Hospital nurses on strike

Nurses in Norwegian public hospitals launched strike action on 22 January 2002 following the breakdown of pay negotiations between their trade union, NSF, and the NAVO employers' association. Around 200 nurses were initially called out on strike but, with no agreement in sight by early February, the action has gradually been extended.

Following the breakdown of negotiations over higher wages for nurses in public hospitals between the Norwegian Union of Registered Nurses (Norges Sykepleierforbund, NSF) and the NAVO employers' association, strike action broke out on 22 January 2002. At the outset, around 200 nurses were called out on strike, and the action then gradually spread to affect most public hospitals in Norway. NSF warned that if no progress were made (and this was still the case in early February), more than 800 nurses would be out on strike by 8 February.

The background to the dispute is the transfer of all public hospitals from the county municipalities to the state sector on 1 January 2002. Since then, both the previous county municipal hospitals and the state sector hospitals have been organised as 'health enterprises' and are members of NAVO (NO0108139F). The transfer of ownership led to a situation whereby previous collective relations and collective agreements vanished, and most of the unions concerned thus agreed to prolong existing agreements until new ones are negotiated in spring 2002, and to accept NAVO as the new employer party, replacing the municipalities. However, NSF refused to follow suit and negotiations over a new agreement for nurses - to apply from 1 January 2002 - started in December 2001 (NO0201114N).

NSF is seeking higher pay on the grounds that nurses in hospitals that have always been subject to state ownership earn more. It thus wants to see all nurses in public hospitals covered by a new, single agreement based on the collective agreement in the state sector. The negotiations failed after a short mediation period in mid-January. NAVO made no concessions to NSF's demands, on the grounds that the timing of the demands is wrong. NAVO states that its intention is to treat all the unions equally and argues that NSF is exploiting the hospital reform 'in its battle for higher wages'.

The nurses' strike has received the backing of the new trade union confederation, Utdanningsgruppenes Hovedorganisasjon (UHO), of which NSF is a founder member (NO0201184F). In a press statement, the leader of UHO, Anders Folkestad, argued that acceptable pay and working conditions are imperative for the recruitment and retention of qualified personnel in the health sector.

Health workers' unions outside UHO have been careful not to criticise the strike action directly, but have stressed that if the nurses succeed in obtaining a new agreement, they will demand renegotiation of their own agreements. Most of the unions in the hospitals sector have so-called 'renegotiation clauses' in their agreements, which would guarantee new negotiations if the nurses succeed in obtaining a new agreement. There is little doubt that these clauses will be invoked if NAVO gives in to NSF's demands, which makes it very difficult for the nurses to succeed in their strike action.

There are concerns that if the strike goes on for much longer, waiting lists for hospital treatment will become even longer, and one of the main objectives of the new hospital reform is to cut waiting lists. However, there is something of a tradition in Norway for the government to resort to compulsory arbitration in disputes when people's lives and health are at stake (NO0007197N), and this may well be the case if the nurses' strike is further extended.