An overwhelming 95.5% majority of those who took part in a strike vote among Efling workers at the city of Reykjavík has approved the action. The vote took place over five days and ended on noon today, Sunday, January 26th. The turnout was a record-breaking 59.2%. The voting registry comprised Read more…
Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir, chairman of Efling, has informed mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson that Efling will not engage in further talks with the city’s negotiating committee, beyond that which is required by law. The negotiating committee spread misleading information to the press from the negotiation meeting with the state mediator regarding Read more…
The negotiation committee of Efling vis-a-vis Reykjavík city made an offer today for a new collective agreement. It was presented to the city’s negotiation committee at the state mediator’s office at 1pm today. The city’s representatives did not want to continue talks today. The state mediator instead scheduled another meeting Read more…
Union representatives from the city’s workplaces today handed to the mayor of Reykjavík a petition for the city to conclude negotiations with its staff. Lists of signatures have circulated in workplaces and almost 1000 signatures were obtained. Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson welcomed the group and said that he agreed that Read more…
Efling has demanded a meeting with Halldór Benjamín Þorbergsson, the director of the business cartel, SA, in the offices of the state mediator, due to noncompliance with the new collective agreements. The case arose after the mass termination of wage terms by Árni Valur Sólonsson, a hotel manager, immediately after Read more…
Half of the Efling membership is from abroad. They often work under the management of Icelanders who prefer to speak with staff in Icelandic. “We have seen how very important information gets communicated to staff in a language they simply don’t understand,” says Viðar Þorsteinsson, managing director of Efling. “This Read more…
In Iceland, many hotels and restaurants are run by conglomerates and chains. These companies keep the tourist economy going, but they themselves are kept going by mostly foreign labour. They also have rapid turnover of staff. In these conditions, having solid union representation is very important. However, these are also Read more…
Before Easter, the legal office Réttur sent letters to companies which rented workers from the temp agency Menn í vinnu this winter. In the letter, it is made clear that, due to laws on chain responsibility, they are liable for their workers’ unpaid wages, even if their work is bought Read more…
Efling staff have repeatedly been subjected to harassment by Ingólfur Haraldsson, the hotel manager of Hilton Nordica, in their dealings with the hotel in recent weeks. He has responded to reasonable requests with rudeness and today laid hands on a union staffer. Today, one of six pickets of hotel workers Read more…
The CEO of Hótel Saga says in Fréttablaðið today that it’s “strange” to focus strike action on the large hotels. “They are mostly taking care to stick to the laws and regulations,” the CEO is quoted as saying. This is not in accordance with our reports from the field, whether Read more…