On Tuesday, LO’s representative board will meet to adopt its policy ahead of this year’s salary settlement. – It is still the case that those who have little have had it the hardest over the past year, says LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik in Politisk kvarter on news on Tuesday morning. Last year wages increased by 4.1 per cent. This is shown in a recent report from the Technical Calculation Committee for Income Settlements (TBU). At the same time, prices increased by 5.8 per cent in 2022, according to Statistics Norway. As a result, most people lost purchasing power last year. – Then there are some who have supplied themselves with much more than the others, and that is the top managers. – Unacceptable TBU and Norges Bank estimate that prices in 2023 will increase by 4.8 and 4.7 per cent respectively. While ordinary industrial workers last year received a pay rise of around 3.5 per cent, the pay for managing directors in the private sector increased by up to 21.3 per cent. The LO leader believes that this is completely unacceptable. – I think it is provocative for all those who have experienced that it is difficult to get through everyday life. “To sit and watch some leave with a salary increase of that size is immoral and provocative,” says Følsvik. – Could there be a strike this year? – We never enter into a negotiation to go on strike. But if we have to go on strike, we will. Wants more for the municipal sector On Monday, news told about healthcare worker Neda Karimi, who has high expectations for the salary settlement. Her annual salary is NOK 453,000, after receiving a salary supplement corresponding to the industry in 2022. – We have greater expectations for wealthy Norway. Those who work in the health sector have been exposed to a lot, through the pandemic and now through the price increases. We have high expectations for the salary settlement, she says. On Tuesday, the representative council of the LO will decide its policy ahead of this year’s salary settlement. LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik wants more for the municipal sector. Photo: Mathias Revheim-Rafaelsen / news Følsvik believes that employees in the municipal sector have come out worse from wage negotiations than industrial workers in recent years. – They have been lagging behind others for the past three years. Therefore, I think they should get more than the front subject this year. The wage settlement in Norway is based on the so-called frontline model. This means that wages are first negotiated for competitive industries that supply goods and services primarily abroad. This settlement becomes the leader for the wage settlement in the rest of society. About the front-line subject and wage formation The wage settlements in Norway are based on the so-called front-line subject model. The plan for the negotiations is based on wage growth in society being adjusted to what the competitive sector can live with over time. Industrial workers in export companies that compete internationally negotiate their wage increase first. The result sets the standard for the rest of society, which typically ends up with a central salary frame typically equal to or lower than the front subject. The front trade negotiations take place between the NHO association Norsk Industri and the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, in the so-called Workshop/Industrial Agreement. A challenge for the front trade model is that in the private sector, to a greater extent, local supplements are also given in addition to central wage supplements. In January, the government set up a committee to look at trends in the economy that could weaken support for the front-line subject model. The party-composed committee that has been set up has as its starting point that the front subject model is continued. – For us and working people in Norway, the frontline model is one of the most important tools we have for those in the municipal sector to get the same wage growth, says LO leader Følsvik. The frontline settlement last year ended at 3.7 per cent, while prices thus increased by close to 6 per cent. Warns Norges Bank Følsvik says that she was initially satisfied with the salary negotiations last year. – They initially achieved a fairly good result last year, which with a normal price increase would have provided an improvement in purchasing power. But high prices in the past year have put an end to this improvement. Food and electricity prices have skyrocketed, and the war in Ukraine has had consequences for the economy. – It has simply meant that the prices have skyrocketed in a way that you did not imagine when you negotiated last year, says the LO leader. In addition, Norges Bank has raised interest rates several times. – We think they have set the rent too quickly and too much. Norges Bank should know its visiting hours and be careful with interest rate hikes, so that we don’t get this type of wage and price spiral.
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– Immoral and provocative – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
