Local government

A national one-day strike planned for 15 September by public services union Fórsa involving school secretaries and caretakers was deferred following significant concessions by the education department. The department finally conceded that all school secretaries should be placed on the public service clerical officer scale, bringing to an end a four-decade old two-tier pay system. The improvements, due to come into effect from 1 September 2021, will also see equalisation of annual leave arrangements on the basis of public service clerical officer provisions. The union said it expected the new

The FeSP-UGT federation and the public service federations in the CCOO confederation have called on the government to enter negotiations on pay and conditions. The last three-year agreement covering three million public sector workers ran from 2018-2020 and for 2021 the government unilaterally implemented a 0.9% pay increase. The unions are calling for a pay rise for 2022 and beyond along with action on jobs to ensure the quality of public services and also measures to reduce precarious employment, particularly in regard to the long-running challenge to reduce temporary employment. They also

The KESK public sector confederation has rejected the offer made by the government for public sector wide pay increases in 2022 and 2023. The Ministry of Labour offered increases of 5% and 6% in 2022 and two increases of 6% in 2023 with further adjustments for inflation. However, KESK has already highlighted the extent to which public sector pay has fallen behind inflation (currently over 17%) and it also questions whether the official inflation figure really reflects living costs for most workers. However, the confederation is also disappointed that the public sector pay talks fail to address

Public service trade unions have reacted angrily to a series of pay offers that they argue fail to compensate workers for inflation or for the massive efforts made to maintain services during the pandemic. The 3% pay offer for health workers has been widely condemned and unions are consulting with members about what action to take. The unions point out that the pay rise is too low to have any impact on the serious staff shortages that persist across the health sector. Meanwhile local government employers have made a small increase to their pay offer, but this still means only a 1.75% increase

The SINTAP public service trade union has negotiated a new collective agreement with the Inova company that provides waste, water and other municipal services in Cantanhede in the Coimbra district. The union highlights in particular the progressive reduction of working hours in 2022 and 2023 to 35 a week; changes to the timing of night work; additional holiday entitlement – an extra day for each 10 years of service and general increase in annual leave to 25 by 2023. There will also be increases to meal and other allowances as well as higher pay. In contrast, the STAL local government union

On 13 July all nine trade union federations in the public service signed a new agreement on telework covering the whole of the public sector. The framework agreement requires employers across the three pillars of the public sector – local authorities, ministries and hospital services – to begin negotiations to implement the agreement at local level by 31 December this year. The agreement covers all the key issues relating to the voluntary nature and reversibility of telework, health and safety, gender equality, data security and privacy and working time and the right to disconnect. The

Local government union HK Kommunal has welcomed the decision by Solrød Municipality, south west of Copenhagen, to give their employees in administration the opportunity work a four-day week. Workers will have the choice whether they want to show up at the office, work from home or take a full day off. The only requirement is that they still have a working week of 37 hours. The municipality argues that it will help recruit and retain competent staff. The scheme starts from 1 September and will run over the next two years. The initiative follows that of the Odsherred Municipality, north west of

Municipal workers’ union Kommunal has welcomed new provisions in the crisis agreement negotiated with local and regional government employers. The agreement can be activated temporarily by the employers and was originally developed to deal with large forest fires but has been extended to any major crises such as floods, fires, electricity supply cuts or pandemics. The new agreement applies from 1 July and now limits how long an individual can be assigned to the agreement to ensure a proper recovery period. The main changes include: an employer may only activate the agreement if there is a need

The SKVNS trade union has signed a new collective agreement in the municipal sector that will deliver a 5% pay increase, reimbursement of travel-to-work costs on public transport, 100% allowance for work on holidays and extra time off for parents. Meanwhile the SPGS firefighters’ union is planning a 48-hour strike on 30 June in protest at the government’s failure to engage in any proper social dialogue over a period of more than 14 months. The union wants to negotiate a collective agreement but also wants a guarantee that the government will also implement existing commitments.

The UNIO trade union confederation whose members cover workers with higher education has been pushing for higher pay deals in three negotiations – national local government, Oslo municipality and public companies represented by the employers’ organisation, Spekter. The NSF nurses’ union is one of UNIO’s members involved in the strikes and negotiations and they are calling for higher pay for nurses to tackle major staff shortages. The government has stepped in to end strikes in local government and the Oslo municipality on the grounds, rejected by the trade unions, that the actions pose a

After lengthy negotiations, arbitration in the municipal sector has produced a deal supported by the trade unions. The overall package is worth 2.82%, slightly ahead of inflation and above the 2.7% in the industry sector which is normally seen as setting the pattern for pay bargaining. Pay increases range from NOK 10000 (EUR 980) a year to NOK 22000 (EUR 2150). There is a pot worth 1% that will be dealt with by local negotiations which will aim to contribute to retaining, developing and recruiting staff and acknowledging increased formal and informal competence development. It will also

Unions representing workers across municipalities and regions are negotiating with the SKR and Sobona employer organisations on changes to the crisis agreement. The aim is to ensure that the agreement is better adapted to longer crisis situations, based on experience from the pandemic. The crisis agreement can be activated temporarily by the employers in special crisis situations and means that regular working hours are increased at the same time as staff receive higher compensation. The agreement also allows for special emergency overtime and relocation of staff. It was drawn up with short