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Dreams of Fully Automated Luxury Socialism Delayed?
Icelandic police have reported negative consequences of a municipal experiment to shorten the work week. Lasting from 2015 to 2019, two large-scale studies involved the reduction of working hours across the public sector, including preschools, police and social services, and hospitals. Pay…
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Icelandic Midwives: Low Pay, Long Hours, But Going On Strike “Pointless”
Icelandic midwives have been fighting to improve their pay for nearly two years, but going on strike would prove ineffective due to on-call “emergency workers”. Vísir reports that these past Easter holidays were a very busy time for midwives at the National…
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Shorter Work Week May Also Help Gender Equality In Iceland
A lawyer for the government employees union contends that amongst the positive effects of a shortened work week would be greater gender equality. Localised experiments with a shortened work week in Iceland have already shown positive results. Sonja Ýr Þorbergsdóttir, a lawyer…
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Iceland’s Seamen Start Their Strike Tonight
Several seamen unions will go on strike at 20:00 tonight, having overwhelmingly rejected a collective bargaining agreement struck between union leaders and fishing industry giants. Iceland’s seamen have been working without a valid contract since 2011. Vísir reports that 76% of voting…
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Teachers Narrowly Approve New Collective Bargaining Agreement
Iceland’s primary school teachers voted narrowly in favour of the collective bargaining agreement their union had signed with municipalities last month. RÚV reports that voter participation was high, with just under 91% of primary school teachers voting. Even so, voting was fairly…
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Unions Gearing Up For A Stormy 2017
The Icelandic Confederation of Labour (ASÍ) voted last week to increase their strike fund by over 67%, as labour leadership predicts many labour unions will be fighting hard in collective bargaining negotiations in the coming year. RÚV reports that ASÍ will be…
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Government Workers To Experiment With Shorter Work Week
The Federation of State and Municipal Employees (BSRB) has released an announcement asking for those workplaces that operate under its auspices to indicate if they want to take part in an experiment with a shortened work week for BSRB workers. The labour…
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Iceland’s Seamen Are About To Go On Strike
Workers in one of Iceland’s largest industries are about to walk out, having been without a contract for six years, and with management proposing to cut their salaries further. DV reports that the vast majority of unionised seamen voted in favour of…
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International Workers Day in Reykjavík
Unions and groups supporting labour rights marched in the annual May 1 rally all over the country today. Our photographer Art Bicnick took these photos of the march in Reykjavík.
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Foreign Construction Workers Overworked, Underpaid
About 50 foreign construction workers were working far too many hours for far too little pay in north Iceland. A union official told reporters that “no one will get away with this kind of treatment.” Vísir reports that 50 Polish workers brought…
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Smelter Workers Strike, Bosses Attempt To Replace Them
Workers at the Rio Tinto Alcan smelter went on strike at midnight last night, bringing aluminium exports from the smelter to a halt. Management is hoping to do the jobs of the employees, but who may work where is being disputed. The…
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Management And Trade Unions Against Shorter Work Week
Representatives of both labour and management oppose a bill that would shorten the fulltime work week from 40 hours to 35, but opinions did not divide along a simple binary. The bill in question is still in the first round of parliamentary…
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Icewear Denies Knowledge Of Slave Labour
New developments have arisen in a case of slave labour in south Iceland. The managing director of Icewear has disavowed any knowledge of worker conditions, while the man responsible for forcing two women from Sri Lanka to sew clothing for Icewear is…
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Unions Warn Against “Volunteer Jobs”
Some employers are advertising to foreigners for volunteers to do work people are supposed to be paid for. A union official says they regularly monitor such postings, which are violations of Icelandic labour law. The website workaway.info offers volunteer jobs around the…
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Foreign Workers More Likely To Be Exploited Than Locals
A union official has confirmed that foreign workers fall victim to worker exploitation to a proportionately greater degree than their Icelandic co-workers. RÚV reports that over the past two years, the labour union Efling has dealt with some 400 cases of workers…
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Work Stoppages Announced At Rio Tinto Alcan
Work stoppages to begin next week at the smelter will bring aluminium exports to a stand-still, as workers try to gain leverage for wage increases. Vísir reports that the stoppages are to begin on February 24, and will continue indefinitely. The workers…
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Crisis Averted: Merchant Ship Workers Sign Agreement
A collective bargaining agreement signed late last night has averted an impending strike, which was to begin at midnight last night. Vísir reports that unions representing ship engineers and captains have reached an agreement with shipping companies Samskip and Eimskip. The agreement,…
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Merchant Ship Workers May Strike
Merchant ship workers have been without a contract since last summer, and a break down in negotiations may lead to a strike. RÚV reports that captains and engineers alike have been trying to work out a new collective bargaining agreement with management,…
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Company Possibly Engaging In Worker Exploitation
Grapevine has learned of instances of worker exploitation at an Icelandic company. Two former employees of the company, one Polish and the other Icelandic, reported the same kinds of treatment. The contentions of the company head do not hold up to examination…
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Foreign Workers At Guesthouse Exploited
Two Polish workers at a south Iceland guesthouse were subjected to exploitation that is tantamount to human trafficking, union officials say. Fréttatíminn reports that two Polish women in their thirties came to Iceland in July 2014 and soon thereafter started working at…
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Labour Directorate Wants To Help Fight Human Trafficking
Most cases of human trafficking this year have involved foreign labourers, and the response from officials has been swift. Vísir reports that of the 20 individuals the police have identified this past year as being victims of human trafficking, most of them…
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Police Approve Collective Bargaining Agreement
Police have voted in favour of approving the collective bargaining agreement their union had made with the state. RÚV reports that the results of voting over the agreement have come in. These results showed that police within the National Police Federation of…
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Aluminium Smelter Workers Vote To Go On Strike
The overwhelming majority of workers for the Rio Tinto Alcan aluminium smelter have voted in favour of going on strike. RÚV reports that the strike is scheduled to begin on December 2. If it goes forward, all operations at the smelter will…