The IMPACT public services union has reacted to new figures showing falling earnings by calling for increased wages across the economy. It also reacted to claims about a widening pay gap between the private and public sectors. The union has produced a new report analysing the data and challenging the simplistic comparisons of average pay between the private and public sectors.
Read more at > IMPACT
Union calls for pay rises and challenge public-private pay gap claims
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Union reveals public-private pay gap in care sector
The Fagforbundet public service union has revealed figures showing that care workers in the private sector in Oslo are between EUR 7000 and EUR 8700 worse off than those in the public sector. A starting salary for a graduate care worker in the public sector is NOK 367000 (EUR 38500), NOK 84000 more than the same worker in the private sector. Those on minimum wages in the sector are EUR 7000 better off if employed by the municipality. Fagforbundet also says that private sector workers are more likely to face heavier workloads as a result of understaffing. Fourteen of the 40 care homes in Oslo
Unions challenge outsourcing claims
The FOA and OAO trade union organisations have questioned the conclusions of a report that claims municipalities can achieve 15%-20% cost savings if they outsource local care services. FOA and OAO undertook a review of the report that was published in November by the Procurement Council. The unions challenge the savings achieved and suggest that this is normally because private firms used staff with lower levels of training than in the municipal sector and rely more on part-time workers and pay no overtime. [Read more at > FOA (DK)->http://www.foa.dk/Forbund/Presse.aspx?newsid={50A05217-B080
Positive news on pay rises but pay gaps persist
(November 2016) The annual report on wages from the LO trade union confederation shows that workers have benefitted from real wage increases over the past 20 years. However, the report also reveals that the gender pay gap remains persistently high at 15% while the gap between pay for blue and white collar workers has increased and is now at 47%, a level not seen since the 1930s.