Tonje Leborg, head of Akademikerne, says they have demanded a good financial settlement and local salary structure for their lecturers. On the night of Wednesday, they broke off the negotiations in the municipal sector. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB
Of NTB | 05/01/2024 05:15:31
Working life: – There have been demanding negotiations and KS has shown little willingness to meet us, says leader Tonje Leborg in Akademikerne municipality.
She states that the academics have demanded a good financial settlement and local salary structure for their lecturers.
– The offer from KS was simply not good enough for our members, says Leborg.
The academics negotiate salaries centrally for around 6,000 lecturers. The other members in the municipal sector, around 22,000, negotiate their wages collectively and locally in the municipalities after the central settlement.
– Kommune-Norge is completely dependent on highly educated people to deliver the good and safe services that we as residents expect, writes the employee organisation.
The academics say there is a recruitment crisis in the school and that in recent years there has been a large decline in the number of applicants for teacher training courses. In upper secondary schools, as many as 20 per cent of those who teach are unqualified.
– Municipalities must be competitive on wages and use wages as a tool to recruit and retain highly educated people, says Leborg.
The settlement now goes to mediation with a deadline of 23 May at 24:00.