Jul 13, 2015
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The new deal provides for an 18.6% pay rise over the next three years and will be up for renegotiation in 2019.
After a marathon 13-hour negotiation session, the Icelandic Association of Nurses (FÍH) struck a deal with the State mediator on pay and working conditions and an agreement was signed. Nurses went on strike on 27 May and the Icelandic Parliament (‘Alþingi’) passed legislation on 13 June forcing them back to work and to the negotiating table. The new deal provides for an 18.6% pay rise over the next three years and will be up for renegotiation in 2019. The conflict centred on the low pay received by the nurses, who are allegedly receiving job offers in other Scandinavian countries. Talks between the hospitals and trade unions, however, failed to yield an agreement. With no resolution in sight, Parliament ordered the nurses back to work and the conflict into arbitration. Following the strike ban, several media reported that nurses were handing in resignations.
English: http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2015/06/16/mass_nurse …
http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2015/06/24/nurse_dispute …
http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2015/06/12/unions_slam …
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.