In Norway, a strike leads to wage increases in construction
+5.2% increase
A wage agreement was quickly reached between employers (NHO) and Norway’s main trade union confederation (LO Norge), according to AFP, which led to the end of the strike. The agreement provides for a salary increase of 5.2% in 2023. In detail, a general increase of 7.5 crowns (0.64 euros) per hour is planned, or even 10.5 or 11.5 crowns for the lowest wages.
“This is much better than the offer we received from NHO during the mediation. It’s a good historical result and it shows the advantage of fighting together“, LO Norge leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik said in a statement. For her part, the leader of the confederation of employee unions YS (Yrkesorganisasjonenes Sentralforbund), Hans-Erik Skjæggerud, judged the strike “necessary“. With this general mobilization, “we managed to reverse a trend of several years where many members had lost purchasing power“, he said in a statement.
The inflation rate in Norway in 2023 is expected to be 4.9%. The economic context had pushed the trade union confederations to ask for wage increases above this level of inflation, recalls AFP. In the construction sector, the average wage is about 256 crowns per hour, or about 22 euros, figures the international company specializing in wage analysis Economic Research Institute.
