This year, wages should rise more than prices, demands Peggy Hessen-Wolsvik. Below are the decisions issued by the LO Board of Directors meeting.
– We are ready to strike to get what is fair, said Peggy Hessen-Volsvik in her speech to the LO Representative Council in Oslo today.
Salary settlement this year will be unionized. This means that the largest private sector union, Fellesforbundet, first negotiates with the employers' organization Norsk Industri, which sets the framework for the rest of working life.
Trade unions then negotiate their collective agreements – or collective agreements – continuously throughout the year.
– Room for fixed salary settlement
Peggy Hessen-Volsvik said last year's strike was “historic” and had a historic result.
The settlement framework was to increase wages by 5.2 percent and give LO members at least NOK 7.5 extra per hour.
We stood together on a common demand. “Fair wages and lower differentials,” Hessen-Volsvik said.
She believes there is scope for a good salary settlement this year as well.
She stressed that large parts of the industry are working well.
Prices unexpectedly rose so much in 2023 that most people's real wages ended up falling.
Current Affairs: There are two reasons behind the increase in salaries this year
Boom several years in a row
Experts have incorrectly predicted prices to rise for three consecutive years. It cost the workers dearly.
Many senior economists believe there is a greater chance of achieving the target this year.
4.1 percent is a noteworthy figure in salary adjustment. This is the estimate set by the Expert Committee for Wage Settlements (TBU) for price growth in 2024.
This estimate is the starting point when the union and Norwegian industry meet at the negotiating table in mid-March.
If employees are to receive real wage growth, they must receive a wage increase that exceeds the price growth estimate. This estimate is therefore 4.1 percent.
Read more here: Experts have incorrectly predicted inflation for three consecutive years
– The rise in prices is due to the growth of foreign prices
The LO leader stresses that it was not last year's good wage settlement that was responsible for the price increases in the past year and a half.
Peggy Hessen-Volsvik referred to the Holden Commission, which documented the relationship between Norwegian wage formation and price growth, and the interaction with economic policy.
The report submitted to the Holden Commission stated that the origin of the high price increases lay abroad.
– She said that there are many economists who still claim that the “very good” wage settlements of Norwegian workers are responsible for the rise in interest rates.
She reminded that people on average saw their purchasing power decline last year – again.
comment: The trade union movement cannot afford to lose again
LO does not guarantee support for increasing the retirement age
The LO will not immediately support raising the retirement age for those born after 1973, as was revealed at the representative board meeting.
The Federation of Trade Unions has previously given its support for raising the retirement age, but on one condition: that a so-called struggle scheme is offered to those who do not do so. Can They work longer because they don't have the health to do so.
Now LO comes with another condition.
In the collective agreement policy statement submitted by the LO on Tuesday, it was stated that the effects of raising the minimum age must be evaluated before the LO agrees to increase the retirement age.
“The LO will not accept that the minimum age is automatically increased. Any further increase beyond the 1973 cohort will depend on developments over the next 10 years,” the statement said.
– We do not give a blank power of attorney forever, says LO Vice President Stenar Krogstad.
Share often: Check salary in over 350 professions
“We must have a working life that makes it possible for an individual to want to work longer,” said LO Vice President Stenar Krogstad in the discussion on pensions in the LO Representative Council.
Brian Cliff Olguin
Nothing new for AFP
When the LO Conference took up the issue of pensions in 2022, the Conference decided that a new action plan should be agreed in a coordinated major settlement and this should take place during this parliamentary session. The decision was based on the investigation conducted by the LO and NHO the previous year, in which they released a draft of a reformed AFP.
This draft was voted on during the national meeting of Fellesforbundet in the fall of 2023. Since Fellesforbundet is a front-line profession, work on a new AFP has been halted.
At today's meeting of FIFA's Representative Council, the federation received the most criticism, but also praise for its decision on the AFP.
New laws: 50,000 disabled people lose thousands every year
Good news for low-wage workers
Many delegates raised the injustice faced by many low-paid earners who do not receive any additional bonus.
The LO leader replied that LO is working on bringing NHO under a new model.
Following last year's strike, LO and NHO signed an agreement to study issues related to the current low pay model in the lead-up to a wage settlement in 2025.
On the part of LO, the aim is to ensure that more low-paid workers receive this supplement in their wage settlements.
– We have been interested in low wages and proposals of different models for a long time, but only now NHO has committed. “We are happy about it,” LO’s chief negotiator, Tone Faugli, tells FriFagbevegelse.
LO and NHO have already held preparatory meetings on this matter, and the two parties have decided to form a committee to consider alternatives to the current low-wage model.
The committee, which will consist of representatives of unions in LO and industrial associations in NHO, will likely begin this work after this year's salaries are settled.
Read the full case here: Many do not receive low wage supplements. LO pressures NHO to find a better solution
Similar agreements in the country
LO is very concerned that employees in the state should switch to similar collective agreements.
The situation today is such that the country has two completely different types of collective agreements:
• LO and YS have similar agreements.
• Academics and Uni have similar agreements.
LO believes that the current situation with competing collective agreements in the state could lead to unequal pay for equal work and a lack of control over wage growth. LO challenges the state to work to bring the parties together on one collective agreement.
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