Norway’s Labor Party demands billions for employment

The Labor Party (AP) believes that the budget agreement between the Progress Party (FRP) and the Norwegian government is failing the unemployed. Now the party is putting billions on the table in its alternative budget proposal.

“A rescue operation for the long-term unemployed” – that is the title of the plan that the Labor Party is now presenting in its alternative revised national budget for 2021.

AP deputy leader Hadia Tajik has previously criticized the FRP and the government parties for failing the unemployed in their budget agreement. Now she has concretized what the AP itself plans to do.

“What we are worried about is that those who have waited for the longest to get help are those who get the least help from this government,” Tajik told NTB.

“The queue of unemployed cannot be like the queue outside a nightclub, that one has to go out for another to get in. The measures must be dimensioned according to need,” she said.

Three measures

In the alternative plan, the AP plans to launch three measures to create more jobs:

* about NOK 500 million in increased support for hard-hit companies

* close to NOK 500 million for activity-creating measures for the business community under the auspices of municipalities and county municipalities

* a green industrial package of NOK 1.2 billion, including an investment in hydrogen under the auspices of Statkraft

Full-time, permanent positions

Another demand from the AP is the tightening of workforce rules. These measures would ensure that the new growth after the pandemic occurs in the form of full-time, permanent positions instead of more temporary employment and hiring.

“What is important for us is that people experience that they return to safe jobs and an orderly and serious working life,” Tajik said.

She believes the long-term unemployed will need more help to get back to work.

“As a community, we must take responsibility for building that bridge back to the workforce. It is not something that will happen by itself,” she stated.

Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayFinance

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