Talks Between Reykjavik City And Union Break Down, Strike To Continue

Representatives of the labour union Efling met with representatives of the City of Reykjavík for the third time last Tuesday to try and reach an agreement, to no avail. As such, the ongoing strikes will continue.

Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson spoke about the city’s offer on the roundtable news discussion show Kastljósið, Kjarninn reports. Dagur revealed that the city had offered to raise the monthly salaries of untrained playschool workers from 310,000 ISK to 420,000 ISK, with an additional monthly workload payment of 40,000 ISK, with the salary raising to 460,000 ISK at the end of the contract period.

In addition, playschool directors would see their monthly salaries go from 417,000 to 520,000 ISK, going up to 572,000 ISK by the end of the contract period, as well as a shortened work week.

However, salary increases were not the only matter of concern for Efling. In a statement the union posted on their website, they revealed that their offer also included additional payments to workers depending on “professional responsibilities, workload, work-related costs and other factors”, which would be paid on top of the base salary.

Viðar Þorsteinsson, the managing director of Efling, told RÚV that the mayor did not consider the inclusion of overtime and other factors to be a part of what the city needed to pay these workers.

As such, the strike—which includes some 1,800 city employees—will continue until an agreement can be reached.