New working time schedules agreed in brewing

Provisions on the daily period within which normal working hours may be worked have been introduced in the new collective agreement for the Norwegian brewery sector, signed in the spring 1998 bargaining round. These rules had been demanded by trade unions after Coca-Cola Norway AS concluded a company-level agreement which allowed normal working hours to be worked between 06.00 and 21.00.

It is common practice in Norway for industry-level collective agreements to stipulate the period during the day within which the standard working week of 37.5 hours may be worked - ie the earliest possible starting time and the latest possible finishing time. Normally this period is set at between 06.00 and 17.00. If working hours fall outside this period, additional payments are due in compensation.

In the previous sectoral agreement for breweries and soft drink/mineral water producers there were no provisions regulating this schedule for working hours. The implication was that the schedule was subject to the provisions in the Working Environment Act (Arbeidsmiljøloven), in which standard hours can be worked at any time between 06.00 and 21.00.

Coca-Cola Norway AS is a member of the Federation of Norwegian Food and Drink Industry (Næringsmiddelbedriftenes Landsforening, NBL), which is affiliated to the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (Næringslivets Hovedorganisasjon, NHO). The company, which is planning to establish its own bottling plant in Norway, took advantage of the "loophole" in the industry-level collective agreement, and concluded a company agreement which allowed for a daily working time schedule from 06.00 to 21.00, within which normal weekly hours could be worked without any additional compensation for unsocial working time.

The trade union organising employees in the brewery sector is the Norwegian National Union of Food, Drink and Tobacco Workers (Norsk Nærings- og Nytelsesmiddelarbeiderforbund, NNN), which is affiliated to the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisasjonen i Norge, LO). NNN demanded, during the spring 1998 pay negotiations that provisions for a more restrictive working hours schedule should be incorporated into the sectoral collective agreement. NNN was successful in achieving this objective, and standard working hours must now be worked between 06.00 and 17.00. Any deviations from this can be agreed only by negotiation at local level. The Coca-Cola agreement had deviated radically from what was regarded as normal practice in this sector.

These new provisions are not out of line with the rest of the Norwegian manufacturing sector, but this new restriction on working hours may be unwelcome to employers' organisations. For example, the NBL argues that developments - especially in retailing, where there are only a small number of large shops which have late opening hours - require more flexible working time arrangements.