Herman Bjørnson Hagen
– Our members work in shops that we all see and use every day. Many will notice when the local Coop store or the entire duty-free at Gardermoen closes, says HK manager Christopher Beckham in a press release.
On Sunday 28 and Monday 29 April, Handel og Kontor (HK) and the employers’ organization Virke will meet at the Riksmekleren after a breakdown in wage negotiations.
If they fail to agree on mediation, there is likely to be a strike in many of Virke’s member companies from Tuesday.
In total, HK has announced termination of employment for just over 25,000 members on the various collective agreements.
In the first instance, 4,256 members covered by various collective agreements will be taken out on strike. Most on the Landsoverenskomsten, which is the largest agreement.
At the bottom of the case, you can see the list of where there may be a strike from Tuesday.
Will be hit hard
Travel Retail Norway (TRN), which operates the duty-free shops at the largest airports in Norway, will be hit hard by a possible strike.
The HK club at TRN Gardermoen is the largest covered by the collective agreement Landsoverenskomsten. This will also be the biggest strike at TRN.
HK will take out 373 members in the entire TRN group on strike from Tuesday 30 April – 278 of them at Gardermoen. The rest at Bergen and Trondheim Airport.
– It will hit TRN very hard. It is our members who work in full positions and are responsible for the basic staffing, says group shop steward in TRN Rozina Nazar, who is also part of the delegation from HK which will now mediate with Virke.
Rozina Nazar in the middle. The picture was taken in a different context.
Brian Cliff Olguin
Nazar has also had meetings with the TRN management, where they have reviewed the rules of the game for a possible strike. HK’s corporate club has clearly communicated that the company cannot ask employees to work more than their full-time position, let extra helpers “shop shifts”, use staffing agencies or move employees from other departments to the stores. They have recorded this.
– Only the managing director is allowed to carry out our tasks, according to Nazar.
It would not be prudent to keep the TRN shops open if so many members are taken out on strike, she believes.
– It is not enough to have a couple of employees at work, when there are such large areas and many customers. Then the conservation officers must intervene, says Nazar.
In addition to TRN, 14 employees in the duty-free shop at Torp Airport will be taken out on strike.
Nine collective agreements
The negotiations, which will now go to mediation, deal with these collective agreements between HK and Virke:
• The national agreement – Applies to shop, office and warehouse clerks and drivers, also employees of cooperatives (Coop). Applies to employees in kiosks, bingos and photo laboratories.
• Publishing agreement – Applies to employees of publishing houses.
• The travel agreement – Applies to employees of travel agencies and travel operators.
• The book and paper agreement – Applies to employees in bookshops.
• The office agreement – Applies to office employees, also employees in call centres.
• The industry agreement for law firms – Covers office staff at law firms.
• The managers’ collective agreement – Applies to those who were previously covered by the collective agreement for managers in cooperatives and managers in Coop Norge SA and others.
• The information technology agreement – Applies to companies in the computer and office technology industry. Includes warehouse clerks/workers, office clerks, EDB operators, programmers and system and EDB consultants.
• The car salesman’s agreement – Applies to car salesmen.
Source: HK
Ready for strike
– The members are both ready and motivated to strike. We are tired of the fact that it is always the employees who have to foot the bill, says Nazar.
She points back to the pandemic, when almost all employees were made redundant. There was also nothing to gain in local negotiations due to low traffic at the airports.
Now the travelers are back, and the HK club is tired of not getting real wage growth, according to Nazar.
She adds that she does not want a conflict between HK and Virke. The best thing for the parties is to come to an agreement.
There may be more strike withdrawals. In order to be called out on strike, you must have registered with HK before mediation starts on 28 April.
