Professional associations seek authority to terminate collective agreements

Professional associations will ask union representatives and members of their bargaining committees for authority to terminate collective agreements at a meeting on Monday, mbl.is reports. The meeting will address what the associations describe as a breakdown in the agreements’ underlying conditions.

The associations say employers’ failure to respond to the situation has been complete. They will also review possible next steps.

Trade unions have until 8 October to terminate collective agreements in the general labour market because of the breakdown. The agreements allow termination if inflation exceeds 4.7% at the end of August; it was 5.6% then.

Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir presented the cabinet with proposed measures today to reduce inflation and create conditions for lower interest rates. The proposals are part of efforts to protect the collective agreements. They came out of talks between the government, the Icelandic Confederation of Labour and the Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise, but no date has been set for their release.