Starts mediation: – The state ruled against the Riksmekleren

Anders Hauge-Eltvik

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Merete Jansen

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At 10 o’clock on Thursday, the mediation in the state settlement started. The salary of 165,000 state employees is to be decided, but also something greater than that.

LO Stat leader Egil André Aas will do his part to ensure a fair development in the wages of state employees.

– We think about the whole. To take care of everyone. We didn’t get there at all in the negotiations, says Aas before the mediation starts.

Mediation has a deadline of midnight on 23 May.

Background: The state settlement collapsed. Now there will be mediation in May

Meets the main requirements

The main demands from LO State and the member confederations are a large, general addition that ensures an improvement in purchasing power and a collection of the collective agreements in the state.

– We were a long way from our entry requirements, and when the state rules in such a direction, we take it into account. Then it will be the mediator next to get help, he says.

Aas points out that the state has shown a greater willingness to negotiate than in previous main tariff settlements. But not enough.

– The state has started a negotiation process in which they try to facilitate similar agreements. But it is a bit difficult if not all parties want to go there, he says.

Aas points out that what came out of the offer also contained elements that were not acceptable to LO Stat, even though it would have been a similar agreement.

– One agreement means being able to take care of everyone. The whole, he emphasizes.

Background: In this way, the state will bring everyone together on one wage agreement again

Will ensure everyone

After it became clear that all the main associations broke the negotiations, both Akademikerne Stat and Unio Stat explained the background for their choices.

The leader of the Academics Stats stated that central supplements have never paid off for their members, who have master’s degrees.

Unio Stats’ leader pointed out that the state did not put enough money on the table to look after the employees with higher education.

Aas finds it difficult to comment on other people’s comments, but needs to clarify that LO Stat also takes care of those with a long education.

– We have always done that. The vast majority of LO Stats members have higher education. We will continue to look after these, but also the whole. That is why we see that we must return to one agreement, says Aas.

He believes the current situation cannot continue.

– Imagine that there are two civil servants sitting shoulder to shoulder, doing the same tasks. If one gets much more in salary than the other because they are members of different unions, then that is a recipe for injustice. We must avoid this, he states.

Experienced in mediation

This mediation will be Aas’ last as head of negotiations in the state settlement after eight years as leader. So he knows the drill.

– We know what happens in a mediation. There will be a push. Now it is the National Ombudsman who is in charge of this, but we are well prepared to handle this as well as possible, he says.

He assures that the strike preparations are well under way, although it is not a goal for him to end up on strike.

– The main focus is not there now, although we are also planning for that outcome of the mediation. Now it is first necessary to find a balance in order to hopefully reach an agreement in the end. Once we are in mediation, we must contribute constructively to find an agreement, says Aas.

The National Ombudsman will preserve industrial peace

It is national mediator Mats Ruland who will now lead the mediation in the state settlement. He says he is aware of the issues already, through media coverage which he believes has been wider than usual. On Thursday, he had the demands presented directly by the parties.

– Have you ever experienced that the parties in the state have been so far apart, on a principled basis like this?

– I have also experienced in previous settlements that the parties in the state have been far away from each other on very difficult topics. So it’s not new. But I have not come across the one fundamental requirement here before in mediation in the state, says Ruland after a pause for thought.

– So do you think that the requirement for one or two agreements is the heaviest part now?

– We will see that when we get started with the practical implementation of the mediation. It is impossible for me to know that much about now. It is one of several requirements that will be difficult. There are several requirements that will be challenging as well.

– For example?

– I do not want to go in and comment on the requirements. My focus is on helping the parties.

– How do you see the possibility of getting them to agree on the part that applies to one or two agreements and where they are SO far apart?

– We will see that in the mediation. It would be unmusical of me to comment on it now. But it is possible to solve. The most important thing for me is to preserve working peace.

Mats Ruland, national mediator.

Ole Palmstrøm

The state will find a solution

It is the state’s Director of Human Resources, Gisle Norheim, who is the employer counterpart to all four main unions on the employee side. He believes they worked well throughout the week with negotiations.

– We spent the time well on a number of things, and then it was not possible to reach an agreement on what was the state’s primary demand: One identical main tariff agreement within an economic framework that we believe is justifiable, he says.

He does not give the impression that they have come any closer to the goal of an agreement.

– I understand that it is the question of one agreement that is difficult for some, so we were not able to get any closer to that, he says.

– Is a lot of money needed to achieve that?

– I don’t want to go too much into what we are going to do in the mediation. But I remind you that we have a requirement to stay within the front subject framework. It is of course important. And then we must estimate the slippage in a proper and good way, so that we do not end up where we arrived last year with an annual wage increase far above other sectors, he says.

Now Norheim is looking forward to getting good help from the national mediator, and he promises to contribute so that they find “good solutions”.

– Now it is the national mediator who rules and we have a duty of confidentiality. Then we will do what we find appropriate in the mediation. And all five parties must show a will to arrive at a good solution here, he says.

Gisle Norheim, director of personnel in the state.

Ole Palmstrøm