Wage negotiations for state and municipal sectors have reached a critical phase, as trade unions LO Stat, LO Kommune, and YS Kommune have broken off talks with public employers. The dispute centres not on the overall wage increase — set at 4.4% — but on how it should be distributed. In the state sector, LO Stat rejected the Government’s proposal to allocate most of the increase to local-level negotiations. The union is demanding general increases through centrally negotiated flat-rate additions to ensure more equal pay outcomes. The matter has now been referred to the National Mediator, with a strike involving over 42,000 state workers possible if mediation fails by 27 May. In the municipal sector, LO Kommune and YS Kommune walked away from negotiations with the local authorities’ association KS, stating the proposed offer does not secure real wage growth or address inequality. This dispute has also entered mediation, and a large-scale strike in local and regional government may follow if no agreement is reached.
Read on: in Norwegian…
For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.