Pay deal averts Norway industrial strike

Pay deal averts Norway industrial strike

By Reuters April 2

Norwegian trade unions and employers reached a pay deal in all-night talks, averting a broad industrial strike shortly before it was due to begin, officials said on Wednesday.

NRK radio news said the deal between trade union federation LO and employers’ organisation NHO provided for a pay rise of 5.6 per cent and included an agreement on a voluntary early retirement scheme.

The deal was backed by the YS union federation, which had also threatened to strike.

”We are very satisfied,” LO federation chief Roar Flaathen said on radio news, referring in particular to the pay increase and a deal on pensions.

More than 40,000 workers in a range of industries from fish to aluminium production had been set to go on strike from 0400 GMT if no deal had been reached.

Flaathen said in a statement that the agreement on pensions would give LO members who chose to take benefits from age 62 as good a deal as under the current rules and higher benefits if they retired later.

LO and NHO said in statements on their Web sites that the agreement would give a general pay increase of 2 crowns ($0.388) per hour and an extra rise of 3 crowns per hour for certain low-income workers.

”The agreement will give LO members solid real wage growth and the most to the lowest-paid,” LO said in a statement.

NHO chief Finn Bergesen said: ”This has been a demanding mediation process, but we are satisfied that we have reached agreement within an acceptable framework.”

The agreement was concluded with the help of a state mediator.