The Greater Government has long talked about implementing a “Greater Government in working life”. The goal is to “secure permanent, full-time, positions with Norwegian pay and working conditions”, according to the government platform. But the wording and means of action make the CEO of Schibsted and former NHO CEO, Kristin Skogen Lund, despair. – I get sad when I hear that kind of rhetoric, because I think everyone wants a serious working life, she says. – With expressions such as large-scale cleaning, you give the impression that it is a very dirty city. It’s not. There is some dirt here and there, and we will get rid of that, but large-scale cleaning, it will be the wrong expression. She says that in Sommarkvarteret, this summer’s version of Politisk kvarter on news Radio. Meiner government is dogmatic In the autumn, the Storting will take a position on tightening the hiring of labor, among other things from staffing agencies. And from 1 July, another change in the law came into force, which removed the general right to intermediate appointments. This is especially what Skogen Lund is stated above. – My point is that one should not use intermediate positions systematically, but some activities are intermediate in nature, she points out. – What do you think the government needs to change? – I mean that it must not be so dogmatic. They must ensure a serious and good working life, but forbidding intermediate positions, for example, gives me no meaning. Then you have not understood how working life works. – Not smart policy The Schibsted boss points out that not everyone wants a permanent job, but flexibility, and that the industry can not always hire people permanently, if they only need them for shorter periods. – If a shipyard in Western Norway is to build a rig, and then there are two intensive weeks where they need 200 electricians, then it goes without saying that there should not be 200 vacant electricians in Stord. – Then you actually have to hire in between. If you do not know it, that rig cannot be built in Norway. This is not smart politics. ILLUSTRATION: A shipyard in Western Norway, more specifically in Ulsteinvik. Photo: Halvard Alvik / NTB Wants more talk Skogen Lund is not alone in being critical of the wording and grip of the red-green parties. At the beginning of the summer, four employers’ organizations reached out to the Støre government in a post in VG, and asked him to stop calling working life “so dirty”. They were supported by former Labor Minister Bjarne Håkon Hanssen. – I would not say that there is a need for a major cleaning in working life in general, he told the newspaper. Skogen Lund thinks politicians should rather talk about how many people have good jobs they can develop in and work on. – We must be a little better at talking about the good working life we have, because I think that is an advantage for our country. – But it is probably an advantage for people to have a permanent job and not intermediate positions? – Yes, it is definitely an advantage to have a permanent job, but a small part of working life will always have an intermediate character because there are fluctuations in workload and other things. The Government: – Total disc boom State Secretary in the Ministry of Labor and Social Inclusion, Maria Walberg (Labor Party), rejects the criticism from Skogen Lund and calls it «a total disc boom». – The ambition of the government is that not only the majority should experience Norwegian working life as safe and serious, but that it should actually apply to everyone. It is far from the situation we see today, says Walberg. Maria S. Walberg is State Secretary for Labor in the Ministry of Labor and Social Inclusion. Photo: Labor Party Therefore, the government wants to provide more permanent positions in working life. – At home with me, major cleaning means that we wash more thoroughly than we usually do. This is also the case with the large – scale government of the government in working life: everyone in Norway will get to experience working life as described by Skogen Lund, the state secretary continued. To the example of shipyards in Western Norway, she points out that it is still possible to add people in between needs in between needs, also from staffing agencies. – But we have many examples of companies having short-term staffing strategies rather than building up competence in their own company and industry, says Walberg. – When it comes to the shipyard industry, it is not so long since serious breaches were discovered at eight different shipyards in Møre og Romsdal, where workers told about hourly wages of 8 kroner, continuous working weeks of up to 70 hours without time off. It tells me that there is a job to be done, also here, says the Secretary of State. Listen to Kristin Skogen Lund in Sommarkvarteret, where she also admits that she did not get to take into account the “wear and tear” in the proposal for pension reform. Moreover, he took the Ukraine war almost personally. Schibsted boss Kristin Skogen Lund is despairing over the government’s “big-cleaning” in working life. She takes the Ukraine war almost personally, and admits that she did not get to take into account the “struggles” in the proposal for pension reform.
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Schibsted boss despairs over major cleaning in working life – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
