Unions and employers seek deal with seven minutes left

With seven minutes remaining before a deadline to terminate collective agreements over a failure of their underlying assumptions, labour groups and employers were still trying to reach a deal, mbl.is reported.

Representatives of VR, LÍV and Fagfélögin had spent hours in intensive talks with the employers’ association Samtök atvinnulífsins (SA). The meetings were held in larger and smaller groups, and a committee tasked with reviewing the agreements’ assumptions was also called in. It has since finished its meeting, but its role in the situation was unclear.

No agreement had been reached. SA director Bjarni Benediktsson and chairman Jón Ólafur Halldórsson briefly rejoined talks with the labour groups, then left again. The situation was said to be unchanged. According to information from mbl.is, proposals that could resolve the dispute were still being put forward.