Breakdown in salary negotiations for Government employees
At 03.10 a.m. on Sunday, the federation of Trade Unions (Yrkesorganisasjonenes Sentralforbund) reports that there is a breakdown in salary talks for Government employees.
After talks on Saturday and in the early hours on Sunday there was a breakdown in negotiations.
– We have yielded a lot in order to reach a negotiated solution, but ours claims have not been acknowledged by the state. – Thus, we had no choice but to leave the negotiations, says Pål N. Arnesen, chairman of the state workers Union (YS Stat), in a press release.
The state settlement thus goes to mediation with a deadline of May 23.
3 weeks of negotiations
The negotiations have been ongoing since April 5 without an agreementbeing reached. Night before Sunday, the break was a fact. YS, Unio and LO Stat together have broken off the negotiations. They think the offer was not sufficient when it came to distribution and equal pay.
– Many Government employees have experienced a de facto wage reduction in recent years. The state has not shown a willingness to compensate for this, that is disappointing, says Egil André Aas, union leader in LO Stat.
– The state is promoting politics where it will be virtally impossible to rectify differences in wages between men and women. That is not a proper gender equality policy, he adds.
– We worked hard to enter into agreements with all the four main federations in the state, but it did not work out, says Municipal and Modernization Minister, Monica Mæland, in a press release from the ministry.
Still negotiating
The state is still negotiating with the Union of Academics.
The reason for the unanimity of the parties was, among other things, disagreement on the distribution of the framework.
– The Government wishes to provide greater scope for action and flexibility for Government bodies. It is not appropriate that we who are located in Oslo and detetmine in detail the wage development of employees for the child welfare services in Finnmark or professors in Bergen as examples. – It is therefore important for the state that a significant part of the framework should be distributed locally, says Government Minister Mæland.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
