Icelandic police do not believe it is impossible to find the money for rises to their salaries, and have vowed to work to find a solution.
As reported, police are unhappy with what they consider to be wages too low for the current economic situation. Members of the riot squads in various townships have already walked off the job.
However, Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir has said that the government does not have the funds to raise police salaries.
“They are very important to society and of course we want to see if anything is possible,” she said. “But it is not possible to meet the demands of a pay raise or anything like it in the wake of arbitration. I don’t think it will work. But we will talk to them later.”
But the police believe a solution can be found, and their union, the Police Federation of Iceland (LL), have expressed great disappointment in the results of arbitration, saying in part that they do not abide the conditions of the agreement that removed the right to strike from the Icelandic police force years ago.
LL also said that the honour guard – special police chaperones for incoming MPs on the first day of parliament – will in fact be on duty this Saturday.
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