Norway's teachers' strike over as unions agree
NTB/The Local - [email protected]
Published: 1 Sep, 2014 CET.
Updated: Mon 1 Sep 2014 09:41 CET
Agreement has been reached about teachers' working hours, ending the strikes that have disrupted Norway for over two weeks, it was announced on Monday.
Unions agreed to a solution for the debated teachers' working hours over the weekend and the outcome that the strike will end was announced at a press conference on Monday morning at 8.30am.
KS finally agreed to the teachers' unions demands about working hours, said Skolenes Landsforbund (National Association of Schools). Anne Finborud, leader of Skolenes Landsforbund, said to NTB: “The agreement on the table now is significantly improved from the one we voted down in May, especially on working hours. This is where KS has been forced to retreat. We are still not completely satisfied and think that on some points the agreement is worse than today's agreement.” Today's agreement on working hours will be in effect from one year ahead. The new agreement will not entail more working hours in schools, without local agreement. The majority of the board of Skolenes Landsforbund voted for the agreement at the weekend. This offer will also be put to the union members' vote. The solution of the conflict states that if the parties don't agree on working hours, the case will be brought further to an arbitration system within the local municipal government. If the parts cannot agree in this instance, today's agreement will then apply. Finborud said: “This conflict has shown that KS obviously does not have the necessary competence to run schools. Now the municipalities, as school owners, have to listen to the teachers locally and contribute to build up the trust that KS has torn down.” The partiesin the teacher conflict sat together until late on the night to Sunday, according to NTB. More than 100,000 student at more than 200 schools were affected by the strike, but from Tuesday all pupils will return to their schools.
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Unions agreed to a solution for the debated teachers' working hours over the weekend and the outcome that the strike will end was announced at a press conference on Monday morning at 8.30am.
KS finally agreed to the teachers' unions demands about working hours, said Skolenes Landsforbund (National Association of Schools).
Anne Finborud, leader of Skolenes Landsforbund, said to NTB: “The agreement on the table now is significantly improved from the one we voted down in May, especially on working hours. This is where KS has been forced to retreat. We are still not completely satisfied and think that on some points the agreement is worse than today's agreement.”
Today's agreement on working hours will be in effect from one year ahead. The new agreement will not entail more working hours in schools, without local agreement.
The majority of the board of Skolenes Landsforbund voted for the agreement at the weekend. This offer will also be put to the union members' vote.
The solution of the conflict states that if the parties don't agree on working hours, the case will be brought further to an arbitration system within the local municipal government. If the parts cannot agree in this instance, today's agreement will then apply.
Finborud said: “This conflict has shown that KS obviously does not have the necessary competence to run schools. Now the municipalities, as school owners, have to listen to the teachers locally and contribute to build up the trust that KS has torn down.”
The partiesin the teacher conflict sat together until late on the night to Sunday, according to NTB.
More than 100,000 student at more than 200 schools were affected by the strike, but from Tuesday all pupils will return to their schools.
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