Today, Efling Union delivered its demands to the Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise (Samtök atvinnulífsins – SA). The demands were approved unanimously at the meeting of the Efling negotiations committee yesterday.
The demands are for a raise of all monthly salaries for a total of 167 thousand krónur in a three-year contract. The raise will be in the form of flat raise applying equally to all salaries in steps, modeled on the contract period 2019-2022. The raise guarantees increased purchasing power of salaries under average, assuming current inflation and inflation forecasting, in addition to defending the purchasing power of average salaries.
With these demanded raises, the share of low wage earners in economic growth is guaranteed, and brakes are put on runaway salary hikes in the upper layers of society. The positive results of the flat raises during the last contract period are referenced. A part of the demanded raises are intended to address the situation that workers and low wage earners are currently not able to make ends meet according to official living wage estimates.
The Efling negotiations committee has put significant work into preparing the demands and has met in total at four meetings in the last week. Additionally, 4500 Efling members have had part in the shaping of the demands with their participation in the survey of conditions and opinions.
The first negotiations meeting of Efling with the Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise is planned this coming Friday in the Efling Community Center.
“The task of the next three years is clear in our minds. We are going to continue on the path of achieving better conditions for members of Efling. Our wages must be defended against increasing prices of necessities, and we must counteract that working class households are run on a deficit. The path of flat raises has been proven as the best way of reach these goals. There was total agreement in the Efling members’ negotiations committee concerning the demands,” said Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir chairman of Efling.