente, dos resultados de negociações coletivas e de decisões unilaterais dos empregadores. O presente trabalho buscou analisar os salários monetários determinados por negociação coletiva em um cenário de baixa inflação e desindexação salarial. Foram analisados os determinantes dos resultados das negociações salariais em 16 unidades selecionadas da indústria do Rio Grande do Sul entre 1996 e 2011. Os resultados da análise de regressão indicaram que, entre 1996 e 2011, os resultados dos reajustes salariais negociados foram influenciados (i) pela taxa de desemprego, (ii) pelo nível de emprego, (iii) pela variação no produto da indústria, (iv) pela razão entre os custos do trabalho e os custos totais de produção, (v) pela variação no salário mínimo oficial, e (vi) pela presença do Partido dos Trabalhadores no governo federal. Quanto aos resultados para os pisos salariais negociados, estes dependeram (i) da variação no produto da indústria, (ii) da inflação, e (iii) da variação no piso regional oficial. / Collective bargaining is a method of regulating the employer relationship, including the setting of nominal wages, whose study is deeply rooted in the tradition of Industrial Relations. In Brazil, collective bargaining has been carried out since 1994 under an economic context characterized by low inflation and no legal guarantee for wage adjustments. A stabilization plan called Plano Real after the new currency suppressed the formal machinery of wage indexation, with the exception of minimum wages, as well as brought about a period of lower inflation. The revocation of the wage indexation laws caused nominal wages increase to depend either on collective agreements or on employers´ unilateral decisions. This essay aims at analysing wage determination under collective bargaining in Brazil by taking account of the context of low inflation and no legal indexation of wages. The outcomes of wage bargaining related to 16 units in manufacturing in the state of Rio Grande do Sul between 1996 and 2011 provide the set for the empirical study. A regression analysis suggests that the bargaining of nominal wages adjustments has been affected by (i) the rate of unemployment, (ii) the level of employment in manufacturing, (iii) change in the manufacturing product, (iv) the ratio of labour costs to total costs of production, (v) change in the official minimum wage, and (vi) the presence of the Workers Party in office beginning in 2003. As for negotiated minimum wages, outcomes has been influenced by (i) change in the manufacturing product, (ii) the rate of inflation, and (iii) change in the official minimum wage.

Esta tese estabelece uma abordagem evolucionária de sistemas de relações de trabalho (SRT- e), a qual consiste em propor uma ferramenta analítica que possibilite estudar as mudanças em sistemas de relações de trabalho ao longo do tempo como um processo evolutivo movido pelos avanços tecnológicos. Para esse intuito, o modelo de SRT desenvolvido por John Dunlop foi tomado como base, sendo modificado para compatibilizá-lo com as contribuições da Teoria Evolucionária. A alteração foi feita no sentido de tornar endógena ao modelo as fontes de geração de variedade no SRT desenvolvido por Dunlop, através de uma maior centralidade da firma, como aquela que desenvolve e introduz novas tecnologias na economia para obter vantagem competitiva em seu processo de concorrência no mercado, e da alteração na concepção do contexto do sistema de relações de trabalho. Desse modo, a mudança proposta permite que o nexo entre tecnologias físicas, rotinas organizacionais (tecnologia social), formas de regulação das relações de trabalho constantes nas regras (tecnologia social) e a teia de regras do SRT-e (instituições) seja estabelecido, consistindo no uso da “ponte” entre tecnologias e instituições, conforme sugerida por Richard Nelson. Com base na ferramenta de análise de SRT-e, o esforço teórico da tese foi, também, o de identificar como ocorre o alinhamento entre as inovações tecnológicas de um novo paradigma tecno- econômico e as instituições das relações de trabalho. Para tanto, foi explorada a ideia da “ponte” proposta por Richard Nelson, identificando do ponto de vista teórico, como ocorre a compatibilização entre as tecnologias e as instituições das relações de trabalho, que se constitui em um dos principais alinhamentos ao pleno estabelecimento de um novo paradigma tecno-econômico, ao permitir a efetividade de exploração do potencial de desenvolvimento econômico de um dado país. A proposta da tese está centrada em quatro áreas de pesquisa: relações de trabalho, teoria institucional, organização industrial e economia da tecnologia. Nessas áreas, o embasamento teórico é dado pelos campos de Industrial Relations e pela Economia Evolucionária: Neoschumpeteriana e Neoinstitucionalista. Em relação ao primeiro, é feita uma descrição desse campo de estudo e a apresentação do modelo de análise de relações de trabalho de John T. Dunlop, tal como proposto originalmente na sua obra Industrial Relations Systems, publicada em 1958. Indicam-se as suas propriedades e também as suas limitações para tratar com a mudança em relações de trabalho em sentido evolutivo. É sobre esse modelo que se aplica os construtos teóricos daquelas outras duas correntes que compõem a Teoria Evolucionária para torná-lo, então, um Sistema de Relações de Trabalho evolutivo (SRT-e). O esforço teórico consiste em modificar o modelo de SRT dunlopiano para assimilar e adaptar os princípios da teoria da evolução de Darwin. Os princípios darwinianos de uma abordagem evolucionária são a ocorrência endógena ao modelo de: variedade, seleção e herança. Da Teoria Neoschumpeteriana se toma emprestado a concepção de concorrência schumpeteriana, da tecnologia como um determinante básico da dinâmica da economia capitalista, da firma como a instituição que introduz as novidades tecnológicas no sistema, bem como o conceito de paradigma tecno-econômico, para explicar como os avanços tecnológicos modificam o SRT-e. A Teoria Neoinstitucionalista contribui com o conceito de instituição, na sua influência na vida econômica e para dar efetividade às inovações que são lançadas na economia. É feita, então, uma junção de conceitos dessas duas correntes de modo a mostrar como é feita a co-evolução entre as tecnologias e as instituições das relações de trabalho. / This thesis provides an evolutionary industrial relations systems approach (SRT-e), which consists in proposing an analytical tool that allows to study the changes in industrial relations systems over time as an evolutionary process driven by technological advances. For this purpose, the SRT model developed by John Dunlop was taken as a base and modified to bring them into line with the contribution of the Evolutionary Theory. The change occurs towards making endogenous to the model the sources that generates variety in the SRT developed by Dunlop, through greater centrality of the firm, as the one that develops and introduces new technologies into the economy to gain competitive advantage in the process of market competition, and by changing the conception of the context of the industrial relations system. Therefore, the proposed change allows that the link between physical technologies, organizational routines (social technology), forms of regulation of labor relations contained in the rules (social technology) and the web of rules of the SRT (institutions) is established, consisting in the use of the "bridge" between technologies and institutions suggested by Richard Nelson. Based on the analysis tool of SRT-e, the theoretical effort of the thesis was also aimed to identify how the alignment between technological innovations of a new techno- economic paradigm, and labor relations institutions occurs. It was explored the idea of the “bridge”, as suggested by Richard Nelson, identifying from a theoretical point of view, how the match between technologies and the institutions of industrial relations occurs, which is one of the main alignments necessary to the full establishment of a new techno-economic paradigm, allowing to the full deployment of the economic development potential of a given country to be achieved. The thesis proposal is centered on four areas of research: industrial relations, institutional theory, industrial organization theory, and technological economy. In these areas, the theoretical basis comes from the fields of Industrial Relations and Evolutionary Theory: Neoschumpeterian and Neo-institutionalist theories. Regarding to the first one, it is made a description of this field of study and a presentation of the model of analysis of IRS, as originally proposed by John T. Dunlop in his book Industrial Relations Systems, published in 1958. It will be indicated its proprieties and limitations in dealing with change in an evolutionary sense. It is on this model that will be applied the theoretical constructs from the other two stream of economic thought (Neoschumpeterian and Neo- institutionalist) to make it, then, an evolutionary industrial relations systems (SRT-e). The theoretical effort consists in modifying the dunlopian SRT model to assimilate and to adapt the principles of Darwin's theory of evolution. The darwinian principles of an evolutionary approach are the occurrence of variety, selection and inheritance as being endogenous to the model. From Neoschumpeterian Theory, it borrows the concept of Schumpeterian competition, and technology as a basic determinant of the dynamics of the capitalist economy, and the firm as the institution that introduces technological innovations in the system. Another relevant concept used from that theory is the techno-economic paradigm, which is used to explain how the technological advances modify the SRT-e. The Neo-Institutionalist Theory contributes with the concept of institution, its influence on the economic life, and the way that it gave effectiveness to the innovations that are introduced into the economy. Then, it will be make a junction of concepts of these two currents of economic thoughts so as to show that there is a co-evolution between technologies and the institutions of industrial relations.

Na tradição da teoria de relações de trabalho, os salários monetários são determinados em um sistema de relações de trabalho. Um dos modos de regulação do sistema de relações de trabalho é a negociação coletiva. O Plano Real inaugurou um novo paradigma para as negociações salariais no país quando acabou com os reajustes automáticos após 30 anos de indexação de preços e salários, o que significou uma nova dinâmica dos salários nominais, que passaram a depender, principalmente, dos resultados de negociações coletivas e de decisões unilaterais dos empregadores. O presente trabalho buscou analisar os salários monetários determinados por negociação coletiva em um cenário de baixa inflação e desindexação salarial. Foram analisados os determinantes dos resultados das negociações salariais em 16 unidades selecionadas da indústria do Rio Grande do Sul entre 1996 e 2011. Os resultados da análise de regressão indicaram que, entre 1996 e 2011, os resultados dos reajustes salariais negociados foram influenciados (i) pela taxa de desemprego, (ii) pelo nível de emprego, (iii) pela variação no produto da indústria, (iv) pela razão entre os custos do trabalho e os custos totais de produção, (v) pela variação no salário mínimo oficial, e (vi) pela presença do Partido dos Trabalhadores no governo federal. Quanto aos resultados para os pisos salariais negociados, estes dependeram (i) da variação no produto da indústria, (ii) da inflação, e (iii) da variação no piso regional oficial. / Collective bargaining is a method of regulating the employer relationship, including the setting of nominal wages, whose study is deeply rooted in the tradition of Industrial Relations. In Brazil, collective bargaining has been carried out since 1994 under an economic context characterized by low inflation and no legal guarantee for wage adjustments. A stabilization plan called Plano Real after the new currency suppressed the formal machinery of wage indexation, with the exception of minimum wages, as well as brought about a period of lower inflation. The revocation of the wage indexation laws caused nominal wages increase to depend either on collective agreements or on employers´ unilateral decisions. This essay aims at analysing wage determination under collective bargaining in Brazil by taking account of the context of low inflation and no legal indexation of wages. The outcomes of wage bargaining related to 16 units in manufacturing in the state of Rio Grande do Sul between 1996 and 2011 provide the set for the empirical study. A regression analysis suggests that the bargaining of nominal wages adjustments has been affected by (i) the rate of unemployment, (ii) the level of employment in manufacturing, (iii) change in the manufacturing product, (iv) the ratio of labour costs to total costs of production, (v) change in the official minimum wage, and (vi) the presence of the Workers Party in office beginning in 2003. As for negotiated minimum wages, outcomes has been influenced by (i) change in the manufacturing product, (ii) the rate of inflation, and (iii) change in the official minimum wage.