Efling has sent a letter to the director of Ölgerðin, urging him to shorten the working week of his staff working under the Efling collective agreement. Efling notes that nothing prevents such a shortening, even for those not working under the VR agreements.Efling points out that in its collective agreement with the employers’ cartel SA there are specific methods to shorten the working week. They were added with the support of SA and are supposed to encourage and facilitate such a shortening. It is the view of the union that this is an obvious way to resolve the situation that has arisen in Ölgerðin.The letter to Ölgerðin takes note of the years-long custom of Ölgerðin to register Efling staff in VR, and its indifference in correcting this discrepancy. The opportunistic timing of shifting people into Efling is criticised, as it prevents a specific improvement in working conditions that the workers in question would otherwise have enjoyed.“We point out to Ölgerðin an easy fix to this problem, which is to make a workplace agreement for Efling workers, giving them the same change in working hours that VR members get. There are special provisions for this in the Efling collective agreement. The solution is staring us in the face, and Efling is ready to cooperate in achieving it. We urge Ölgerðin to accept our offer to work together in fixing this,” says Viðar Þorsteinsson, director of Efling.
