Wage theft perpetrated against workers and low wage earners was covered, among other matters, during the first meeting of the year of the newly appointed delegate council of Efling. The meeting was held on Thursday evening, January 14th, via a telecommunications application, as was the case with the four most recent meetings of the council. Attendance was good with about 80 members of the delegate council attending, as well as staff.During the meeting, many members of the delegate council collaborated on a letter to prime minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir and minister of social affairs Ásmundur Einar Daðason. It calls attention to the fact that, as the collective agreements were signed in April of 2019, the government issued a statement promising to clamp down on violations in the labor market. The promise was made once more to the negotiating committee of ASÍ this past August and a statement issued regarding plans for legislation on fines, so-called penalty payments, which would be received by the victims of wage theft. These promises have not been kept and, therefore, wage theft continues unabated.Wages stolen from members of Efling amount to hundreds of millions each year. The average sum of each wage claim is around half a million kronas.The members of the delegate council express their disappointment with the fact that this legislation has not seen the light of day and demand that authorization be given for fines which can be levied by the union on behalf of a member, issuing a wage claim immediately when the wages aren’t paid in accordance with the legal employment contract. The fine is to amount to the same sum as the principal of the claim and the money is to flow directly to the victim.
