Pay negotiations break down

Norway's 1999 pay negotiations in the private sector broke down on 25 March 1999. Mediation was due to commence after the Easter holidays, which had to find a solution to the question of the financing of skills and training reform, among other issues.

On Thursday 25 March 1999, the pay negotiations between the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisasjonen i Norge, LO) and the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (Næringslivets Hovedorganisasjon, NHO) broke down. The negotiations between the Confederation of Vocational Unions (Yrkesorganisasjonenes Sentralforbund, YS) and NHO also broke down. The State Mediator was due to summon the parties for mediation after the Easter break. Industrial action may be resorted to only after 12 April.

The 1999 pay round is an intermediate settlement adjusting the two-year agreements signed in 1998 (NO9805164F), which means that only wage rates are up for review. The proposed reform of skills and vocational training ("competence") is also to be negotiated, as agreed in 1998 (NO9804161F).

A breakdown in negotiations with subsequent mediation is common during Norwegian pay settlements, and in 1999 the need for mediation was already evident before the negotiations commenced (NO9903121F). This, according to the LO leader, Yngve Hågensen, can be explained by the fact that mediation allows more participants to be included in the negotiations over skills and training reform. Thus, the financing of the skills and training reform is the most important issue to be resolved by the State Mediator. Media speculation suggested that the financial aspects of the reform was not really an issue during the pre-mediation negotiations between LO and NHO. The outcome of the negotiations over competence reform will also have an important impact on the level of pay increases. The delegations of NHO and LO met with the Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, immediately after the negotiations had broken down, and a letter was handed over containing the two organisations' joint demands with regard to the government's contribution to the competence reform. The letter also included the main principles to which the parties have agreed, including the proposal that most learning should take place at the workplace. According to the Aftenposten newspaper, the parties have also presented their own claims directed to the government.