Efling leader disputes prime minister’s account of wage agreement
Saturday 10th October 2026 on 18:15 in
Iceland
Efling chair Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir says a mortgage interest benefit supplement was included in a government declaration before unions agreed to extend collective agreements, disputing Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir’s account of when the measure was added. She made the claims in an interview with mbl.is.
Sólveig Anna said she and Vilhjálmur Birgisson had been told about the supplement in a phone call and at a meeting with the finance minister and prime minister. She said it was therefore not added at the last minute in response to demands from Halla Gunnarsdóttir, chair of the VR union.
According to Sólveig Anna, the prime minister had said the package’s 12th measure was added that day to meet Halla’s demands. “She was then rewarded for this performance by the prime minister, who said something I knew was not right,” Sólveig Anna said.
She said the prime minister’s office sent an email on Tuesday at 9.09pm with a document labelled “Government declaration, final version”. The email was marked urgent, and Halla was among the recipients. Sólveig Anna said the document prompted her, Vilhjálmur and Hilmar Harðarson to sign the agreement to extend the collective agreements.
She said the measure had been put in writing, rather than offered only as a verbal promise. It could potentially be paid in 2028, subject to inflation conditions in 2027, she said.
Asked whether she was accusing the prime minister of lying, Sólveig Anna pointed to the emails and her own role in the negotiations. She said she and Vilhjálmur could testify that events had unfolded as she described. She added that Vilhjálmur had emailed a large group of participants with an account of the timeline and, according to her, no one had disputed it.
Sólveig Anna also criticised Halla, saying she had held up the issue for days and refused to sign the agreement with Samtök atvinnulífsins, the employers’ association.
She said trust between Efling, the government and the employers’ association had been affected by the events surrounding the extension of the agreements.