Efling chair rules out contact with employers until contracts expire

Efling will have no contact with the Confederation of Icelandic Employers until collective agreements expire, the union’s chair, Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir, says. She accuses the association’s director, Bjarni Benediktsson, of eroding trust, mbl.is reports.

Jónsdóttir said she did not know what Benediktsson was doing in his role and argued that the trust built by his predecessor, Sigríður Margrét Oddsdóttir, had disappeared. Benediktsson has denied that a so-called “drawer agreement” exists, describing the claim as “complete fiction.”

Jónsdóttir said the little trust that had developed evaporated on Thursday, when agreements were reached with VR and professional associations at the last minute, preventing their collective agreements from being terminated. Efling and the Federation of General and Special Workers had reached agreements with the employers’ association on Tuesday.

She has also accused the chair of VR of staging a “play” and the prime minister of lying about the government’s offer. Jónsdóttir maintains that a drawer agreement was made and is now hidden in the state mediator’s drawer.

She said such agreements were common in the sector and could be used to get people to “stop behaving badly and start behaving well.” She added that they were often made with tradespeople. Jónsdóttir said she would not make such agreements because she considers them dishonest and says workers are not offered them.