Labour wants access to the wage terms

Arild Grande, Labour Party, Nord-Trøndelag. Trojan horse Wage TermsArild Grande, Labour Party, Nord-Trøndelag. Photo: Stortinget.no

Labour wants access to the wage terms of private providers

A Labour Committee proposes that elected representatives in municipalities purchasing services get access to the wage terms of private service providers.

 

– We have begun cleaning up in the construction industry, where there has been an increasing amount of the renting of personnel. Now we wish to clean up in health and care, says Arild Grande (Labour) to NTB.

He heads the party’s Labour Committee, which is now in the final stages of chiselling out the Labour Party’s policy in the area before the local elections next year. The proposals will be discussed at the Labours national convention on Tuesday.

– The Aleris case is a glaring example of how bad it can get when the urge for privatisation becomes too large and hiring is the name of the game, Grande goes on to say.

On September 3rd, Klassekampen wrote that 26 consultants in the private healthcare company Aleris Ungplan have filed a case because they believe they have illegally been hired as consultants.

Grande emphasises that the municipal sector with about 500,000 employees is a very large employer.

Wants to grant access

Labour wishes to demand responsibility in the procurement of services for the public sector, including the healthcare sector.

«Trustees in businesses that purchase services, gain access to contracts, payment and work conditions from the supplier,» it is stated in the proposal that NTB has gained access to.

– The purchaser of services is to gain access to the payment and working conditions at the private service providers, Grande elaborates.

It is often the worker’s trustees at the private providers who are assumed to take this responsibility. But they are often non-existent, he believes.

Grande hopes that the measure will lead to the discovery of criticisable circumstances far earlier. It will also force the municipality to assess whether to base such a large part of its operation on hired work.

Radical expansion

Heidi Nordby Lunde (Conservatives) reacts strongly to the proposal.

– I do not think Labour fully understands what they are up to, to be honest. They make it sound as if public procurers are inept, which is degrading both the Norwegian public sector and those who work there, she tells NTB.

– Labour is not surprisingly in favour of a radical expansion of the elected representative’s system but wants to have access, not only to the municipality’s procurement contracts but also the internal conditions in external companies. That shows a total lack of confidence in Norwegian business life.

This spring, The Christian Democrats (KrF) joined the Red-Green parties in order to secure a tightening of the conditions of the staffing industry. Thus, so-called zero-hour contracts are prohibited in all industries; that is, agreements where the employees in staffing agencies are not paid between assignments. As of next year, only companies bound by a collective agreement are allowed to hire staff.

Migration and district

In addition to the working life, Labour has initiated a committee for migration and district.

Labour’s migration committee hopes proposals for third country agreements, increased support for neighbourhoods and a distinction between refugees will increase the number of quota refugees at the cost of asylum seekers. These proposals were presented last week.

At Labor’s National Convention on Tuesday, Grande and Masud Gharahkhani, who has led the migration committee, will present the proposals on the policies regarding work and migration.

Earlier this week Dagsavisen wrote that the Employment Committee wishes to make the current agreement on inclusive employment (IA) more binding by requiring participating companies to pay to send employees, who struggle with their health, on postgraduate and educational courses.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today