Efling – union has referred its collective bargaining talks with the city of Reykjavík to the office of the state mediator. A letter to that effect was sent yesterday afternoon, September 16.The talks with Reykjavík city have not progressed significantly since they started in February this year. The collective agreement being renegotiated expired on March 31.A significant item of dispute is our demand for a shorter working week. Reykjavík city has declared that a trial project on shortening the working week has yielded positive results. Nevertheless, no satisfactory conclusion has been reached in our negotiations on that topic. Efling has also not succeeded in getting a discussion of many of its demands.“We have a large and strong negotiating committee that stands united, with people who have lots of experience working for the city. The committee was in unanimous agreement to refer talks to the mediator, for the plain and simple reason that our demands, put together by our members, aren’t being discussed,” says Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir, chairman of Efling. “It is unfortunate that we’re not seeing a real willingness on behalf of the city to negotiate. We hope to change this by bringing talks to the mediator.”
